“Forever,” Joel said, finishing her thought. “I want it to be a place people feel they can stay in long-term. Without fear that rising rents and an unstable economy will force them out. I want to build them something that lasts.”
Well…just, well. How on earth was she supposed to leave this man after a year? And why had she ever let it end in the first place?
“Lu, I love you but you’re crazy.”
Hours later Lucy was standing with Vanessa in Zia Ella’s spare bedroom that she’d vacated to move in with Joel. The room she had left spotless was now covered in clothing options for the weekend’s engagement party. So farLucy had vetoed half the options. This was a fake engagement gathering at Bowie’s. Not the Met Gala afterparty.
“Lasering your bikini line is an absolute must with our coarse Italian hair. You’ll thank me when you don’t have to wax down there anymore.”
Lucy rolled a skintight white dress down her thighs. Yeah, that one wasn’t going to work either. “I hardly wax anymore. I hate waiting for it to grow out long enough to wax.”
Vanessa dropped the stilettos she was holding on the floor with a clatter, her mouth following as her jaw fell open. “Luciana Barone, please don’t tell me that you sh-shave.” Vanessa whispered the last word like it was dirty.
Lucy couldn’t help but laugh. She’d missed her sister. “Look, Ness, not all of us have an army of beauticians at our beck and call, ready at the drop of a hat to make us look like supermodels. Shaving works for me.”
“But, Lu, you’re getting married to one of the Forbes Top 100. He’s probably the most eligible bachelor in the state, in the country! You can’t tell me you’re going to go on your honeymoon with razor burn up your thighs. For God’s sake, have I taught you nothing?”
“Of course not!” Lucy admonished. “I was going to go full bush.”
Vanessa broke out in a fit of giggles and threw a very expensive-looking purse at Lucy. “You’re gross.”
“So how come you never told me about that, by the way?”
“About lasering? Lu, I’ve been telling you for years!”
“No, about the Forbes Top 100 thing. I didn’t know until Natalie told me.” Lucy was still embarrassed that she hadn’t known her own husband’s state of wealth, or when exactly he’d gone from millionaire to billionaire status.
“I thought you knew. I thought everyone knew. He’s given, like, TED talks and shit about entrepreneurship. There are pictures of him all over social media and he doesn’t have his own account. Only the Morgan business ones run by his PR people exist, but he’s interesting enough that people post about him any chance they get. I assumed…you’d see it at some point.” Vanessa glanced at her oddly. “Also, I didn’t think you’d care, since, you know, you couldn’t be bothered to tell me you were dating.”
Lucy busied herself by pulling on a beautiful red gown that managed to just fit over her hips. “Yeah,” she said evasively. “It happened very fast.”
“No kidding.”
Lying to her parents was one thing. That was more like a means to an end, a way of getting them to look at her in a different way. She was able to rationalize that away during the countless conversations she’d had out loud with herself in the shower.
But lying to her sister—that was a harder sell. Even though a five-year age gap separated them, they’d always been close. Maybe that was the byproduct of sharing the bond of having the same overbearing immigrant parents, even though they’d been affected by that in different ways. The truth was, Lucy had spent most of her childhood interceding on her wild sister’s behalf.
By modern standards the Barones were very traditional parents. She and Vanessa had had strict curfews and weird social rules that punctuated their childhood. No sleepovers unless with family, no away camps, no cool school trips that took them out of town. No makeup until they were sixteen. Definitely no discussion of dating.
Going to university was not optional, so good grades in secondary school were expected, which meant no rewardfor getting them either. A career had to be respectable and appropriate but not artistic. And no one was to move out until they could afford to buy their own place or got married.
Long story short, Luciano and Maria Barone had made it clear they had immigrated to America for a better life and more opportunity for their children and that sacrifice was not to be wasted.
While Lucy had spent her entire life trying to live up to that impossible standard, Vanessa had doubled down and done her level best to be the exact opposite.
It wasn’t so much that Vanessa was disobedient. She simply lived as she wanted to. Always the life of the party, she made breaking curfews a sport. With her naturally stunning good looks and bubbly personality, she was always easily the most popular person in the room, bringing home her first boyfriend at age fourteen—the poor guy hadn’t had a chance against Luciano’s third degree, and they’d never seen him again. But the only thing Vanessa had learned from that encounter was that she had to become better at hiding things like her sexy clothes, make-up, shenanigans and boyfriends.
Eventually she became so skilled at hiding her noncompliance she got away with almost everything. And if she ever got close to being caught, Lucy covered for her. Every time.
The Barone sisters stuck together, always had and always would. Which was why Lucy had to tell Vanessa the truth. Besides, it was highly likely she’d needed her sister to cover for her at some point in this charade.
“Ness, I need to tell you something.”
Maria chose that moment to throw open the bedroom door with no regard to privacy, because, you know, who needed to knock?
“What are you girls do—?” Maria gave a low gasp. “Luciana, what are you wearing?? You look like a salami!”
Lucy glanced at herself in the mirror on the closet door. The red dress was pretty, and it was tight because it was her model sister’s…but a salami?
