Page 63 of The Devil Can Be Kind

I shrugged, uncomfortable with his unexpected praise.

When I looked over at him, I was surprised to see half of his burger had already been demolished.

Doesn’t eat fast-food my ass.

But I knew better than to call him out on it.

I tucked into my bacon filled burger of heaven and we settled into comfortable silence for a moment. Although we had eaten dinner together many times before, we had never been completely alone. This time the quiet felt much moreintimateand my stomach grew nervous.

“So, your aversion to fast food… is it a life you chose or did the life choose you?” I questioned, trying to disperse some of my internal tension.

I thought I heard a snort of muted laughter. “I guess it’s more of a habit than a life choice,” he mused. “I played varsity football in college and it just kind of stayed with me.”

Of course, he had been the typical high-school jock…popular, handsome, and good with the ladies. That much I had expected…but varsity football? That was surprising.

“Really? Where for?”

“The University of Michigan.” He shrugged.

“You’re joking.” My jaw slackened as I stared at him.

“Nope. I was a running back, number thirty.” He said around a mouthful of chicken nugget.

“That’s incredible. I bet it was awesome to play in a stadium that big.”

“Yeah, it was.” He sighed and stared out the window. “But it didn’t last. I was halfway through my final year when my father died in the raid, and I had to step up to lead the family.”

My heart filled with genuine empathy for him, seeing the weight of emotions now lining his face. It wasn’t easy for him to talk about this, I realized.

“It was good though… I remember those days fondly.”

“Let me guess, that’s where you picked up your girlfriend Lexi?” I rolled my eyes at him, trying to lighten the mood.

Lexi was the typical cheerleader type—leggy blonde with an abundance of confidence.

“God no.” He laughed darkly. “She waitressed at one of my clubs… and is definitelynotmy girlfriend.” He shook his head as if in disgust.

Interesting…I took satisfaction from that particular piece of information.

“What about you? Did you ever go to college?” he asked, though I am pretty sure he already knew the answer to that question.

“I wanted to. Even applied to schools and everything, but my father refused to let me go.” I shook my head sadly at the memory.

I had barged into his office one afternoon with not one buttwoacceptance letters in my hand. I was desperate for him to congratulate me. Tell me he was proud of me… Instead, he became enraged and declared me selfish. My ‘insistence on following a hare-brained dream would blow the safety of our whole family’, as he so lovingly put it.

“What would your major have been?” He questioned, breaking the silence that had enveloped the car.

“Business.” We both shared a look and simultaneously broke into laughter.

A thrill of excitement swirled in my stomach at the sound of his laugh. It was incredibly deep and attractive, warming me in places Ireallydidn’t want to think about with him less than a meter away.

“That’s original,” he remarked, and I grinned. “Did you ever use to cheer at school?”

“When I was Adalyn Mannino… no. I would rather die than cheer. But when we went into hiding and I assumed my Adalyn Parker role… I was forced into try-outs by my parents and made the squad because my father paid off the coach. I was the worst on the team.” Marco began shaking his head disbelievingly. “What? I kicked the mascot in the head once in the middle of a sequence. It was really bad.” He had looked away, but I thought I heard him chuckling quietly.

“You wouldn’t have made varsity then,” he pointed out.

“No, probably not.” I breathed out around a laugh.

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