Page 85 of Winter With You

‘Hey,’ he said, reaching out and cupping her jaw with his hand. ‘Finish the burger. Get some sleep. Be ready to sell books.’

She put her hand over his. ‘Luca.’

‘Yes?’

‘Thank you.’

He nodded and she had never felt more inadequate as a human. With nothing left to be said, he let her go and headed for the door. ‘Goodnight, Gabriella.’

‘Goodnight,’ she replied.

He took one last look at her and then he left. It was perhaps a minute before Gabriella heard Lulu’s voice.

‘Thank you’? Ella-Bella! He pours out his family lore and you say ‘thank you’? What were you thinking? Were you even thinking at all?

Right now, there was no answer to give.

50

ATTICA CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

‘Leave everything in the car,’ Steffi said. ‘But not in plain sight obviously. In the glove box. Or, anything really valuable you should put in the trunk.’

Luca took a breath. This was surreal. They were parked down the street from the prison entrance because Steffi had told him the only people who parked right outside were either family waiting for someone to be released to welcome them back or foes waiting to gun them down in retribution. The sky was cloud-filled, looking like it was either going to be Armageddon or a snowstorm. Both felt pretty possible.

‘Take your watch off, Luca,’ Steffi said. ‘We’ll put it in the trunk inside my purse, wrapped up in a tarp or whatever’s in there.’

As his sister’s fingers got to the strap of the watch his parents had given him for his twenty-first birthday – fide – he wondered exactly what was in the trunk of his father’s car he was driving. Evidence? Unlikely, as it had been impounded for some time after his arrest and, to his knowledge, his mom and sister only ever used it to come here. Memories? Also unlikely given that it had been so long since any new ones had been created and any reminders would now be tainted.

‘Stop overthinking,’ Steffi ordered, pulling the watch from his wrist. ‘If you overthink this it’s harder. You’re gonna see Dad. That’s all. Don’t think about where he is or any of the other stuff.’

‘While you wrap my valuables in a tarp?’

‘You’re overthinking, Luca,’ Steffi stated.

‘I’m thinking and I’m over this already,’ he admitted.

‘But you’re here,’ Steffi reminded him. ‘And Dad is expecting you and it’s not like you can just come back without an appointment.’

‘Yeah,’ he agreed. And he needed to be here. Because whatever was going on it was threatening his friends and his career and… Gabriella. She hadn’t exactly reacted how he had thought last night. Knowing her like he did, he had hoped for bigger, louder, maybe even anger. Instead he had got only slightly more than complete silence. She hadn’t said she didn’t want to see him again, but he had felt the shift, the change in her impression of him. It was always going to be a risk. Was he glad he had taken it? He was glad he’d been honest.

‘Brain, Luca!’ Steffi said. ‘Switch it off.’

‘That’s easier said than done.’

‘Then tell me everything that’s on your mind,’ Steffi suggested.

He looked at his sister in the passenger seat, dressed in a camo denim skirt with thick black socks and knee-high Converse, black padded coat over the top. She always styled herself exactly for the personality she wanted to convey. Strong, not to be messed with, but he knew it was all armour to protect the soft, sensitive and vulnerable individual she was.

‘I don’t think we have time for that,’ he replied.

‘So tell me some of it,’ she suggested. ‘Maybe starting with whatever you have going on with Gabriella Felix.’

He visually emoted before he had a chance to catch himself and Steffi leapt on it.

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Exactly that.’ She sighed. ‘I mean, I know we small-talked all the way over here to kill the tension of what was gonna happen but I feel like I know her intimately now.’

‘I talked about her?’ he asked.