Page 68 of Beni

“Boyfriend?”

Beni laughed. “They’ve got a chick with them now, too. Ginevra.”

“Wait, what?”

“You know, they’re like an all-in-one thing the three of them.”

“How does that work?”

Beni shrugged, and let the second dart fly. Pop. “You tell me.”

Well …

“Does it work for them?”

“I guess so.”

“That’s what counts,” August replied.

“And she’s pregnant, too.”

“Are your parents—”

“Crazy happy. Couldn’t be fucking happier, if I’m honest. Mostly because Corrado, that’s my brother, walked around like an idiot for a few years with Alessio pretending like they weren’t a thing … we all knew what they were doing. Anyway, Ginevra came into the picture, and that shit was done right then and there. It works.”

Huh.

That seemed like a situation where a family might be wary, really. If only because it wasn’t the norm. Yet, his family, including Beni, offered the information like it was totally normal to him. That, she found, was kind of amazing.

“Corrado’s an identical twin, too,” Beni added, letting his third dart fly, “him and Chris.”

Pop.

“So, there’s two sets in your family?”

“Three, if you include my ma, but her twin passed on a long time ago. She was killed … here. In Chicago, I mean, when they were younger.”

August frowned. “Sorry.”

“A long time ago, that’s all.”

Pop.

Pop.

The stand lit up with lights and a whirring noise wailed from the speakers, a robotic voice congratulating Beni for winning.

“Third level prize,” the guy behind the stand said, waving a hand at the line of large stuffies hanging from the top. “Feel free to pick whichever one you want, little lady.”

Ugh.

Little lady.

Beni grinned her way, making that annoyance drift away instantly. August just shook her head, not surprised in the least at the sight of his cockiness. The man couldn’t help it, and frankly, she liked it too damn much to tell him to stop.

None of the prizes overhead really caught her eye. Instead, one hanging from the right wall did. A dark brown bear wearing a black leather jacket. He wasn’t nearly as big as the other stuffed animals—maybe only a foot long to their three and four feet.

“That one,” she said, pointing at it.