Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chloe walked into her brother and Brooke’s apartment after a sharp knock on the door followed by a quick “Come on in.”
Luca and Franny sat at the dining room table, building what looked like a school project that required glue and glitter.
“Hey,” Chloe said as she closed the door behind her.
Franny jumped off her chair, ran over, and threw her arms around Chloe’s waist. “Hi.”
After hugging her niece back, she asked, “What are you guys building?”
“It’s a diorama.”
The look of pain on Luca’s face made Chloe grin.
As far as Chloe was concerned, her brother deserved some discomfort these days.
“They still do those?” Chloe asked.
“Sadly,” Luca replied.
Franny climbed back on her chair and continued cutting whatever she’d been cutting before. “It’s about the book we read. There’s a girl that got lost in the woods, and this is where she finds a wolf.”
Chloe pointed to the trees. “Was there glitter in the trees?”
“It’s supposed to be rain,” Franny told her.
“I can see that.”
But looking at her niece’s school project was not what she was there for.
“Is Brooke here?”
“She’s at a mommy-and-me thing.”
“Thing?” Chloe asked.
“Don’t ask me. She read about it, so . . .” Luca finished wrapping twigs in thread and placed the bundle in a pile with others.
“Do you have this, Franny? I need to talk to your dad.”
Luca lifted an eyebrow in question.
With her tongue sticking slightly out between her teeth, Franny nodded with an “Ah-huh.”
“Great.” Chloe pointed at her brother and crooked her finger, telling him to follow her.
“What is—”
Chloe kept walking . . . out his door and up the stairs to the terrace apartment.
With each step, she grew more determined to give her brother a much-deserved lecture.
“What’s up?” he asked the second the door was closed.
Chloe swung on him, defiant arms on her hips. “What is wrong with you?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Dante and I just left the twins’ birthday party.”
“Okay.”
“Why weren’t you there?”
“Franny has a school project.”
Chloe gasped. “That’s a shit excuse, and you know it.”
“Brooke has—”
Chloe shook her head. “No. I’m not buying that. School projects are given weeks in advance, and even if Brooke had something important to do, that doesn’t stop you from showing up. Giovanni and Emma, they have a good excuse. You don’t.”
Luca had the good sense to look away. “I’m not trying to be difficult.”
“Really, cuz you’re acting ‘difficult.’ The girls asked about you guys. I heard them talking about my ‘thirst trap’ brothers and their ‘lucky’ wives to their friends.”
“Thirst trap?” he asked, completely clueless about what that meant.
“Oh my God. ‘Good-looking,’ okay? They talked about Emma being pregnant with twins, and how Franny was a cool kid. And that they’d be great babysitters.
And the whole time this discussion was going on, Mama just stood there smiling.
Only not the proud, ‘those are my children they’re boasting about’ smiling, but sad smiling. ”
Luca ran a hand through his thick hair.
Chloe kept going. “James is a good man. Yeah, he isn’t Papa. He isn’t Italian, hell, he isn’t even Catholic, but he adores our mother. And the only thing getting in the way of Mama letting herself adore him just as much is you.” She poked a finger into her brother’s chest. “You and Gio.”
“I’m not stopping her.”
“Stop lying to yourself. This family is the only reason Mama got up and kept moving after Papa died.” Chloe took a breath and tried to calm her shaking hands.
“When you and Gio got all up in Dante’s shit when you learned about us, I checked that off to big-brother love and worry because you knew all of Dante’s secrets.
Worried that I was just another doe-eyed conquest. And ten years ago, that may have been true.
Mama and James are in their fifties, Luca.
They’re not kids playing around. They have families that would be involved if it didn’t work out.
And maybe it won’t, but if it doesn’t because you and Gio don’t accept that Mama is capable of making this choice, then shame on you.
How dare you deny our mother a chance at what we all have?
Can you imagine going to bed at night without Brooke there? ”
“Don’t say that.”
“Exactly.” Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. “I can’t be the only one accepting James and his family. Dante and I are leaving, and I need to know that you and Gio aren’t going to screw this up for her.”
Luca looked her in the eye.
“Promise me.”
His jaw clenched.
Then he released a long-suffering sigh. “You’re right.”
Pressure eased from Chloe’s frame.
For a moment, they were both silent.
“I miss him, too, you know. James doesn’t erase Papa.”
Luca held his head with one hand and pulled Chloe in for a hug with the other.
Chloe held on to her brother for longer than she had in years.
“I’ll call James. Personally invite him for Sunday dinner.”
“And talk to Gio,” she insisted.
“And talk to Gio,” Luca agreed.
Chloe pulled away from her brother’s embrace. Then looked up.
“You have glitter in your hair.”
