“Things are changing, Rosemary,” Anthony Rossi Sr. had said to his wife. “You’ll see.”
And sure as shit, her old man was right. By the time she graduated from high school, only a millionaire could affordto buy a condo around here, let alone a house. Real estate investors bought up everything, from six-flats to bungalows, then renovated them, or worse, tore them down to build these modern monstrosities that didn’t quite fit the neighborhood’s aesthetic to take their place.
They tried relentlessly to get her dad to sell, but Anthony Rossi was no dummy. With the rising value of his property, he took out a small mortgage, redid the house inside and out, and thumbed his nose at them.Vaffanculo. So now, they lived among the rich in a million-dollar house. Not to mention, with the influx of affluent people in the area, the pizza and bakery biz was booming.
She went around to the back and carefully opened the door. After hanging up her coat and taking off her shoes in the mudroom, Gina tiptoed toward the kitchen. Her parents had likely left for work already, but the last thing she wanted to do was wake up her brother, Matteo, who was no doubt sleeping off a Friday night bar-hopping binge downstairs.
“What in the hell?” Luca sat hunched over the kitchen table in the semi-darkness. “You scared me.”
“Good morning to you, too, Gina Bobina,” he said with a snicker, lifting a cup of coffee to his lips. The youngest of the Rossi brothers, and God help her, there were four, he’d been calling her that since he was little when they played “The Name Game”. “How was work?”
“All right. Same shit, different day.” She tossed her bag down on a chair and dumped the cafeteria sludge in the sink. “What are you doing up this early on a Saturday?”
Unless Luca had class or was working, he usually slept until noon.
“Think I wanna be?” He stretched his arms above his head with a yawn. “Couldn’t sleep, so I thought, fuck it, and came downstairs.”
“Sorry, little bro.” Gina poured herself a fresh cup of coffee. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”
“How the fuck can you drink that?” Luca lifted his chin at her. “Shouldn’t you be going to bed?”
“I should, and I’m gonna.” She inhaled the delicious brew, then took a sip. “Coffee won’t keep me from sleeping. God knows I live off the stuff. I think I’ve become immune to the effects of caffeine.”
“Jesus.” He looked at her like she was an alien. “When are you off again?”
“Tonight’s my last night.”
And already exhausted, her shift tonight would be the hardest. Gina opted to work six twelves in a row. Then, she could have eight days off and regain some sense of normalcy before the cycle started all over again.
“You shoulda listened to Mom.”
“And work in the bakery?” A shake of her head, and her ponytail swished. “No, thanks.”
“The hours are better.”
Is sweating in a kitchen from sunup to sundown seven days a week better? She didn’t think so. Gina was well aware she’d disappointedNonnaand her parents when she went to nursing school. And how messed up was that? As the only daughter, it was their dream for her to follow in their footsteps, marry a nice Italian boy, and make babies.
Too bad it wasn’t what she wanted anymore.
There was a time Gina might’ve settled for it, though.
“Baking is supposed to be a joy, not a job.” Dunking a cookie in her coffee, she expelled a breath. “Besides, I always wanted to be a nurse, and so I am.”
“You’re good at it, though. Better than Mom is, but don’t you dare tell her I said that.”
“See? That’s what makes all the difference. She’s lost the joy in it. It’s just work for her, now.” With a shrug, Gina popped the cookie into her mouth before it fell apart. “And I’m an excellent nurse because I love what I do.”
“So that’s the trick, eh?” Holding back a smirk, Luca pushed his fingers through his shaggy, dark hair.
“What?”
“You gotta love what you do to be good at it?”
“Yeah, something like that.” Her head tipping to the side, she smiled at him. Of all her brothers, she was closest to Luca. Maybe because, being three years younger, she always thought of him as hers. “Your life will be miserable if you don’t.”
“I don’t know what I wanna do after I’m finished with school,” he admitted.
“You’re not gonna run Rossi’s with Daddy?”
