“Like he doesn’t have to deal with my shit,” he snorted. “Nah, I’m good with it. Told him that before he put on his cape and picked Sanchez up. I just couldn’t deal with all that… crap over there.” Miki waved at the koa trunk. “Damie and Sionn got each other these huge presents, like cars and expensive watches. All I got Kane was a chunk of forest leftovers. Well, and some shit Damie talked me into at the jewelry store.”
“Trust me, son,” Donal murmured softly. “Kane’s going to love that first pressie more than anything else. Except for, perhaps, his Miki boy. Now, I’ve got to get on home. The Grand Dragon should be back with the girls. They do their own thing on Valentine’s Day before Brigid and I have dinner. Something about chocolates and secrets. I don’t ask. Women sometimes like their secrets.”
“Yeah, some guys do too.” Miki made a face. “Too complicated. Not for me.”
Miki walked Donal to the door, and the older man paused at the threshold to envelop Miki in one final hug. This time Donal kissed the top of his head before letting Miki go.
“Ye do me a favor now, Miki boy.” Donal looked down at him and smiled.
“Sure. ’Zup?”
“Ye can call me Da or Dad if ye want. Donal’s all right, but ye’re Kane’s. Well, and he’s yers. The family’s yers too. Even when ye don’t want them. Shite, sometimes especially when ye don’t want them.” If Miki didn’t know better, he’d have thought Donal was laughing at him a little bit. Or laughing with him. The man’s eyes flicked around Miki’s face before their gazes met. “It’s summat close enough to Dude.”
“Yeah, I can do that.” He’d never called anyone anything even close to Dad. Vega and Shing were always sir to their faces. It was something they’d beaten into him nearly from the beginning.
“Miki,” Donal said softly. “Just see if it works for ye. If not, no worries, all right?”
“No, it’s… good,” Miki choked out, stumbling over the swell of emotion in his throat. “Dad. Totally works. Scary but working.”
“Good. Now I’m going to go find out how much the girls’ going-out party cost me.” The man chuckled and patted Miki’s face. “Don’t ye be worrying about yer present. Either one of them. Kane would love anything ye gave him, Miki boy. Anything at all.”
“Yeah, you’re just saying that because you want me to call you Dad,” he teased back.
“That, and I’m hoping to be getting something made from that koa. If the boy’s open to suggestions, tell him I could use some more pens. His ma keeps taking m’other ones. I’m taking to hiding them like I hide m’whisky.” Donal gave Miki one last firm pat on the shoulder. “And don’t ye be adding any more bows to that. God help ye, it looked like a blind gypsy dropped off a tribute to Herne in your living room.”
“Yeah, sure,” Miki grumbled back.
He waited until Donal cleared the automatic gate, then closed the front door. The first thing he noticed was the lack of bone-gnawing noise coming from near the couch. That’s when he spotted Dude rolling around in the discarded bows, the blond terrier gleefully sporting the present toppers and wagging his stubby tail as quickly as he could.
“Really? You’re as much of a fucking idiot as I am,” Miki said as he walked over to debow the dog. Dude took off like a shot, scampering up the stairs and into the upper reaches of the warehouse.
Sighing, Miki began to pick up the rest of the decorations Donal stripped from Kane’s present. He heard Dude bark at him from upstairs, the terrier’s blond head poking out from between the iron slats of the staircase. Miki ignored him for a moment, then shouted up at him as he wrapped a string of lights around its cardboard holder.
“I’m not chasing you, dick.” He gave the dog a mock growl. “You go around looking like a cupcake. See if I care! But don’t go crying to Kane when that duct tape pulls your fur out. I’ll just start calling you Chernobyl. See how you like that!”
I don’t know when you’re going to find this. It could be tomorrow. Shit, it could be years from now. When doesn’t matter because how I feel about you isn’t going to change.
I love you, Mick.
Actually, that’s a lie. It is going to change.
I’m going to love you more. Every damned second of every blessed day, I’m going to love you more.
So yeah, it really doesn’t matter when you find this note because you and I?
We’re going to last forever.
—Love letter from Kane stuffed into Miki’s acoustic guitar
THE ROOM was dark. That was normal. With blackout curtains over the arched windows, the former dining area turned bedroom sank comfortably into its shadows. Miki wasn’t entirely certain what woke him up. It could have been anything: the sound of Kane’s keys hitting the lopsided monkeypod bowl they used to toss the contents of their pockets into when they came in from the garage or even the jangle of Dude’s tags as he jumped off the end of the bed to go greet his second-favorite human.