Page 29 of One Breath After Another

“Eat up,” she told him. “And there’s more if you want it.”

Oh, he would.

No doubt.

There was nothing quite like his mother’s cooking after he spent a day running from one side of the city to the other. The saucy pasta goodness flooded his mouth as the conversation picked up with Katya rejoining the table.

“Have we decided on something yet?” she asked once she was back in her chair. “I still think we should do the party thing. It’s only fair, Penny.”

Luca glanced up, still not entirely caught up on the conversation that had been happening before he even arrived. He knew it had something to do with Penny simply because of the way the attention at the table continued going back to her, but everyone seemed to want to tiptoe around whatever topic they were trying to discuss.

His mother didn’t have the couth for that. She was never one to beat around the bush. Not when she had something to say and the time to say it, anyway.

“You didn’t even let Roz throw you a party for your seventeenth birthday months ago.” Despite Katya’s kind smile leveling on Penny from the other end of the table from the teenage girl, it wasn’t working to encourage anything. Penny settled on tipping her head down and using her fork to push around what remained on her plate while not even entertaining the idea of replying to Luca’s mother. Katya didn’t appear offended, instead saying, “Your graduation and eighteenth birthday are right around the same time—within a few weeks, anyway. Why not just let us throw you something for both? One party instead of two.”

“We’re still trying to figure out the details,” Roz put in when Penny stayed silent. “Right, Penny?”

The girl only shrugged.

That did make Luca’s mom frown.

Katya’s gaze darted down the table to where Zeke sat sipping on a glass of red wine as if she was trying to get him to engage Penny alongside her. His father continued to drink his wine like he had nothing better to do at the moment.

How long had they been at this with Penny?

Too long, apparently.

“Excuse me,” Penny muttered, standing from the table without warning. She didn’t even bother to explain why she was leaving the table—a sign of disrespect at an Italian family’s table if there ever was one—before she headed out of the dining room without a look over her shoulder.

Roz sighed at the exit. “Well, that’s that.”

“Sorry,” Naz said to Katya. “Sometimes she’s just ... not in the mood. She was up for dinner today, but I don’t think she’s ready to talk parties and everything else.”

“I get it,” his mother murmured.

She seemed fine.

Luca wondered if Katya really was.

“The more you push, the easier it is for her to move away.”

All eyes at the table turned on Luca at his seemingly random statement. But hell, if anyone had been paying attention, it wouldn’t be random. Nothing about Penny screamed approachable or willing ... yet, people seemed to think they could change that about her if only they tried harder.

It wouldn’t happen.

Not unless she wanted it to.

He also knew why his family kept trying to get Penny to open up. They cared enough to do anything at all. He doubted it came across that way to her, though. When all someone wanted to do was disappear, being seen wasn’t exactly a good thing.

Then, Luca pointed at the food on his plate and grinned at his mother, saying, “But this is delicious, Ma. Really.”

Katya beamed again. “Thank you.”

At least, one thing was okay.

Luca could handle that.

Later, when his mother was distracted with clearing the table and the topic of Roz’s pregnancy, Luca slipped away from the table knowing he wouldn’t be missed. At least, not for a few minutes. It was all he needed.