Chapter 3 #2
“We had some beer and more beer and then some shots of . . .”
I could hear Luca swallow from across the room before he said, “Tequila.”
“Yeah. That too.”
“Did you drink anything with fruit in it? Maybe out of a jar?” Tana asked.
Matteo nodded and said, “Yeah. One had apples, and the other had . . .”
“Peaches,” Luca finished for him. “That one was my favorite.”
“Oh, shit,” Amalia mumbled. “Let me make some calls and see if I can find some help.”
“It was poison, wasn’t it?” Jersey asked. “We need to take them to . . .”
“It wasn’t poison, honey. It was moonshine,” Tana interrupted. She giggled before she said, “Looks like Landry Lincoln has perfected his recipe.”
Zach’s eyes shot open, and he winced before he closed them again and said, “I met someone named Landry last night.”
“Fun guy,” Luca chimed in. He giggled like a kid before he said, “Fun guy. Fungi. Fun guy.” He giggled again and said, “He’s a mushroom.”
“They’re still drunk!” Paulie announced.
“Yes, they are.” I looked at Amalia and Tana before I said, “Well, it looks like they’re enjoying the hospitality of Texas. I guess it’s my turn.”
“Try the peach. It was the best,” Luca insisted.
“I can assure you that I will not be drinking anything out of a mason jar. Ever.”
“That is probably a good idea,” Matteo allowed. “I don’t think I will either, but it doesn’t really matter anyway, because I’m going to die soon.”
“You’re not gonna die, you big pussy,” Tana said with a bark of laughter. “Shit. I’ve obviously forgotten everything I ever learned from mafia romance books. I’m supposed to be respectful at all times, or else they’ll have my entire family killed.”
Amalia scoffed before she said, “That sounds a little excessive.”
“I told you those weren’t realistic,” I chided. “At least the ones you were reading about the Irish weren’t. The others were somewhat more accurate.”
“Well, it looks like they’ll be perfectly entertained while we go to the party.”
“There’s another one already?” Matteo asked.
I laughed at the pain in his voice before I said, “It’s a tea party, Matteo. How wild could it be?”
◆◆◆
TANA TEMPEST
I put my finger up to tell the ladies who saw me approaching their table not to give me away and then leaned down and wrapped my arms around one of my favorite people in the world. She tensed until I kissed her cheek and whispered, “Hi, Gamma.”
“You made it!”
“Amalia, Stan, and I decided to come a day early. We left the guys at home to be miserable without any supervision. They’ll probably be starving when they get here. I thought I should warn you ahead of time.”
Gamma turned in my arms and smiled at me as she said, “I’ll take care of them.”
“I know you will,” I said as I hugged her back. When I pulled away to look down at her, I said, “I almost didn’t recognize you with that fancy hat.”
Gamma ran her hand along the brim and asked, “Do you like it?”
“You should make it your new signature style,” I assured her.
“Could you imagine me wearing this get-up on the back of Smokey’s bike?” Gamma asked the women around the table.
I smiled as they greeted me and spoke to each one as I looked around and saw that pretty much every other woman here was wearing a hat.
There were wool pillboxes, veiled fascinators, and a variety of straw wide-brimmed hats - but the one thing they had in common was the flowers and feathers adorning them, all in colors of the wedding palette.
“I’ve never been to an actual tea party before, other than the ones you girls had when you were kids,” Gamma said as she followed my wandering gaze. “The drinks they’re serving and the pastries Janis made beat what you served at your tea parties, by far.”
“Who did you bring with you?” Thea Conner, one of Bella’s aunts, asked.
“Amalia and Stan . . . Constance Romano. She’s Rin’s girlfriend and good friends with Matteo.”
“She’s the woman among his attendants at the wedding. She’ll be partnered with Dylan since he’s standing with Bella,” Lena Conner explained. “Stan’s a darling. I met her when we were in New York, and she was there visiting her father.”
“Who is the other woman with her? The one talking to Bella’s . . . friend.”
“Alazei is Bella’s guard, and Ciro is here with Stan. He drove us here, actually.” I heard a familiar voice call my name and turned to find Bella walking in my direction with a dainty teacup in her hand. I laughed before I pointed out, “You seem to be in much better shape than the guys.”
“It’s just makeup and determination. Well, I also know better than to drink anything out of a mason jar.” She tilted her cup toward me so I could see the bright blue liquid inside before she admitted, “There’s chilled Gatorade in here.”
“I understand that Landry shared some of his homemade moonshine with the newbies.”
Bella giggled before she said, “When I walked up and saw Matteo passing a jar to Luca, I knew that this morning was going to be a shitshow, but the guys had fun last night. That’s all that really matters.”
I smiled as I inspected her hat, and when she posed with her fingers on the brim, I asked, “And where did you get that unique and ever so fantastic hat?”
“Zoey and a few of the other girls made them just for today,” Bella said as she hooked her arm through mine and led me toward a table piled with hats of all colors and shapes and adorned with an exorbitant amount of feathers and flowers. “Remember all my birthday parties when I was a kid?”
“The Barbie party was my favorite. I still have a picture of us posing like dolls in that prop.”
“My Aunt Thea came up with that idea when she was buying Barbies for the twins' birthday,” Bella explained. “It took them forever to make that giant box, but it was worth it. The pictures came out so great.”
“The pictures from today are going to be wonderful too,” I mused as I watched Evi and Vivi Conner pose together with their big floppy hats, holding their delicate teacups as they pretended to sip while the photographer got the shot.
“And you’re going to be in some of them,” Bella said as she picked up a cream-colored felt hat decorated with varying colors of purple flowers.
The ribbons that wrapped around the crown flowed down in a long trail that blew in the breeze as she lifted it up and set it on my head. “Now you look even more fabulous.”
“You’re too kind,” I said dramatically. I snapped my fingers haughtily and ordered, “I’ll take my tea now.”
“I knew you’d fit right in!”