“I came instead.”
“Well then, welcome to my humble abode, now known as the local gift shop.”
“The sarcasm is new,” Vinny said.
“Boyan, Uncle Vinny’s here,” I called out.
I pulled Vinny across the threshold by the arm, then shoved him through the small entrance hallway into the living room. Even Mister Stoic wouldn’t be able to hold out on the ridiculousness that had become my living room. The place smelled like a body products store, the mix of fragrances almost eye-watering.
“Holy shit,” he muttered.
I smirked with satisfaction. “Ye-p.”
Vinny pulled off his beret and scratched his head, his wavy hair disheveled compared to his regular look.
“He’s trying, at least.”
“You call this trying? This is an explosion of everything he could think of. It’s an—wait, y-you know about Renzo and me?”
He gave me that nonplussed look. Lou and Bee both shrugged.
Ricco held his hands up in surrender. “Not me. I didn’t say anything.”
My mouth went dry, and I licked my lips. “He told you?” If he told Vinny, out of everyone, then he really did want there to be an us.
“I figured it out. Neither of you was discreet that first morning, or in the office.”
“Oh.” My cheeks flamed as I ducked my head. “Tore doesn’t know?”
Vinny sifted through a gift basket that had an assortment of thriller movies. “He’s in denial. It’s the only logical explanation.”
“You on babysitting duty tonight then?”
“Hey,” Boyan called from his room down the hall. “I heard that. No babies here.”
“Don’t forget to pack up your construction sets,” I called back. “He’s building one of the ones with a motor inside. Lou, get your stuff. You can finish your nails when you get to Tore’s.”
With a groaned sigh only teenagers seemed to be able to manage, Lou slid off the barstool and chucked her makeup and nail products into her cosmetics bag.
“Any reason why you came instead of Tore?” I asked Vinny.
Vinny gestured to all the gift baskets. “You’d rather he see all this?”
“Renzo could’ve come.”
“You told him to stay away.”
“But he should know I actually want him to come.”
“Why?”
“It’d be a show of commitment.”
“You didn’t tell him that.”
“Of course I didn’t. That’d be giving him the answer. He has to figure it out on his own.”
“How do you expect him to know that? You can’t tell him the opposite of what you want.”
