Chapter 15

NOVALEE

T he drive home was much quieter than the drive there. Atlee tried a few times to initiate a conversation, but I wasn’t paying attention. The only thing I could hear was the question burning in the back of my brain.

What did I do?

I was so distracted that I let Atlee drive home.

The look on Kato’s face when I told him that he left me alone was all I could see. Where did that come from? And why did I feel like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders after I said it? Not only that, but when he told me about my deal, I pretty much told him to suck it up.

Kato was the best brother a girl could ask for. No matter what was happening, Veda and I always came first. He gave up his whole life to raise us and I pretty much spit in his face. I didn’t just slap him when he was down, I kicked him in the nuts and stomped on his heart. So, why didn’t I feel worse? Why did it feel like I could breathe for the first time in two years?

“Do I need to be worried about you?” Atlee asked while driving past the run down and partial broken welcome to Soiree sign.

“No. Why?”

The hidden gem of Louisiana part of that sign always made me snicker. At best my home town was a broken and dull cubic zirconia. Or at least the part I lived in was.

“Besides for the fact that you haven’t said a single sarcastic remark…”

That was valid.

“You’ve been staring out the window three hours.”

Also a valid point, especially considering my response to that was a monotone, “I’m just thinking.”

“About what?”

How I’m a horrible sister. “Nothing.”

Atlee cocked a brow my way. “Okay, I’m officially worried now.”

“You don’t need to worry about me.” Who did he think he was, Memphis? “I’m fine.”

“Do you know what fine stands for?”

“Yes.” I sneered over at him. “It stands for fine.”

“It means fucked up, insecure, neurotic, and emotional.”

“Doesn’t that explain pretty much every girl on the planet?” Although I would give bonus points for being an Aerosmith fan.

“Is that really how girls feel?”

Um… “Yeah.”

“Huh. That explains a lot.”

Didn’t he have sisters? Not to mention the many, many, many girls he’d been with. “Don’t you talk to any of the girls you sleep with?”

He gave a derisive snort. “Why would I do that?”

There was a shocker.

“Maybe if you talked to them, you might be interested in more than what’s between their legs.”

He tipped his head my way. “Do we need to have the pussy conversation again?”

“God no.” That conversation was permanently burned into my brain.

“Now, are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”

That was a giant no. However, I did need a pick me up, and this could be an opportunity.

“I don’t know, lately I've been getting bad cramps. It feels like my uterus is trying to kill me.”

“Try a hot water bottle on your lower back.”

Well, that backfired.

“I think it’s the tampons I’m using.”

Let’s see how he handled that?

“What brand are you using?”

Son of a bitch.

What was wrong with him? “Why aren’t you grossed out by this?”

“I have two sisters.”

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Damnit. Oh well, I guess I would have to rely on a nap to lift my mood. Anyone who said they wished there were more hours in the day, or that they didn’t nap, were crazy. There was nothing like a glorious spout of laziness to make me feel better.

My mind once again wandered back to my brother. Kato wasn’t good at hiding his emotions. When he was pissed he’d yell, or hit something. When he was happy he would laugh, and when he was worried, he would pace back and forth while muttering to himself. I caused a lot of pacing. So much so that there was a visible trail in the carpet of our apartment. Was he pacing right now? Was he wandering around his cell looking for something to punch? Did he hate me?

“Alright,” Atlee said while pulling the truck to a stop. “We’re here.”

Finally, my bed was calling my name. Hopefully I’d wake up and find out this whole day was a nightmare. That seemed to be the theme of my life lately. The nightmare that wouldn’t end.

Reaching out, I grabbed the door handle, then stopped.

Wait a minute…

“This is Gio’s house.” Although according to our ‘deal’ technically one could say it was my weekend house.

I could practically hear the mocking tone coming from the Mancini mansion as I stared out the window. On the upside, I no longer found those two stairwells framing the path up to the front door scary. Right now, they just pissed me off.

Who’s genius idea was it to build two staircases to the same balcony? What kind of waste of space was that? Someone needed to knock one of those down. Preferably the left one. Not that there was anything different about that set of steps, I just didn’t like the way the sun bounced off it.

“I know what Gio’s house looks like. I’ve spent more time here than you have.”

That wasn’t my point. “This isn’t my house.”

Which was where we should be.

“Wait…” Atlee’s brows knit. “You call that thing you live in a house?”

“Yes,” I glared back at him. “It’s my house.”

And future yard gnome graveyard. I had little tombstones made up for each one. Knox would start walking soon, and those things would be the first to succumb to his toddler wrath. He may have a little direction from his aunt, especially when it came to the one with the yellow hat. That beady eyed bastard smiled at me every morning.

“I don’t know.” Atlee tsked. “If you had said tin can or trailer…”

“Oh my God shut up.” I snarled. “Why are we at Gio’s?”

“Oh, you have a dinner date.”

Suspicion narrowed my gaze. “No I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.” Did he hit his head this morning, or was he just dumb?

