Chapter Twenty-Eight

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

“So…you come up with any brilliant ideas yet?” I asked Mia the next morning.

“Yeah…” she started, passing me a cup of coffee. “But I don’t think you or Dom are going to like it very much…”

“Not gonna like what?” Dom asked as he walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“Well, I was up all night,” Mia answered, “trying to think of something to do about Johnny.”

“And?” I asked, looking at her as I handed my coffee cup to Dom. He doesn’t really like coffee very much, but that doesn’t stop him from stealing a few sips from mine every morning.

“Well…we need to get Johnny to think the two of you are broken up, right?” Mia started, like she wasn’t really sure of her plan. “So…one of you needs to look like you’ve hooked up with someone new. And no one at the races really knows Amber… So…I was thinking, she could come to the next race with us and act like she’s with Dom, like the two of you have broken up or like you were never all that serious to begin with or something.”

“But won’t that just make Johnny start going after Amber?” Dom asked, frowning.

“Nah…I don’t think he will,” Mia answered, sitting down at the table. “Not if you act like you’re just with Amber for the sex. Johnny doesn’t really want you and Julie to get back together… He’s never liked you, Dom, we all know that. From what Lisa told me, he just doesn’t want it to look like you’re in a serious relationship with someone besides Julie…thinks that would be disrespectful to her or something.”

“How long?” I asked, taking my coffee back from Dom.

“With Amber?”

“Yeah.”

“Probably just one race…maybe two. Depends on how good they are at acting like they’re together,” Mia said, looking over at me.

“And after that?”

“Well…Julie’s about three months pregnant. Hopefully she’ll say who the real dad is, eventually. But if not, then I guess we’ll have to have a paternity test done after the kid is born,” she explained.

“So Dom and I have to act like we’re not together for the next six months?” I asked, frowning into my cup, thinking of all the girls who would practically attack Dom if they thought he was single, or back to just fucking anyone he thought was vaguely cute like he had when he was in high school.

“Yeah,” Mia said slowly. “I know it’s not perfect… But it’s not like you’ll have to avoid each other entirely. Just at the races. And the two of you aren’t really all that lovey-dovey in public anyways… Plus, you can act like your relationship is just a thing of convenience and no real emotional attachment…just about having easy access to sex. Friends with benefits, you know.”

“I don’t like it,” Dom muttered, getting up and walking into the family room. He looked like an old man, stumbling along, and I couldn’t help but grimace as I watched him.

“I said it wasn’t perfect, Dom,” Mia said, leaning into the other room. “But unless one of you comes up with a better idea, it’s all we’ve got…”