Dad whistles. “Damn, always a surprise with that girl. Marco, you’ve raised two pretty amazing daughters.” He turns to me and shakes his head. “Luca, she is way out of your league.”
I laugh. “Don’t I know it? Lucky for me, she doesn’t agree.”
Chapter 69
We really were grounded a lot
Ariana
Lil and I are in the kitchen, shredding cheese and cutting up black olives, when Luca’s dad walks in. “What are you two lovely ladies up to?”
“Nachos,” I shrug. “We’re making enough for you guys, too.”
“We got the munchies,” Lil laughs as she throws an olive at me. I catch it in my mouth. “Cool, you can still do that after a couple of drinks and a pot gummy.”
“You questioned my black olive-catching skills? Rude, Lilith. Just rude.”
I cover two big baking sheets with chips, cheese, and jalapeño slices. One gets taco meat as well. They both get olives on half because as much as I love to eat them, I don’t like them in or on anything. I throw the nachos in the oven and start warming up the nacho cheese on the stovetop.
Anthony’s head is in the open fridge. “Can you grab the sour cream and salsa out while you’re in there?”
“Of course, Ari.” He places them on the counter, then goes back for a few beers. “Do you prefer Ari orAriana?’
I shrug. “Either is fine, I give no fucks. What about you? Which do you prefer, Anthony or Tony?”
“Usually, Anthony.”
“Oh shit, and here I’ve been calling you Uncle Tony since you got here!” Lil says apologetically.
“I don’t mind when you call me Uncle Tony, Lil. Not one bit.”
“Well, I’m not calling my father-in-law Uncle Tony. That’s too weird,” I gigglesnort. Fucking vodka.
“Ah, sweetheart, you can call me Tony or Anthony or any form of the name. Or Dad or Pop, whatever you want. For the longest time, Marco was the only one who called me Anthony, and it always sounded so mature and dignified coming from him, even if he was pissed at me.”
“Anthony, there you are,” Dad says as he strides into the kitchen, sounding mature and dignified. I feel my smile grow when I see my almost-husband behind him.
“Dad has perfected the dignified even while pissed voice, hasn’t he? ‘Ariana, Lilith, I’m very disappointed, and that will be three weeks without your cell phones,’” I say in a very poor impersonation of Dad’s voice.
“And what exactly got you grounded from your phone for three weeks?” Luca asks, his eyes sparkling with humor and probably a couple of beers.
“Which time,” Lil asks.
“Pfft, three weeks never lasted three weeks anyway,” I say as Luca’s arms go around me. I lean into him. “We excel at being so annoying they gave us our phones back and begged us to go away.”
“Twelve days was the record. That was the time we got caught sneaking out junior year.”
“No, no, we ended up with a full three weeks after the road trip, even though it was supposed to be the rest of the summer,” I remind her.
“My god, you two sure are troublemakers!” Anthony grins at us.
“It’s her fault!” Lil and I both yell, pointing at each other. Luca chuckles and kisses the top of my head.
“Someone stir that nacho cheese.” I step over to the ovens and pull out the nachos. “I made enough to share.” I put the baking sheets on silicone mats while Lil gets some plates out of the cupboard. “We’re taking ours to-go because we haven’t finished watching our movie yet.” I load up a plate, kiss Luca, and say goodnight to Dad and Anthony. Before I get to the stairs, Luca’s arms go around me again. He kisses behind my ear. “Hey, none of that right now. I’ve got nachos to eat and a movie to finish.”
“I’ve got nachos to eat and pool to play, but then I’m going to come find you and drag you to bed because we actually need to sleep tonight, baby.”
I turn and kiss him. “If I’m asleep, just carry me to bed. Don’t leave me on Lil’s floor or wherever I end up.”