Wow, I was in a bad mood. Snapping at Atlee and hating on inanimate objects. Stupid left staircase. Looking all shiny and happy.

“Oh, but you do.” Atlee sang with a smug nod.

“Alright, seeing as I’m pretty sure the only place you’ve ever taken a girl is the first unoccupied room you could find, I understand why you would be confused about the parameters of a date. Allow me to clarify.” Sitting up straighter, I turned his way. “A date entails one person who likes another person asking them if they would accompany them to a place—usually a restaurant or movie. Since I neither like said person, nor was I asked anything, this does not constitute a date.”

It was a simple explanation that should’ve been easy to understand. Atlee of course, only took one thing from what I said.

“Why does the room have to be unoccupied?” A coy smirk spread across his face. “I do like an audience.”

Eww. “Who would want to watch that?”

“Men mostly. It never hurts to have another dick around when you want to fill an extra hole.”

And now, I was going to have to scrub my brain clean of that image.

“You take the term whore to a whole new level.”

“I prefer pussy prowler.”

“More like slut.”

He nodded. “That works too.”

I eyed him for a second before saying, “you really have no shame, do you?”

“No,” he shook his head. “Not really.”

Okay, good to know. “Well, if you wouldn’t mind tearing yourself away from the slut life long enough to take me home,” I held up my thumbs. “That would be great.”

“No can do, Tesoro .”

“What the hell is a Tesoro ?” Were we just speaking random words now? Cause I had a couple I’ve been waiting to use.

“Sorry, Aldo is in town. So my dad’s been speaking Italian at home.”

Who the hell was Aldo? Wait… “You speak Italian too?”

Did everyone in the town speak another language?

“Of course,” he shrugged.

“I swear to God if the next word that comes out of your mouth is Russian I will beat you to death with my shoe.”

I could do it too. These shoes were heavy.

He looked at me like that was the stupidest thing to say. “Why the hell would I speak Russian?”

At least I didn’t have another ‘I speak everything’ asshole on my hands.

“Spanish on the other hand…”

I pointed at the driver’s door. “Get out of my truck.”

“Oh come on.” Atlee chuckled. “You can’t tell me you don’t speak another language?”

“Why on earth would I speak another language?”

“So you can communicate with people in other countries?”

“Yeah,” I snorted, “cause I’m going to another country.”

I was lucky if I made it to another neighborhood.

“Well, you’re going to meet someone from another country tonight.”

That’s where he was wrong. “The only thing I’m going to do tonight is sleep.”

And maybe watch a bunch of cat videos. The failed jumping ones always cracked me up.

“I hate to crush your dreams of a goodnight’s sleep, but…” he shifted his stare my way. “Today is Friday.”

Fuck.

I really needed to start marking off the days on my calendar, and I should probably get a calendar that wasn’t five years old.

“I can’t stay here. I’m grounded.”

His brow rose. “People still get grounded?”

“Yes, people still get grounded.” There was one of them right here. “So, I have to go home, or Maw Maw will kick my ass.”

“Have you met Cesare? I don’t think you have a choice.”

He wasn’t understanding. “She has slippers.”

A look of confusion washed over Atlee’s face, but I understood the threat of the dreaded slipper. They were all bendy, and thwacky, and hurt like hell when they hit your head.

“You need to take me home. I’ll be in enough trouble for skipping school today.”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” Atlee waved his hand. “I had my dad call in for us this morning.”

“Oh. Okay?” But that didn’t change the fact that, “I’m still grounded.”

Atlee turned to face me and slapped his hand on his chest. “Do you trust me?”

“Not at all.”

“That’s probably a good choice. However, you can trust that I have a way with women.”

Not sure if I liked where this was going. “Atlee Fiore, you better not be thinking about seducing my Maw Maw.”

“What? No!” He paused and eyed me for a second before adding, “is she hot?”

“Oh my god, get out of my truck!”

“I’m kidding,” he laughed. “I’m not going to fuck your grandma, but I bet I can convince her to let you stay here for the weekend.”

It was my turn to laugh. “Yeah right.”

Maw Maw was going to beat him black and blue.

“Just go inside and I’ll handle your Maw Maw.”

I shook my head. “No way.”

Don’t get me wrong, it would be hilarious to watch Atlee try and dodge Maw Maw’s amazing ability to hit her target, but I was not risking the fallout afterwards.

“Well, it’s either that or I take you home and Gio picks you up. Which one of those do you think will get you in the most trouble?”

Crap.

“Fine.” I sighed and opened the door. “But if she shows up here, I’m blaming you.”

Atlee tipped his head in a nod. “That’s fair.”

“And don’t scratch my truck.”

For some reason I was okay with him driving it, which disturbed me a little.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Gertrude.” He sang before driving away.

The only thing I could think while I watched Atlee drive down Gio’s driveway was, he’s going to fuck someone in my truck, isn’t he?