They both laughed, and the love that was never far away when it came to her family swarmed in.
“Curfew is eleven.”
Just hearing her mother recite the rules was enough to make Ellie’s heart skip a beat.
“We’re eighteen now,” Madison shot off.
Clayton laughed from where he sat on the living room sofa watching TV.
“Okay, then, ten thirty.”
Ellie’s eyes widened.
“But—” Madison started.
“Shall we go ten?”
Check and checkmate.
“Fine. Eleven,” Ellie said.
Their mom stood there smiling. Proud of her parenting skills if Ellie had to guess.
“Cramming for a test always backfires,” Clayton said from his perch.
“Actually, there are lots of studies that say—”
Ellie tugged on her sister’s arm to shut her up. “Save it for chemistry.”
Tossing her backpack over her shoulder, Ellie started to turn around.
Their mother stopped her. “What’s with the makeup?”
Oh, snap.
Ellie wasn’t one to wear a lot of makeup, unless she was going on a date.
“Ah . . .”
“Duh, Mom. We’ve been experimenting for prom. Jennifer suggested a smoky eye.”
Ellie could kiss her sister.
“Yeah. I don’t know if I like it,” Ellie said.
Their mom sighed. “It works. Maybe a little more eyeliner.”
Ellie found herself bobbing her head like one of those dolls. “I’ll try that.”
Madison pushed her toward the door. “See ya.”
They stumbled out of the house, passed the Ring camera, and jumped into Madison’s car.
“That was close.”
“Good thing Mom didn’t notice you shaking.”
Madison turned over the engine right as rain started to splatter on the windshield.
“Was it that obvious?” Ellie looked at her hands, then clenched her fists.
“To me.”
They pulled away from the curb and started toward Taylor’s.
“Thanks for having my back,” Ellie said.
Maddie glanced over, then back to the road. “You sure about this?”
“What? Yeah.” Her heart rate wasn’t coming down. “I mean . . . aren’t you curious?”
“Sure, but I don’t know. Do you love him?”
Ellie knew the answer to that question should be yes, so that’s what she said. “Of course. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t.”
She wasn’t sure her sister believed her.
“It’s not just because he asked you to prom?”
“No.” Ellie took her phone out of her backpack and clicked on Trevor’s picture. “We’re eighteen. We’re adults now.”
Maddie scoffed. “I don’t feel any different than I did last week.”
“I do. Trevor’s waited until now. No one can say I’m too young.” No longer jailbait was how Trevor put it.
Ellie sent a message to Trevor. I’m on my way. Then placed a kissing heart emoji.
They were adults, and adults had sex. Maybe they could even make a long-distance relationship work.
It happened in the movies. Ellie knew that was dumb to even think.
One thing she did know was Trevor wouldn’t stick around if they didn’t do this.
What college guy was going to avoid other girls if his girlfriend wasn’t having sex with him?
And she wanted this.
She wanted this.
“Do you have condoms?” Maddie asked.
“He said he’s bringing them.”
“If he doesn’t—”
“We’re on the pill. I’m not going to get pregnant.” Their mom had seen to that when they turned sixteen.
They’d both adamantly told her it wasn’t needed, but their mom insisted. “You’ll always know when your period is coming, and they won’t be as heavy. Trust me.”
And she’d been right.
But Ellie and Madison both knew it was more about teenagers making a lifetime mistake.
Right now, Ellie was applauding her mother’s wisdom. “Do you think Mom ever snuck out like this when she was our age?” Ellie asked.
“Maybe.”
“I bet that’s why she put us on the pill. I wonder if she ever thought she was pregnant before us. When she was in school.”
Madison turned up the speed on the windshield wipers. “I’m not sure about Mom, but I bet Dad did all those things.”
“You think he got someone else pregnant?”
“No. But he is always saying that he was a teenage boy once, and you just know there was some girl.”
“Yeah . . . probably.”
Ellie’s phone buzzed.
I’m already here, Trevor texted back.
Her stomach flipped.
They turned the corner to Taylor’s street, and there he was.
With arms folded over his chest, Trevor leaned against his motorcycle with a hoodie thrown over his head.
Maddie pulled the car over and put it in park, but she kept the engine running.
Ellie sucked in the deepest breath she’d taken all month. “Okay.” She looked at the phone in her hand, then shoved it in her backpack.
“Did he say where he was taking you?”
“His parents’ yacht on the marina. That’s romantic, right?”
“I guess.”
Ellie leaned over and hugged her sister. “I’ll text you when we’re headed back.”
Ellie reached for the door.
Madison stopped her. “What about your chemistry test?”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Bruh, that was today. I did fine.”
With that, Ellie pushed out of the car, bundled farther into her coat, and ran to Trevor.