Grabbing my keys, glasses, and phone, I look back at my lifeless living room. Empty and waiting for me and me alone, like it always will be. I make a mental note to at least get some comfortable furniture instead of this showcase crap they have in here. The leather is easy to keep clean, though, and without any knickknacks around, there’s less surface area to have to dust. When the season is over and I have a better idea of how long my next contract is, maybe I can paint the walls and get some curtains or something.
“No reason to paint when we’re going to have to paint it all back in a few months,” Mom used to say.
No reason to make it feel like your home when it’s not.
Chapter 2
“All I’m sayingis, as a brother, it’s a little much!”
“Uffa! Leave her alone, Leonardo. Your sister is young and gorgeous. What she wears is none of your business.”
Leave it to my nonna to defend my outfit, smack my little brother on the back of the head, and stir her ragu without missing a beat. Leo scoots away from her second smack, plucking an apple off the counter and laughing as he hustles out of the kitchen.
“Don’t ruin your dinner! I’ve been babysitting this sauce for almost three hours!”
“You know as well as I do that he’s a bottomless pit.” I can’t help but laugh at the idea of Leo ever being anywhere close to full. All of my brothers have massive appetites, but he takes the cake, even if he’s the slimmest. I’m not convinced he’s stopped growing, and once he joins Gabri and Nikki in the NHL, he might end up with more muscles than they’ve ever had.
Nonna sighs and grabs the cheese grater, deftly handing me a salad bowl in the process. Taking the hint, I grab a head of lettuce and get to work, moving around my grandmother in a practiced nightly dance.
“He might be a bottomless pit, but he knows better than to come into my kitchen so close to dinner. And to talk about your cute little outfits like he isn’t running around here shirtless half the time!” She’s gesturing with the wedge of cheese she’s grating, and I wonder which classic story I’m about to hear for the umpteenth time. “You know, when I was your age, I wore even less, every chance I got! You’re only young once. One day, you’ll look down and nothing will be where it used to be, and you’ll wish you had walked around naked more. And my outfits were something special, let me tell you that! Sexy enough that I—”
“Kissed a Beatle!”
Mama’s interruption triggers a flurry of movement into the kitchen as she and my dad pile in, followed by both of my giant older brothers, taking up more than their fair share of space as usual.
“Yes, Giulia, I kissed a Beatle!” Nonna kisses my mom on the cheek and hands my oldest brother, Gabri, a stack of plates to take to the dining room. “And I’ll never tell which one!” My middle brother, Nikki, finds himself with an armful of napkins and silverware, and Papa grabs the salad I’ve just finished to follow them and help set the table.
Mama helps Nonna add pasta to the sauce and yells for Leo, and before long, we’re all settled in for a family dinner that hasn’t changed much since I was a kid.
“So what was the impetus for the Beatles story today?” Mama winks at Papa as Nonna adds more pasta to Leo’s plate, admonishing him for ruining his appetite with his apple.
“Leo took exception to my outfit, again.”
“Well—”
“Ah,patatina, now that you mention it—”
“Too much boob—”
“That’s what I thought—”
“Excuse me!” I scoff as Papa and my brothers all chime in. “I don’t need any opinions, thank you very much.” Papa gives me more freedom than a lot of women in my position would ever get, but I sometimes think he’ll never see me as anything other than hislittle potato.
As always, Mama comes to my defense. “You look marvelous, Elia. Like your grandmother said, you’re only young once. If I had your body when I was your age, I would have flaunted it too!”
Papa stops eating to place a kiss on the back of her hand and looks at her with the same soft eyes that embarrassed my siblings and me when we were children. Now, I know it’s the special look shared between soulmates, and how lucky we were to grow up in a house full of love.
“Amore mio, you were then just as you are now. Perfection. My personal Picasso.”
Leo exaggerates a gag, but we’re all used to our parents getting lost in each other multiple times during a meal. Nikki makes a show of slapping Leo on the back, and Gabri cracks half a smile, his equivalent of a belly laugh. Nonna takes advantage of everyone’s distraction to bring her attention back to me.
“You know, Elia, with all these cute little outfits, I’ve been wondering if you’ve had your eye on someone special…?”
Disrespect isn’t tolerated in my family or in their business, but I can’t help a little sigh at my weekly interrogation. I’m not even dressed up! It’s the same athleisure that everyone wears these days, but because I have boobs that require specially ordered bras and an ass that fluctuates, everything just looks sexier on me by default. “Nonna, you know I—”
“Will find someone perfect for her at the right time. Not a moment before!” Mama interjects and saves me, while Papa looks characteristically solemn whenever the subject of my dating comes up.
“She can date all she wants, but it’ll take a manIdeem perfect to take my patatina away. She’s too good for them all. I’ve yet to meet anyone who deserves her. I don’t know why you feel the need to bring this up at our first family dinner of the new year!”
