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Nora's mouth drops open and Chiara starts laughing.

“What?”

“You just said fuck in front of my nonna!”

“You just said it.”

“That's different!”

“How?”

“She's my nonna!”

I stare at her. “That makes no fucking sense.”

Another horrified noise comes from behind Nora.

“Oh my God, stop saying it!”

Now Dex is losing his shit, but Nora's laughing with the wooden spoon still in her hand.

And all I can think is that she cooked.

Barely. Maybe five minutes. Maybe all she did was stir somebody else's sauce and try to add salt she wasn't allowed to add.

Don't care.

She cooked.

And tomorrow she wants to make us breakfast.

So when Lexy looks like she'd rather eat one of my boots than drink egg yolk and hot milk, I'll make damn sure she keeps her mouth shut.

Because if Nora wants to cook us the weirdest fucking breakfast I've ever heard of?

I'll drink every drop.

Eleonora

By the time we finally escape Nonna's house, I'm so full I might actually die.

“I told you,” I say as Jude walks beside me toward our house, one hand rubbing his stomach.

“Woman tried to kill me.”

“With food.”

“Still counts.”

I laugh and pull the keys Mama gave me out of my bag.

Our house is only a few steps away, closer to the beach than Nonna's, with the olive-tree-filled yard stretching behind it. I stop in front of the door for a second and stare at it.

God.

How many times did Chiara and I run through this door as kids?

Barefoot and wet from the sea, leaving sandy footprints everywhere while Mama yelled after us to use the outside shower.