Food is on the table, my grandmother’s china, and real silverware beside our plates. It’s the only time we’re allowed to use the special dishes; otherwise, they’re kept neatly tucked away on the top shelf, out of reach.
Zeke gets a plastic plate, which is wise considering he likes to drop his plate on the floor. Most of the time, I just feed him in the highchair when I’m with him, or in the case of at someone’s home who has a carpeted dining room, then I hand feed him, which he detests.
“Thank you for including me tonight,” Luca says, smiling as he tries to break the tension.
We’ve barely been here for twenty minutes, the food already prepared. We probably should have arrived earlier, but I honestly didn’t want to.
I was trembling and crying, having a panic attack. Luca managed to calm me down, in strangely much the same manner as his mother had done the first time we’d gone to lunch together.
“Well, it was our daughter who invited you.” Dad glares at Luca.
“Dad, I wanted you to get to know Luca.” I reach for Luca’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “He’s important to me. I would hope that you’d take the time to get to know someone who means that much to me.”
“I know all I need to,” Dad says. “He’s interested in only one thing with my daughter!”
Catrina clears her throat and glares at her husband. “Oh, settle down, Jack. Like we weren’t madly in love when we first met.”
“We didn’t get hitched after a month.”
Catrina forces a smile. “No, we most certainly did not. But perhaps we should give the benefit of the doubt to these two lovebirds and let them explain to us why they wish to rush into marriage and family life.”
My dad watches Mom carefully before saying, “Luca, why don’t you start? Since you’ll instantly become a father to Zeke when you marry my daughter.”
Three weeks later, when Luca is forced to help Dante with whatever mafia business they’re up to, Nikki, Paige, Nova, and I go dress shopping for a wedding gown.
Of course, it’s not just the girls.
Like last time, Moreno is babysitting us.
“Can we really get a dress by February?” I ask.
It’s already December, and I keep hoping Nikki will come to her senses, talk her husband into pushing back the wedding, at least until we graduate.
That’s part of the reason I agreed to go dress shopping with his mom. But I didn’t expect Nikki to invite Nova’s mother along. At least Paige had the sense to suggest Nova join us too.
Nova hangs out with me in the dressing room while Paige and Nikki keep procuring dresses for me to try on.
“We can have a dress by the end of January if we order it from this shop,” Nikki says. “Of course, it’ll need alterations, but we have a seamstress who can make those adjustments within a few weeks. Which puts us at the end of February…” Her voice trails off.
“That’s fine. I was thinking the last Saturday in February.” Personally, I was thinking February twenty-ninth since it’s not a leap year, but I refrain from being a smartass.
Nikki is being pleasant, as is Paige, and I don’t want Dante getting wind that I’m causing trouble.
The last thing I want is to hurt Luca.
“I really like the first dress,” Nova says to me as I try on the fourth or fifth for the afternoon.
I’ve already lost count.
“No, the mermaid style doesn’t do my body any favors.” I don’t have the breasts to wear the dress, or the curves. I look like a lumpy tree.
“I agree with Harper,” Paige says. “We’ll find something better, something that suits you.” She shoves another dress at me to try on, pushing through the cloth barrier of a door.
Nova grabs the gown and helps me into the dress while the parents are outside perusing the store for available dresses to try on. She leans in close, whispering so that no one else can hear, “Are you really going to go through with marrying Luca?”
“Do I have a choice?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder at her.
I want to trust Nova, but her family can’t be trusted, which puts her in my uncertainty category.
