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“Are you drunk?” Ana asks.
“Well, of course.”
I throw my head back laughing as I hear the front door open, then the sound of many footsteps approaching the kitchen.
As I peer around the corner a little more, I see the expression on Gio’s face. I don’t know what changed, but something seems off.
I know that he doesn’t always show the most emotion, but it’s like there is nothing going on inside his head.
Carlo, Gio, Max, and Papa lower their voices as they gather in a small circle.
I don’t think he saw me. If he did, he would have given me a warning with his looks. But I can’t help eavesdropping. Things in this family go from good to bad so quickly.
“Stop listening,” Mama says to me, pulling me away from the corner.
“I have to though. I think I heard my name.”
She holds onto my arm, dragging me back into the kitchen. “You did, my love.”
I stand frozen and confused. “What?”
Mama doesn’t answer my question as Max, Carlo, and Giovanni walk into the room.
“Giovanni!”
“Hey, Mama,” he says, walking into her embrace.
She kisses his cheek before he can pull away.
Not being around Giovanni has made me realize a lot. It’s different seeing him in this light. His beard has grown out a little—it’s not a full beard, only scruff. But he finds a way to pull it off. He is wearing a watch that I have never seen him wear before.
“Would you guys like some dinner? I am going to make spaghetti.”
Mama is either cooking, drinking, or flying to Paris. For some reason, that makes a giggle fall from my lips.
“You have something to say, Nina?” Mama asks with light in her voice.
Giovanni must not have seen me, because the moment he hears my name, something in his stance shifts.
He looks at me with a crooked smile. It doesn’t look forced. The curl of his lips forms so softly it looks genuine.
“Nina needs to leave.”
His words sting. What changed since the drive here? He was all over me half an hour ago, and now he is cold to me.
I had a week full of stable conversations before tonight, and now I am back to Gio’s hot-and-cold emotions.
“What?” I ask.
“I think he is right, Nina,” my brother says while stepping toward me. “You and Ana can go and talk in another room—upstairs maybe?”
I feel like a freaking child.What is happening? Why do I need to leave the room?
“No,” I say in a monotone. “You guys can go talk somewhere else; I’ll just watch TV.” I grab the remote, switching the news on for some reason.
I never watch the news, and I’ve chosen the worst time to do it.
“Big news in Sicily over the weekend,” the reporter says. “Hundreds of men are working to get the fire under control, but it has been spreading for quite some time. The firefighters believe it started at the Genovese household.”
