AllFreeNovel
Share Us
By the time everyone was dished up and digging in, Michael still had an empty plate. But only I noticed.
“Do you want some?” I pointed at the hot platter of manicotti.
Michael jerked, then looked at me like he’d only just remembered I was there. “I—sure. Yeah, thank you. It looks great, Mrs. Zola,” he said to Nonna.
He held out his plate while I dished him up, doing my best to ignore the trickles of electricity shooting up my arm. I had goose bumps from the simple act of spooning pasta onto his plate.
What was wrong with me?
“Lea, she’s my good girl,” Nonno said after Michael took his first bite. “Always here to help.”
Michael glanced at me with a smirk. I offered a wry smile in return. I knew my grandparents meant well, but it wasn’t exactly the sexiest thing in the world, always being called their “good girl.”
But I didn’t care if Michael Scarrone thought I was sexy.
Right?
“And Matthew, he’s in school,” Nonno continued, gesturing with his fork. “Very smart, this boy.”
“I remember that from back in the day,” Michael offered. “You were always first in our classes.”
Matthew’s green eyes landed squarely on Michael with an appraising expression. “I don’t remember you staying in them too long.”
Under the table, I kicked my brother squarely in the shin.
“Ow!” Matthew grunted, then mouthed “fuck off” at me.
I mouthed “be nice” right back and kicked his foot again. What was his problem?
Beside me, Michael just looked confused.
“Matthew always gets the straight As,” Nonno bragged like there wasn’t a cage fight happening directly in front of him.
“Not this semester, Nonno,” Matthew replied, as he forked a bit of his pasta. “Calculus is kicking my ass.”
“Bah, you’ll get it,” Nonno told him with a genial clap on his shoulder. “You always do. Genius, my boy here.”
“What about you, Mike?” Matthew wondered before shoving a bite of manicotti into his mouth. “You going back to school?”
I tried to kick him again, but this time, he moved his feet, and my shoe hit the rug with a thump.
Matthew grinned after swallowing his pasta, fully aware he was being an overprotective ass. Everyone in the house already knew that Nonno had agreed to take on an ex-con—and if Matthew knew Michael from high school, he certainly knew he wasn’t going to college. I honestly wasn’t sure if he’d even graduated high school.
All things that should have deterred me completely from my curiosity, but for some reason, were having zero effect.
“I—no. I’m not.” Michael’s voice was quiet, but he didn’t look away from my brother.
“Mattie, don’t be a dick,” I finally said before winking at Michael. “And, you, don’t pay attention to him. He’s nothing but a dog who needs a place to pee.”
“Says who?” Matthew demanded.
“Says that sad mustache you’ve been trying to grow on your upper lip for the last month,” I retorted. “It looks like dirt. Like you need to wash your face.”
“You at Fordham?” Michael asked before my brother could snap back at me. He accepted the green beans Kate passed across my plate, causing her to flush about ten shades of scarlet.
“CUNY,” Matthew corrected him before he dished himself some more pasta. “Actually, I was thinking of dropping out. Not sure anymore that college is for me.”
The sound of five forks and knives falling onto Nonna’s chipped Fiestaware was as deafening as a grenade. It was followed by a raw silence that might as well have been another grenade. Silence wasn’t exactly a common occurrence in the Zola household. But Matthew had just dropped a genuine bomb.
