Because Dante.

Because war.

Still, I’d take it all back if I could, if I’d had any clue the extent of the damage I was doing.

Nate held both of my hands in his and just looked at me for a while.  “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you,” he told me.

“Really?” I asked him.

“Really.  Truly.”

I caught Dante watching us from across the room.

I tilted my head to the side.  The man still managed to fascinate me.  Right then he was losing it.  His hands were in fists and he was trembling.

Nate followed my gaze.  He jerked a bit when he saw who I was looking at.  “He still won’t talk to me,” he informed me wanly.  “Won’t come near me, and he says that if I try to go near him, I’ll be sorry.  I believe him.”

“I’m sorry,” I stated simply.

“It’s not your fault.  I made my choices.  I’m accountable.  I love him like a brother, but looking at it with a bit of perspective, I don’t think it could be any other way.  There can be no peace between two men when they’re in love with the same woman.”

I flushed and looked away.  “I’m sorry,” I repeated lamely, a wave of guilt washing over me.

“Don’t be.  The past is the past, and I’m doing much better now, I promise.”

“Yeah?”  I looked back at his face.

“Yes.  I mean it.  I’m doing well enough that I wouldn’t mind a phone call from you every now and then.”

I nodded slowly, still studying him.  “All right.  I can do that.  I’d like that.”

His smile brightened, and he took out his phone.  “Tell me your number.  I’ll call and you can save mine.”

I spouted mine off, and a beat later, heard my phone vibrating in my little clutch that I had draped crossways over my torso.

“Sounds like I got it,” I told him.  “I’ll be sure to save it.”

He held one of my hands in both of his.  “We’ll leave it at that.  I don’t want to agitate Dante any more than necessary.  I hope to hear from you soon.”

“You will,” I promised.

We air-kissed cheeks, and he slowly moved away.

Dante avoided me like the plague after that.

I was fine with that.  It was rare when I got to observe him from afar, so I took advantage.

He seemed particularly standoffish, and not just towards me.  Or at least, the majority of it wasn’t.  His family got the honors on this particular occasion.

The way he looked at his mother when she came near him was almost worth being here for.  I got an absolutely diabolical kick out of it.

She was a level of bitch that I liked to refer to as fuck that.

As in, upon seeing her, your best option was to say ‘fuck that’ and flee in the opposite direction.

Even at a funeral.  Especially at a funeral.

I wasn’t sure what she’d done lately, the sky was the limit with her, but she seemed to have permanently alienated her only child.

I wasn’t surprised.  She seemed to me to be capable of anything.

I honestly didn’t think I’d have a hard time avoiding her.  She hated to acknowledge that I even existed.

I didn’t factor in the one annoying little detail.

I had something that she wanted now, and of course she’d figured it out right away.

She strode right up to me so suddenly that I didn’t even have escape as an option.

Adelaide Durant was hell on wheels disguised as a delicate flower of a woman.  She was pale and petite with masses of pitch black hair and eyes the same ocean blue as her son.  She had an ageless beauty that seemed to take less blows from time than was fair.  If the smooth lines of her face hand been made of karma, she’d look like a withered old hag by now.

Her hobbies were golfing at the country club, playing chess, and ruining lives.

She was a master manipulator.  Like mother, like son.

“Give me back my ring.”  She got right to the point, her tone sharp with impatience.

She thought she could still intimidate me.

Didn’t she know she had nothing left to damage me with?  She couldn’t hurt me anymore with Dante.  He wasn’t my soft spot to wound anymore.

I smiled.  Over my dead body would she get that ring in her clutches.  “It was never yours.  It was Gram’s, and she gave it to Dante, who gave it to me.”

“Give it back to Dante.  It’s not right for you to keep it.  Even someone as low-born as yourself should know that.”

I shrugged and gave her a rueful smile.  “Nope.  I guess I’m too low-born even for that.”

“You’re a fool if you think I will let that stand.  Don’t you know anything?  I never lose, especially not to a piece of trash gold digger like you.”

I looked at Dante, who’d just walked up behind her.  “It looks like your son wants a word with you.  I’ll leave you to it.” I gave him a bright smile.  “Excuse me.  I apparently have some gold digging—things—to do.”

Without an ounce of remorse I escaped to the theatre room.

*****

The screen in the theatre room had started to show a documentary about Gram, one of the few docs about herself that she actually liked.

Currently some TV producer was being interviewed.   He’d just been asked about when Gram met Grandpa.

I had that story memorized.  It’d been one of her favorites.