Page 112 of Knocked Up by My Dad's Mafia Boss

“I know Olivia won’t replace her. I don’t want her to replace Grace. I just… I want to be happy again. I want to look forward tothings again. Have someone to come home to.” Elio looks at me almost desperately. “Do you know what I mean?”

“Of course I do. You big sap.”

Elio laughs at that. “I guess I am.”

“You always were.”

“You’re really coming with me tonight?”

“I am.”

“Does your girl know?”

“Not yet.”

“Are you going to tell her?”

I think about it. “I don’t think she’ll care.”

“She’s what, moving on? Found someone else?”

“Maybe.”

Elio whistles out a sigh. “That’s rough, man. Did I ever tell you that Grace had a boyfriend when I met her?”

“A boyfriend? No.”

“She was dating Luciano Ricci.”

My eyes widen. “No shit. I always knew he had a thing for her, but not that they actually dated.”

“They did. For nearly a year. I met her right before their anniversary. It took her weeks to end it with him. Drove me crazy.”

“Yeah?”

“Fucking A, yeah. I spent a lot of time drunk in those weeks. Didn’t help matters.”

“Did you do something stupid?”

He snorts. “Define stupid. I begged her to leave him. To choose me instead.”

“And it worked.”

He grins. “Eventually.”

I don’t think it’d do me any good to beg. Even if I got down on my knees, I fear that Samantha would just look at me with those empty brown eyes. “This is different,” I say, and Elio hums. He doesn’t protest. Maybe he’s as tired of hashing this out as I am of feeling it.

I’m not looking forward to this double date.

But maybe it’s just what I need.

29

SAMANTHA

Seeing Dante is hard. Not just because I’m in love with him and I shouldn’t be, but mostly because he looksawful.

He’s losing weight. Looks like he hasn’t slept in days. His eyes are still hollow and raw at the same time, and it hurts to look at him. I try to keep my face blank every time our eyes meet.