Crazy Beautiful Love (The Martelli Brothers #1)(41)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“Yeah, I guess.” She shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

“Yes, I suppose you are.” I paid for our bus tickets and then we found a seat towards the back of the bus. I let her have the window because I noticed a few guys looking at her a bit too closely, and I didn’t want them trying to cop a feel as they walked past us.

“So tell me more about Vincent and Jared.” Maddie gazed up at me longingly.

“Why are you so interested in them?”

“I don’t know. I like hearing about people’s siblings. I guess it comes from being an only child. And I want to get to know you better.”

“Okay.” I leaned back and Maddie rested her head on my shoulder. I could tell she was tired because her eyes were drooping as I played with her long hair with my fingers. “I’ll tell you a story from when we were kids, and you can relax.”

“I’d like that.” She smiled up at me sleepily and lovingly, and my heart melted for a moment as I realized that I had her heart and her trust completely.

“So you know my mom died of cancer. It was pretty quick and swift. Within a few weeks of her being diagnosed, she was gone.” My breath caught and Maddie looked up at me with saddened eyes. “We were all pretty young, but we all knew that she was dying, and we were all devastated, but we didn’t really talk about it. Around that time was when my dad made the turn to complete alcoholism. Please don’t be sad for me.” I frowned down at her, not wanting her sympathy. “His drinking had already been a problem, along with his gambling and paranoia, but we had all hoped it would get better. And me and the guys hadn’t realized just how bad it was. Only my mom really knew, and there wasn’t really much she could do about it. She loved my father, and she was his world, but he was so bitter and angry over things that had happened to him, that he never really got over it. He instilled that bitterness in me and Jared, but for some reason, Vincent never became as jaded as the two of us.”

“Do you know why?” Maddie questioned me softly, and this time I noticed her eyes were completely alert.

“He was always a bit softer and a bit more sensitive than Jared and me.” I laughed. “And I don’t mean he’s g*y, though I wouldn’t care if he was.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.” She smiled briefly. I laughed.

“Yeah, so anyway Vinny, well, he’s always looked at things on the more positive side. When Dad told us stuff, me and Jared got mad and wanted to get even. With Vinny, it was different; he wanted to think of solutions and ways to fix the problem.” I could see that Maddie wanted to ask me what stuff my dad used to talk about, but I wasn’t willing to go down that road with her yet. I didn’t want her to know how evil her dad was. I had a feeling it would break her heart and I didn’t want to be the one to do that to her. “Anyway, that’s why he wants to become a lawyer.”

“He wants to become a lawyer?” She looked surprised.

I nodded. “He thinks that if he can become a part of the system, he can advocate for those who have been let down by it.”

“He wants to be a defense attorney?”

“No, though we tease him about that all the time. He wants to become a constitutional lawyer. He wants to take on cases that will help shape the way we construe the laws of the land.”

“Wow.” Her eyes widened. “That’s pretty big.”

“Yeah.” I smiled down at her. “I tell him that one day, he’ll become a Supreme Court Judge, and then for sure everyone in the country will know the Martelli name.”

“Logan Martelli, car thief and brother to Supreme Court Justice.” Maddie grinned. “It does have a certain ring to it.”

“Yeah, it does.” I felt sad for a moment as we spoke, and the reality of everything hit me once again. It all seemed like such a pipe dream. If something didn’t change soon, there was no way Vincent would even get his AA degree, let alone make it to law school. I sighed as I remembered my mother’s last words to me. “You can change your destiny, Logan. You must take care of Vincent, Jared, and your dad. You have to be there for them, Logan. Promise me that you’ll be the man I know you are.”

I’d nodded and cried, but her words had always stuck with me. My life was dedicated to making sure that Vincent and Jared weren’t trapped in the same life I was. And that was why I had never left River Valley or left my dad to fend for himself. Even though some days all I wanted to do was run away and start a new life.

“You okay, Logan?” Maddie caressed my face. “You look deep in thought.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I grabbed her knee and squeezed. “So anyway, before my mom died, Vincent came up with this idea that we should perform a skit for my mom.”

“A skit?”

“Yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “Have you ever seen The Sound of Music?”

“The movie?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Do you remember the lonely goatherd scene?”

“Hmm?”

“High on a hill was a lonely…” I started singing, and Maddie burst out laughing.

“I do remember that.”

“So we performed that song for my mom in the hospital,” I groaned.

“With puppets?”

“No.” I laughed. “With GI Joes, and socks, and pieces of string.”

“Wow, I would have loved to have seen that.”

“It was pretty funny. None of us really knew the song, but it was one of my mom’s favorite movies, so we tried.” I laughed as I remembered her huge smile as she watched us messing up the song and dancing around her hospital room. “And then Jared decided that we should do the can-can, and we flung our legs up and down like a bunch of Vegas showgirls.”

“While singing the lonely goatherd song.”

“Oh, no, we had moved on to do re mi by that point.”

“Oh, wow,” she giggled. “I would have paid good money to have seen that.”

“I’m sure you would have.” I shook my head in mock embarrassment and shuddered. “Holy hell, we must have been a sight to have seen.”

“I bet your mom loved it, though.”

“Yes, yes she did.” I looked out the window and pictured my mother’s face. “That’s the only reason the nurses let us continue. My mom was overjoyed to see us all together singing and dancing. I think at that moment, she realized that we were three brothers who would let nothing part us. She was able to die knowing that while she was leaving us, we would always have each other and we would always be there for each other.”