Page 60 of The Sweetheart
“You said that already,” Kai told him with no real feeling behind it.
“Well, I wanted to make sure you heard me.”
Kai uncurled enough to look up at him. “I’m tired.” It was true. His whole body felt drained, and heavy, like it was going to take a massive effort to move at all.
“You didn’t get much sleep last night. Why don’t we head home and take a nap?”
Kai shook his head.
“How about your treat? Did you decide what you wanted?”
Kai shook his head again.
“Alright. Keep thinking about it.”
“Can we go outside?” Kai asked.
“Of course.”
Kai stood but didn’t move, waiting for Nolan to stand so that he could take his hand again. He let Nolan lead him through the shop, taking it in now that his head was slightly clearer. It was loud. Someone was firing an impact wrench; a hydraulic lift gently raised a silver SUV into the air. People were laughing, and music blared at the other end of the bay. Lamar, Nolan’s manager, smiled and sent them an up-nod, but Nolan just waved and led them outside.
Kai tilted his face up as the sun hit it and his shoulders relaxed a little more. He didn’t have a destination in mind, but walking had always cleared his head. It was how he’d learnedthe city like the back of his hand. Nolan kept stride beside him, never letting go of his hand until Kai realized he still had a death grip on it. He forced himself to let go. Just a little.
The further they got from the shop, the quieter it was. The rush of traffic as they walked the sidewalk with the summer crowd didn’t bother him at all. The closer they got to the end of June, the closer they got to the days that would be too hot to be comfortable, but today was perfect.
“Do you travel a lot?” Kai eventually asked. It felt like something he should have already known. In a lot of ways, it felt like Nolan and Kai had been together forever. It always felt strange when he did the math and it only came up in weeks and not months or years. But maybe they had in a different life. Maybe that was why Nolan felt so much like home.
“More when I was younger. I usually go away for a week or two in the winter to somewhere warm.”
“I always wanted to travel when I was a kid. My grandma used to have this globe on a big wooden stand, and I used to spin it as fast as I could and say I was going to go wherever it stopped.”
“Did your grandma travel?”
“Nah. But her dad came from Italy during one of the wars, and he married my great-grandmother who was Japanese. My grandma never threw out anything, so she always had all of this cool stuff from when she was a kid. I thought it would be cool to go visit where they were from, both my great-grandparents. And I always wanted to go to Bora Bora. Just because I liked saying Bora Bora.”
Nolan barked out a laugh, and Kai grinned. His face felt tight like he hadn’t used his smile muscles in a long time, but it felt good, like the tension from the morning had finally been cut. They kept walking, and they kept talking. They stopped for icecream, and by the time they doubled back to the shop, Kai felt lighter than he had in ages.
Nolan drove him home, and when they got there, Kai dragged him upstairs to his room and begged Nolan to fuck him, his mouth never leaving his as he drugged him with long, slow kisses until they both came. And then he slept.
24
$1,283,985.
Nolan stared down at the number on the file he held, feeling sick and enraged. That was the estimated value of Kai’s grandmother’s estate at the time of her passing. No wonder that piece of shit, Leonardo Lussano, hadn’t wanted Kai to have it. The house itself, a modest four-bedroom bungalow, was situated in a quiet North York neighbourhood with a long backyard separated from the neighbours with a chain-link fence. It was older and dated, but you could be on the Allen in five minutes and downtown in twenty. That in itself made it valuable, but it had also been built during an era where your next-door neighbours were more than arms’ length away. It was nice, and Nolan could perfectly imagine a younger version of Kai running around, dropping his shit everywhere and his grandma following behind, cleaning it all up. Though, he’d gotten a lot better at that lately.
Two weeks had passed since their meeting with Landon, and the file he’d received had a copy of her obituary with a short history of her life. Edith Lussano, beloved mother of Alyssia and Leonardo Lussano, mother-in-law to Venetia Lussano,grandmother to Kai Da Silva. She’d been a pretty lady. High cheekbones and a smile just like Kai’s, but her Japanese heritage had been a lot more prominent. She wore her silver-streaked hair chopped in a straight bob to her shoulders, and she looked petite.
Nolan scrolled to the search results from the land registry office where it showed the property transferring from Aimi Mori and Giovanni Longo, Edith’s parents, to herself, Edith Lussano, and then from her to Leonardo and Venetia for zero dollars. Nolan fumed.
He’d spoken with Landon briefly. Edith’s will had never been probated. Leonardo had claimed that Edith had died intestate, and, as he’d been her next of kin, the estate had fallen to him.
He wasn’t going to tell Kai yet, because he hadn’t been able to discuss next steps with Landon. Landon had a priority case that needed his focus, but they both knew, without that will, they had no leg to stand on.
He pulled up Myles on his phone and put him on video.
“Hey,” he said, eyes flicking toward the phone screen but his face remained forward, while he took the call from his car.
“Hey. Noah still work with that P.I.?”
