“Mamma mia,where did he get all that hair?” Her eyes flicked down his body as he walked toward them looking like it was fashion week at the Delfino. “And all the rest of it—”
Ellie sighed.Yeah, yeah. Cris grew some chest hair and got thick. Couldn’t everyone move on now?“Anyway, I forgot to remind you to tell Flavio that he has to pretend he doesn’t know about my parents.”
“Who’s Flavio? Cristiano!” Greta hoisted her body up and waved both hands at Cris. He immediately smiled and walked over.
“Ciao,Greta,” he said, kissing her on both cheeks.
“Well, hello yourself! What happened to you?” Greta was gushing, but Cris looked unsure how to answer. His eyes darted over to Ellie.
“I think what you mean is—” Ellie tried to jump in.
“Imeanyou look amazing!” said Greta.
“Thanks. So do you.” Cris smiled and gestured toward Greta’s midsection.
“Well, I don’t know about that.” Greta looked down at her belly and gave it a rub. “Any alterations here are temporary. But, you—this is good on you,” she said, waving a finger up and down at him. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.”
“I’ll try,” he said. “Hey, El. When do you want to get together again? I want to spend time with my grandfather before we all get busy, so I figured I’d ask what your plans are.”
Ellie could practically hear Greta’s gears turning inside her head.
“How about tomorrow morning? We have the dinner all together tomorrow night, so we could get it out of the way before that.”
“Okay. Let’s meet out front at ten again.” He nodded toward the beach club entrance.
“Fine with me,” she said.
Ellie and Greta said their goodbyes to Cris, and he only took one step down to the beach before Greta was hissing in her ear. “What is going on with you two?”
“Nothing. We’re working on a project together.” Ellie quickly explained what they were doing but left out the part where she almost passed out watching him eat breakfast and he was maybe sniffing horn.
“Well, this is a long way from the scared voice on the phone telling me you were worried about seeing him! Don’t tell me you two may actually get your shit together before we’re old enough to qualify for half-price tickets at the movie theater.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Oh, but it should be! You make it seem like you two haven’t been making googly eyes at each other since Berlusconi was in office—the first time!”
“You know that was a one-way ticket to nowhere. Let’s just call it a crush.”
“Sure. And let’s just call theseboccea couple of Raisinettes,” Greta said, cupping the underside of each of her breasts.
“Look, that ship has sailed,” Ellie said, stifling a laugh. “Aside from that, he’s an athlete, so no.” Though the excuse was starting to sound thin even to her own ears.
“Ma smettila!Athletes are people, too, especially when they look like January on the Chippendales calendar. I know it was your job to tell people what to do, but you should listen to me. Whatever projectyou’re working on should be aimed at getting in each other’s pants finally.”
“Gigi. Seriously?”
“Oh, come on. You know this trip is also supposed to be fun, right?”
“Are you saying I don’t know how to have fun?”
“I’m saying you’re a little rigid,ciccia,let’s be real.”
“I’m fun. I do fun things.”
“Like what?”
Ellie tried to think. What had she done that was fun recently? “Look,” she said, grabbing a lock of her ponytail. “I got highlights. Highlights are fun!”
