Page 91 of Driftwood Daffodil 3

I followed her lead and held up a glass, “wine please.”

Of course, Gio had to ruin my good time. “She doesn’t need any.”

Ugh, rude.

“Come now, Giovanni,” the man sitting on the other side of Gio’s dad said. “Let the girl have some wine.”

I didn’t know who that was, but the thick Italian accent made me think he was Gio’s uncle. An uncle that I was starting to like, especially when Gio sighed and waved the server back over.

“She can have one glass.”

“Are you sure she can handle her alcohol?”

My eyes rolled down the table to the sneer openly displayed on Darry’s mom’s face.

“I’ll be fine.” Bitch.

“If you say so.” She shrugged. “But this isn’t like the wine you would get in your trailer park.”

How did she know what kind of wine was in a trailer park? One sip of Mr. Garibaldi’s toilet gin would probably knock her on her ass.

“How many glasses of wine have you had today?” Romeo leaned forward and looked down the table at Carissa. “Maybe you should mind your own fucking business.”

She didn’t like that, but I did. I especially liked the way she shut up and ducked her head. That didn’t stop her from glaring at me the entire time dinner was being served.

NOVALEE

The food was amazing. Italians knew how to make sauces, which I may not have been eating with the correct things based on some of the looks I received. The guy I thought to be Gio’s uncle seemed personally offended when I sprinkled some of the salsa-looking stuff over some pasta.

He grimaced and waved his hand at me. “Giovanni, cosa ci fa lei alla bruschetta.”

I had no idea what he said, but according to Gio I was eating the salsa stuff wrong. It was meant to be paired with bread, which was some of the best bread I’d ever had. Why no one wasfilling up on that I had no idea. Mind you no one else had their napkin tucked into their shirt either.

By the way, that wasn’t an easy task to complete with a plunging neckline. I got a few strange looks for that too, but if they wanted to stain their fancy clothes, that was their problem. I was not paying the dry cleaning bill for this dress.

Almost everyone spoke in Italian, which was annoying. I did manage to catch a few things however. That guy was indeed Gio’s uncle, Aldo. There was mention of Russians, a mantra or metra, whatever that was, and Atlee’s other sister’s name was Alex, and she was in love with someone named Myles. Neither her father nor brother were very happy about that. Of course that meant she had my full support, which again, neither of the men in her family were happy about.

I believe Atlee’s dad’s exact words were, “don’t talk to my daughter.”

It was like he thought I was a bad influence or something.

Aside from that, and the annoyance of not being able to understand what half the people in this room were saying, the night wasn’t a complete loss.

Atlee had apparently convinced Maw Maw that I had a weekend catering job, so I wouldn’t have to worry about permanent confinement when I went home. The food was delicious, Gio seemed to be extra on edge, and that Carissa girl spilled her wine when he fed me the salsa bread stuff. So all in all it wasn’t a bad dinner.

I did find a few things strange. Like how Atlee’s sister Kendall wasn’t seated with the rest of her family. Instead she was next to Romeo. There were armed men positioned throughout the room. A couple of whom were focused on one guy with blue eyes, who did not look Italian at all. And, Gio kept glaring at his uncle like he wanted to kill him when no one was looking.

Not that I was paying much attention to him. I was too busy having my own bitchy stare down with Darry’s mom, which I may or may not have instigated. It started off innocent. I look over and secretly hate her for how good she made that black cocktail dress look. Then I’d start wondering how Gio could be interested in me when he had someone like that, and my lip—due to no fault of my own—would morph into a sneer.

What was it with the girls who had C names? Carissa Barone. Cindy Fassbender, and Channing Tatum. Okay, he wasn’t a girl, but he was pretty.

My sneer deepened as Carissa lifted a wine glass to her lips.

Ugh, she even drank like some hoity toity princess.

What did Gio see in her? Sure, she had perfect hair and classic good looks, with a body that women paid thousands to achieve. But did she have morals? Her husband was right there and she was eye funkingmyboyfriend.

Then again, Gio didn’t really have morals either so maybe they were the perfect pair? She probably liked all of his sick games. Did he shove something in her ass and cut his name into her too?

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