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He looked at me for a long, hard moment, slid his hand out from under mine, and murmured, “I’m sorry to say, my mémère is long gone.”
I nodded as I tried to wrangle my emotions back under control. “Gods and people are never really gone as long as we remember them, right?”
His expression was so forlorn that it made my chest ache. He took a long draw off his bottle of beer and then answered, “Yeah, of course, you’re right. I don’t know what’s gotten into me tonight, talking about old times and all.”
I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off this stranger that I felt such a strong kinship with. Feeling more confused by the minute, I struggled to understand how easily I kept feeling pulled toward him. I truly didn’t understand this almost surreal connection between us or how it was progressing so quickly. This was a precarious situation for me. I couldn’t afford to catch feelings for any of these men, especially when I was supposed to be promised to another.
When my eyes lifted to his, I had to admit the truth. Something about him felt familiar. I couldn’t figure out who he reminded me of or if we’d perhaps met in a past life. Until this moment, I hadn’t believed in such things.
A memory rose in my mind of my grandmother’s stern face looking down at me as she spoke. “It does not matter one little bit if you believe in the old ways or not, Aprilia. One day, when you’re all grown up, you’ll understand how the world works.” A chill ran up my spine at how true her words had turned out to be.
A short silence spun out between the two of us that was eventually broken by Sophia’s bright, cheerful voice. “Aprilia, I heard you were here, I’ve been looking all over for you.”
I sprang out of my chair, and we hugged like long-lost sisters. When she tried to pull back, I held on a second longer just because I needed to. Sophia was one of my best friends growing up and the one thing that made me feel like I wasn’t all alone in a den of iniquity.
When we broke apart, her expression was concerned. “Aprilia, are you okay?”
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Yeah, I’m trying to be. It’s so good to see you again, Sophia. How are you doing? Is your hot biker treating you well?”
The expression on her face spoke volumes about how thrilled she was with him. “I’ve never been so happy. Blade is really good to me.” Before I could respond, she put her arm around me and whispered, “Grab your plate and come into the bar. Ella is here. We can catch up on everything.”
I turned to look at the table. Apparently, we were close enough for Mason to hear our conversation because he immediately stood up and handed me my plate. “Have a nice time visiting with your friends. I’ll be at the bar. If you need me, just holler, and I’ll come running.”
I reached out to take my plate, brushing my fingers against his. His skin was warm and a little rough. I tried not to look at how large and strong his hands were because I didn’t want to spiral into another episode of thinking inappropriate thoughts about him. Jesus, this man had me feeling like a horny schoolgirl. Sister Mary would make me say twenty rosaries for the thoughts that had flown through my mind earlier. It took me a second to realize that I hadn’t actually taken the plate from him. We were just standing there with our fingers touching, him not letting it go and me not pulling it from his grasp. Sophia cleared her throat, and I snapped out of it.
Once we were on our way, my longtime friend asked, “What was that about?”
I felt my face heat with embarrassment. “I wish I knew,” I whispered back.
I knew immediately what table we were going to because Eleanora was there, drinking an appletini. She waved the minute she caught sight of me. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
“Yeah, it’s a real dream come true,” I deadpanned back.
We took our seats and Sophia chided me gently, “Don’t be like that. The Slayers are a lot nicer than they appear at first glance.”
“Well, I heard the two of you got the best men of the bunch, so I’m not surprised you’re singing their praises.”
“Speaking of men,” Sophia said. “Is it true, you’re engaged to my brother?”
I held up my engagement ring.
“That looks suspiciously like my grandmother’s heirloom ring.”
I lowered my voice. “Come on now, you know Nicco’s smarter than to slide a five-carat diamond onto my finger and send me off alone.”
Sophia gave a sigh of relief. “He had a replica made. That’s smart.” Then her eyes narrowed at me. “Just make sure he eventually gives you the real thing.”
“I’d rather not be responsible for the Russo family diamond,” I admitted. “That’s what my grandmother used to call it, by the way.”
Sophia chuckled. “Our grandmothers were something else. I’m glad we’re not competitive about every little thing like they were.”
“I think it was just the way it was back then,” Eleanora chimed in. “They were housewives who spent too much time shopping and talking about each other.”
I went back and forth in my mind about whether to tell them the engagement was fake. I decided to keep that under wraps for now. Keeping them in the dark would be safest for everyone concerned, especially these two women I’d grown up caring about. We fell into friendly banter about old times and everything except what Sophia’s mobster brothers were up to and anything to do with the club business.
This is the way it had had always been with us, mostly because Eleanora was clueless about her family’s mob connections and Sophia’s awareness of her family’s misdeeds was very limited. I was the only one in our friend group who was totally dialed in to the mobster lifestyle. Whereas most mobsters felt that withholding information made their family safer, my father believed that me knowing as much as possible would increase the probability of me being able to navigate difficult and dangerous situations. I’d never felt the need to clue in my friends. For women in our situation, ignorance was bliss.
Chapter 7
