Page 79 of Tinsel in Telluride

I shake my head. “No.”

“You came over for my sister’s fifteenth birthday. It was the first week of summer and I was annoyed I had to stick around to celebrate with ten boy crazed teenage girls. I was in the kitchen after a morning run and you ran straight into me trying to find some of—what did you call it—the magical bean water?”

My mouth drops open as I recall the moment. He was gorgeous even back then. All the girls at that party wanted him and Enzo. I was just happy to be included. Going away to boarding school with Willow and Indie, I didn’t know many of the girls in Shady Grove. Luca’s sister was my first and only friend in town.

“I can’t believe you remember that?”

His smile grows impossibly wider. “Down to the pink panda pajamas you were wearing.”

“You must have been what—nineteen?”

He nods. “It was the last summer Enzo and I spent at home.”

“Why?”

“I’ll get to that,” he promises, running his thumb along my forefinger. “That morning you bestowed upon me the gift of what I found out later was referred to as Leigh’s Story Time. Apparently, you wouldn’t shut up about your family or how amazing they were.”

My stomach sinks. “They were.”

“You don’t talk about them much anymore.”

“It hurts to.” As much as I want to pretend it doesn’t, it does. I’ve made peace with their deaths, but I don’t think it will ever hurt not to think about them and all the things I’ll never get to do with them.

“I’m sorry.” He gives my hand a squeeze and I glance up. “That morning you told me about how you started drinking coffee just so you could share twenty minutes alone with your mom in the morning before your dad would wake up. You loved talking about the day ahead with her.”

Tears prick the corners of my eyes, and my gaze falls to the bracelet Luca bought me at the Christmas market.

“You knew when you bought this?”

I loved those mornings with my mom. There isn’t a morning that goes by that I don’t wish she was there with me, doing hercrossword puzzles, ready to hand out sound advice or just listen to me talk.

He nods solemnly, not a hint of playfulness in his expression.

“I—I don’t know what to say. How does any of this add up to stealing a part of you?”

“Because I was jealous,” Luca rasps, pulling his hand from mine. He runs it through his silky black hair and sighs. “So fucking jealous.”

“Of me?”

He nods again and I swear there are tears in his eyes too. “You have to understand, my parents didn’t believe in anything but preserving the Donati name. That was their full-time job. We didn’t get moments like that. We got nannies and tutors, impersonal birthday gifts and, if we were lucky, a hug on Christmas. I always had a little more than that because I had a twin to hold on to, but that morning you showed me what a family could be. And I wanted it.”

Luca looks away, shaking his head over and over, and my heart breaks for him.

I reach for his hand, but he snatches it back.

“The rest of that summer, I listened to my mother and father complain about your dad getting involved in Shady Grove, but mostly I watched you. I listened to you tell my sister stories of your adventures with your mom and dad. I watched you at all the fundraisers, carefree and twirling in your beautiful summer dresses, dancing with your father. I became obsessed, but also so fucking angry that I’d never know what it was like to be loved by a parent like that.”

“God, Luca, I’m sorry,” I whisper.

Luca huffs a laugh. “Why are you apologizing? You did absolutely nothing wrong.”

“No, I didn’t, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hate the shitty behavior of your parents.”

“Oh, it gets worse.” He spits out like venom, but it’s not directed at me.

“Go on.”

“My parents decided something needed to be done to take your family down a peg, and they knew they couldn’t touch your father. Shady Grove loved him too much.”

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