“Why? Do you need backup? Can’t get it up by yourself anymore?” I crossed my arms over my chest and turned my back on our audience.
Aldo lifted the ball cap from his head to swipe at the sweat on his brow, eyes shining with mirth as he dropped it back on. “I don’t need backup. I just thought I’d offer. You’re my brother, remember? We’ve been sharing since before we were born. Literally. You’ve been wound too tight recently.”
I lowered my chin. “I’m fine, thank you. What did you want to talk about, and why here?”
“I told you I needed to train for my marathon. I was also hoping if I got you here, you would be more inclined to train with me.”
“Nope. I’ve already had my run today.” Early this morning when I’d woken up feeling like I was on top of the fucking world after last night, I’d run twice the length of my usual route without breaking a sweat. “What’s up? Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” he said, but a frown formed on his forehead. “I wanted to talk to you about Mama, though. I know you’ve been working really hard lately, but we need to make more time to spend with her.”
“Why? We spend plenty of time with her.” Tiny shards of guilt stabbed me in the gut when I said the words, though. That wasn’t true. I didn’t spend plenty of time with her anymore. “Did she say something?”
“No.” He sighed and his hands went to his hips as he hung his head, studying the ground as he gave it a slight shake. “I can’t quite put my fingers on it, but she’s been down recently. Ever since Dad passed away, she’s been lonely. I think it’s really starting to get to her now, though.”
“So many years later?” My throat constricted suddenly, as if long fingers had wrapped around it and were squeezing. Our father had been our mother’s true soul mate. I knew losing him had broken her, but I’d thought all the years that had passed had eased the pain and loneliness some.
Granted, I had never been in love, but I was starting to realize that time couldn’t heal all wounds. On his deathbed, Dad had told Aldo and me to take care of our mother, and I had failed in that respect. Somewhat anyway.
As the years had gone on, I had definitely started substituting time spent with her with money for her to do nice things. By herself.
I swallowed hard, and Aldo gave me a look that said he knew exactly what had just gone through my mind. “Dude, do you really think she’s ever going to stop missing him?”
Sighing, I shook my head. “Probably not, no.”
“So what are you going to do about it?” He caught my gaze and kept his there. My own molten golden-brown eyes looked back at me, but I didn’t like what I saw in them.
“I’ll start getting over there to see her more often,” I promised. “Why are you pissed off at me?”
“I’m not. I just want you to keep your promise, okay?”
“Okay.”
A sudden smile spread on his lips as he clapped my shoulder. “Good, because she’s been on my case about having babies. She wants me to settle down and start trying.”
I snorted. “Better you than me, bro.”
“Yeah, right.” He rolled his eyes and checked his training stats on his watch. “You know it’s going to be you before it’s me.”
“Not a chance.” I heard giggling behind me and twisted around to see the group of college girls had moved closer. Aldo was eyeing them over my shoulder, sending his practically trademarked come-get-me smirk their way. “It looks like you might have some takers in that group, though. Better ask if any of them has a history of twins in her family and pick her. Go on, man. Make Mama proud.”
He huffed out a breath through his nose and the smirk dropped from his face, replaced with a challenging grin sent my way. “No, thanks. How about you? Do you have any prospects? I’m willing to bet you’re going to beat me to making Mama proud.”
“How much?” I asked, feeling in the back pocket of my shorts for my wallet. “I’ve got about two hundred on me.”
“Two hundred, it is.” He stuck out his hand, and I shook it. Just regularly. Contrary to popular belief, not all twins had their own secret handshake.
Aldo’s head dropped to his side, his eyes intently studying mine. “Hang on a second. You never answered my question. Do you have any prospects?”
“She’s not a prospect so much as a friend. And an employee.” A friend and employee who’d made me come like a geyser just about twelve hours ago, but he didn’t need to know that.
Unfortunately for me, while we didn’t have a secret handshake, he could still read me like an open book. “It’s been a long time since you’ve had anyone worth talking about. Who is she?”
He dropped to his haunches, then sat down on the grass to stretch out his legs. I followed him down but sat with my legs crossed. Plucking a blade of grass out, I rolled it between my fingers as I tried to formulate an answer for him.
“Her name is Addy. She’s a new client liaison at the company, and she’s going to be fucking good at it. She already is. In fact, she helped me seal the deal with Dave last week.”
He whistled between his teeth, eyebrows rising up. “Dave? Really? Wow. Gianluca told me about him. Hard ass apparently.”
“One of the hardest,” I agreed. “He has a talent for taking anything you say and turning it around to use it to prove his point. Addy came on the call, spoke to him for less than five minutes, and he was onboard. I had Gianluca draw up the papers and Dave returned them, signed, the next day.”
Aldo was silent for a moment,
