“I don’t know. I felt guilt for the first time because of her.”
“Well, we did sort of fuck her life up.”
“Not now. Well, not only now. I mean I felt it from the minute I dealt with her man. She came running out of the room. And I felt bad. Never had that before. Haven’t had it since either. Until she showed back up.”
“Interesting. Is she stupid pretty?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I told him, since he would see her eventually. There was no reason to lie. “But it’s not that I want to fuck her.”
To that, Nino’s brow lifted at me.
“Fine. I would happily fuck her. But I’m not going to.”
“Oh, man, you know how many times I’ve heard that lately?” he asked, smirking at me.
“No. How many?”
“Let’s see… we got Luca, Lucky, Matteo…”
“Three. So you’ve heard that three times lately,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Hardly means I am going to, what, fuck her and then marry her? I’ve never even done a weekender with a woman.”
“Yeah, I know. Mom was bitching about it on the phone last night.”
“About me? You’re older,” I reminded him.
“She’s jealous that she’s not getting any grand babies yet while the others have a bunch,” Nino said.
“Yeah, well, I have no plans on working on that anytime soon.”
“Try telling her that. I got a forty-minute lecture about how she raised me better than to fuck around with a bunch of different women, and that I was supposed to settle down with the right woman and make babies for her to spoil.”
“Let me guess, she thinks she might know the right woman.”
“It’s my turn in the rotation for a forced blind date,” he said.
As a family, we’d all enjoyed the hell out of the stories Santo told us about the woman our ma had set him up with last. Who, apparently, not only had seven cats, but used different voices for each of them when she pretended to talk to them.
But when it was our turn to placate our mother by going on a date with whatever woman our mother came across who she thought was pretty and sweet, we were less than enthused.
“I’d tell you to just do it and get it over with…” I said, waving a hand out.
“But then it would likely be your turn again,” he said.
The only ones who got to escape the blind dates were August and Valley. August, because—according to our mother—he was too young. And Valley because our mom was on the lookout for a strong, respectful, kind, billionaire for her to settle down with.
“She would back off if she thought you were dating Cammie.”
“I’m not. I won’t be.”
“Mmhmm,” he said, shaking his head at me as he turned to go toward the door. “I’m heading back to Navesink Bank for the night,” he told me.
“Josie need her nails painted?” I asked, smirking.
“Didn’t you get Santo’s text?” he asked, making me realize I’d been so preoccupied with Cammie and her situation that I hadn’t checked my phone all day.
“No. What’s going on?”
“He was going to collect for Luca this morning and someone didn’t want to pay. He got the shit beat out of him with a crowbar.”