Page 69 of Rules to Love By

“But in my soul, I’m a people fixer. Or at least I feel a calling to guide people to fix themselves. A house needs hands-on. People need guidance.”

“So you want to guide me?”

“I want you know I’m here to help until you go back to your diner.”

“There’s no diner to go back to.”

Ozzy waved that issue away. “You’re here now. I’m here.”

“And Tris will be happy.”

That made Ozzy grin. “Nothing wrong with a bit of a side bonus.”

“Fine.”

“I have one condition.”

Marcus put down his mug. “Because of course you do.” He should have known it was going too smoothly.

“Before the week is over, you go back at least once to check on the diner.”

“Why? Johnathan made it perfectly clear I have no place there. He wants it sold.”

“What did your aunt want?”

Marcus shrugged. “She never said. I have no idea.”

“Don’t you think you should find out before you write it off?”

“Why? It’s not like I could run it by myself.”

“Maybe not. But she raised you. Do you really think she would have left you nothing? Left everything to—who is he to you? Your cousin?”

“Uncle.”

“Right. Uncle.”

Marcus shuddered because a cousin was a peer, and peers didn’t have to be acknowledged. Uncles had authority, and authority couldn’t be ignored.

“But you’ve never met your father, or your grandfather?”

“Nope. Just Aunt Iris. But she was always the black sheep anyway. Her brother, Geoffrey, was supposed to be the good kid, so I guess that’s why he never acknowledged that he had a kid in college to some girl he’d only had a one-night stand with. Iris used to say her and Geoffrey’s parents were too snobbish to claim the kid of an immigrant family anyway, if they’re who I inherited my ethnicity from. So my father, Cory, was never part of them.” He smiled faintly despite the low-grade nausea. “I’ve always wondered if the fam jam regretted how Johnathan turned out. Seeing as he was supposed to be the legit one. Carry on the family name and all that.”

“And you don’t want—”

“I don’t even know them. Iris never talked to her parents or her brother that I knew of—never even met my father—and only took me in because I guess the rest of them refused. I actually don’t know, and I never asked.”

“And Iris never had kids of her own?”

“Never wanted them.” He frowned. “Well. Maybe she did. But she had me. And the diner. It isn’t like we talked about that stuff.”

“And Johnathan?”

“If he has kids, he’s never mentioned them. He’s not married or anything. I don’t think I ever even heard him talk about dating anyone in particular.”

“So you and Johnathan. You’re it?”

“I suppose? I don’t know. I have no idea where to begin to look.” He scraped fingernails over his scalp, fingers tangling in his dense curls. “They never came for me. Why should I look for them?” He tugged hard on a few corkscrews until the sting distracted him.

---