“Tony was just telling us that a friend of his saw you at the concert last weekend.”
“Yeah, so?” she said, glaring at her brother.
He sat back, his hands clasped behind his head, and smirked. “Quite the little metalhead you’ve become,bambina.Since when?”
Gina tilted her head and smiled. “Since I started seeing the rhythm guitarist in the band, but you already knew that.”
Eyes bulging, nostrils flaring, Tony leaned across the table. “Well, you won’t beseeinghim anymore.”
I’m fearless, I’m fearless, I’m fearless…
She didn’t so much as flinch. “And who’s gonna stop me? You?”
“If I have to,” he bellowed, slamming his fist into the table.
“Basta!” Her mother’s shrill cut through the room. Then, patting the arm of her firstborn, she softened her voice, placating him like she always did. “What are you saying, Anthony?”
“Your daughter’s messing around with my old pal, Matt McCready, that’s what,” he said, the engorged veins in his neck twitching. “I wanna castrate the sonofabitch.”
Her hand falling away from Tony, Rosemary looked at her over the frame of her horn-rimmed glasses. A single eyebrow lifted, and she cocked her head. “Gina?”
“I love him.” And as far as she was concerned, that was the only response necessary.
“You don’t know him.” Tony’s fist hit the table once more, and she held onto her glass. “He’s a dog.”
Fanculo!Gina flipped him off and popped a meatball in her mouth.Maybe that was childish, but her brother was an ass, and she didn’t have the mental energy to deal with him right now. Let him throw his hissy fit. She didn’t care what he thought, anyway.
“Matt’s a pretty cool dude. I like him,” Luca said, throwing his arm around her. “He’s good to Gina.”
“You knew about this?”
“I got them together.” With his shoulders back and his chest thrust out, his grin was so wide he showed every one of his pretty white teeth. Then he noticed their mother’s frown, and it faded. “Sorta.”
“And you…” Wagging her finger inches from his face, Rosemary moved on to Teo. “How could you lie to me—your own mother?”
He settled back in his chair with a sigh, the fork in his hand clattering to the plate. “I didn’t.”
“Yes. You. Did.” Wag. Wag. Wag. As if the words sneering out of her mouth needed any more emphasis. “You told me your sister was spending the night at a friend’s.”
“And that’s what she did.” He folded his hands on top of the table and leaned in, tipping his head with an upward tick of his lip. “So, not a lie.”
Poor Teo. Being the middle child, if he wasn’t ignored, it seemed he always got the brunt of her bullshit.
“I thought you meant one of the girls…”
“Never said that.”
Defeated, and with no one else left, she turned to her husband, who’d been silently observing the latest installment of the family soap opera while he twirled spaghetti onto his fork. “Anthony, say something to your daughter, will you?”
“What do you want me to say, Rosemary?” Her dad threw up his hands, then rubbed the crinkled skin at his temple. “Gina’s got a mind of her own—always has. She’s gonna do whatever it is she wants to do, so just leave her be. This will run its course in due time.”
Let him think that if he wanted to, she wasn’t going to correct him. Because the only conceivable outcome in her mind was forever.
“Gina, baby, youcannotget involved with this boy.” It sounded like a plea, or perhaps a prayer.
“I already am.” She reached across the table, and taking her mother’s hand in hers, she squeezed it. “And he’s not a boy, Mama. Matt’s a grown man.”
“And far too old for you.”
