A Love So Dangerous - Lili Valente Page 0,1

and the only “bad” thing I’ve ever done was drop out of school when I was seventeen to take care of the baby and the other kids after my sister ran off. I work two jobs and do my best to make sure the kids eat healthy and Emmie doesn’t watch too much T.V., while Danny is constantly on the verge of being suspended for conduct code infractions.

The chances of him graduating junior high, let alone high school, without a stint in juvie are looking less likely with every passing year, but still…I keep trying.

It’s not like anyone else around here is going to be the voice of reason.

“Seriously, D,” I say, knocking his hand away when he reaches for my Coke. It was the last one in the fridge and I need caffeine if I’m going to stay awake to celebrate my stupid birthday. “I don’t want another call from Mr. Pitt. You need to pull it together and finish this year strong.”

“Whatever.” Daniel rolls his eyes. “Mr. Pitt can suck my dick.”

“I’m serious, Danny.” He reaches for my soda again and I slap his hand a second time. Harder. “No more language,” I insist in my nag voice, the one I can barely stand to hear myself I’ve used it so much with him. “It’s the straight and narrow for you. Even at home. I don’t have time to deal with any more of your crap this month.”

“What about your crap?” he mumbles. “You cuss all the time.”

“Please, D…” I cross my arms and shake my head, too tired for the usual “but I’m an adult and I work my ass off to feed you so I can do what I want” lecture. “Can you give me a break? Just for a week or two? Until things calm down?”

He sighs, his lips pulling down at the edges as his gaze slides toward the envelopes spread out on the counter. “Everything’s going to be okay though,” he says, the sass gone out of his tone. “We’re not going to lose the house, right?”

“Of course not,” I lie, forcing a smile.

I refuse to let my brothers worry the way I’ve worried my entire life. One stomach full of acid and holes is enough for this family.

“I’m sorting it out,” I continue, gathering the bills into a pile and shoving them back in the shoebox I keep on top of the fridge, wishing I could make our debt disappear as easily. “But if you’ve got any money left over from all that snow shoveling you did in January, it would help. I can pay you back once tips pick up at the restaurant.”

Daniel shrugs. “You don’t have to pay me back. I’ve only got forty bucks left, anyway. You can just take it.”

“Thanks, booger.” I smile, a real one this time, remembering why I couldn’t have made it through parts of the past few years without this kid.

He’s a pain in my ass, but he’s also my right hand man when I need him.

“I love you,” I say, ruffling his hair. “You know that, right?”

“Puke,” Danny says, but there’s a smile tugging at his lips when he lifts his hands into the air, warding off the hug he can no doubt sense is coming. “I’ll go get the money, but you have to tell Ray to get out of the bathroom. I’ve been trying to get a shower since I got back from practice and he’s been in the bath for a fucking hour and a half.”

“Language!” I call out to my brother’s retreating back. “And check Emmie’s pull-up while you’re upstairs.”

“Whatever,” Danny calls back, but I know he’ll check.

He loves Emmie, probably more than he loves anyone in the world. Danny was a nine-year-old obsessed with monster trucks and boxing robots when our big sister, Aoife, left her daughter at our house and split. Nothing in Danny’s nature up to that point had indicated a paternal streak, but he couldn’t get enough of his baby niece. He carried Emmie all over the house, talking non-stop, and dragged her Pack 'n Play into his room so he could watch over her while she slept.

Even now, Emmie’s toddler bed sits in the corner of Danny’s room, her dolls, baby blocks, and pink toy kitchen a stark contrast to the skateboard posters and skeleton stickers decorating the other side of the room. It’s Danny who Emmie crawls in bed with when she has a bad dream, and Danny who finally got her mostly