“Nooo,” I said. “Just curious about where they’re going.”
“Curious.Right.” She laughed. “Help me unpack my things.”
She entwined her arm with mine, and with Guido following close behind, we started toward my place. Saverio shared a house with other guards, so she was going to stay with me. I liked the idea of having her around for a while.
“Ciao!” Evelina waved to mamma and papà, who were walking back toward the main house.
She kissed mamma’s cheek and gave papà a one-arm hug. He patted her on top of the head.
I couldn’t help it. I busted out laughing. He was so awkward when anyone but me or mamma showed him affection.
He looked at me and gave me a rare smile.
“What are you girls up to tonight?” mamma asked.
Evelina moved her shoulders. “We’re going clubbing. You want to come, Mrs. F?”
“Mrs. F is not going anywhere but up to bed with Mr. F,” papà said. “And Mia is going straight to her house.”
“Come on, Mr. F,” Evelina said, dancing around him. “Girls have to strip it down sometimes.” He watched her like he was watching a bug that had started talking, but he couldn’t understand the language.
Mamma was laughing as loud as I was. Evelina was the kind of friend everyone needed. She made my heart feel lighter. And when she noticed how he was looking at her, she exploded with laughter.
“All right, Mr. F.” She waved a hand in front of her face, trying to stop laughing. “I guess we’ll settle for some ice cream, girl talk, and painting each other’s nails.”
“Yeah,” he said, still giving her a skeptical look. “Safe enough.” He fixed me with a stern eye. “Stay put, understand?”
I saluted him. He looked at Guido. Guido shrugged and did the same thing.
Papà sighed, placed a hand against his heart, put an arm around mamma, and started walking toward the main estate again. “Tell me she’s fucking around, Scarlett.” His voice lingered as we started walking in the opposite direction.
Evelina and I looked at each other and busted out laughing again.
She sighed, pulling me closer. “It’s fun to get a reaction out of them, right?”
“It’s like watching a butterfly flit around a caveman for the first time,” I said.
“So fucking true.”
We became quiet for a minute or two. Then I rushed out, “Where did they go?”
Unlike me, Evelina knew everything because she was an eternal source of information. She was probably the best hacker in the world, among other things. Mac Macchiavello, her father, had taught her well.
She glanced at Guido, who kept stride behind us.
“A Parisian nightclub,” she said. She looked at me, her eyes wide, like she was trying to communicate something. She shrugged. “That’s all I know.”
Bullshit, but I didn’t press. She’d tell me when we were alone in the house. Still, I knew she was telling the truth about the nightclub. It explained the suits and the rich scents. And where men like Saverio went, so did women ready to cling to someone like him. He wasn’t only as handsome as sin, but he had a dangerous vibe that lingered around him. Stronger than his cologne.
And I kept pushing him away… I had to stop the thoughts that followed because they would only drive me insane.
What if he went to find comfort in someone else? A woman who wouldn’t turn her back on him after they had sex or even touched?
Okay, maybe I couldn’t stop the thoughts. A hollowness that I’d never felt before carved a path inside of my heart.
The thoughts haunted me as I helped Evelina get situated in the spare bedroom. Then we put our pajamas on, grabbed some gelato, and shut out Guido and whoever else.
“They went toS’envoyer En L’air,” she said as she painted my nails a color close to lavender.
