Page 17 of Dante
Taking her freshly poured glass, she and the rest of them followed Lila to the outdoor dining area on the deck. The table was beautifully set, and the view was beyond breathtaking.
Nadia took her seat at the end of the table, opposite of Dante, while Leo and Amo took theirs on each side of her.
Their salad was brought out almost immediately. Nadia took one look at it and instantly knew this was going to be interesting. The dressing was green, and it took her two bites to figure out what it possibly was.
“What the hell kind of dressing is this?” Amo whispered under his breath so none of the staff could hear. He was still trying to swallow his first bite.
Leo had been smarter, taking a smaller bite, but it was clearly still just as difficult for him to swallow.
“Enjoying the salads?” Lila asked, dropping off fresh bread. “The avocado cilantro lime dressing is a chef favorite.”
Amo went to open his mouth, but a kick from under the table, from Dante’s direction, had him managing to fake a pleasant sounding, “Mmhmm…”
It was all Nadia could manage to keep herself from laughing until Lila had left. “Eat some of the bottom with some bread. It’s not covered in the dressing too badly.”
Both boys immediately thought it was a good idea, as they each took a healthy piece of bread and cut to the bottom of their salads.
To be honest, Nadia could see even Dante was having trouble eating the top part of his salad, even though she was sure he wouldn’t admit it.
Thankfully, their next dish was brought out quickly. When asked if they were still working on their salads, they followed Amo’s suit of telling them to take it.
“Seared ahi tuna,” Lila told them gleefully as she set a beautiful but rare-looking dish in front of her.
Amo’s eyes went wide when his plate was set in front of him. “Oh, yum.”
Again, it was hard for her not to laugh. She, however, wasted no time digging in. She was never going to be able to eat fancy food like this, prepared by a chef, on her budget.
“It’s awfully …” Amo had trouble swallowing yet again.
“Rare,” Leo finished for him, the fish clearly not to his liking, either.
“That’s what seared ahi tuna is.” Dante was beginning to get frustrated with them. Whatever tone it was, though, Nadia didn’t like it.
“They’re just kids,” she told him, continuing on before Amo could get offended. “They just want pizza and fries, and I can’t say I blame them after that dressing.” Hell, she probably couldn’t pay one of her kids back home to eat this food. “That lettuce didn’t deserve that,” she finished with a small joke tosoften the possible blow from the fierce-looking man who was staring straight at her for speaking up.
She waited for his smart response, but then they all turned at Leo’s light chuckle.
It was quite obvious to her that his father and friend were stunned. She wasn’t sure why until she quickly realized she hadn’t seen Leo crack much of a smile, let alone a laugh.
Leo was pretty quiet, and when he did speak, he didn’t use many words to get his point across. He liked to blend into the background, not draw attention to himself. And it broke Nadia’s heart because she knew exactly why he did that—his eye, or lack thereof. She was pretty sure that whatever had happened to him was quite fresh, considering his once white bandage grew muddier-looking in the center than the last time she had seen his face hours ago.
If there was one thing Nadia understood, it was the less you talked, the least attention you drew to yourself. Her friend, Haley, had perfected that.
She was at least thankful Leo’s laugh had drawn Dante’s attention, and it was as if his anger began to slowly dissipate.
“Here.” Nadia scooped half her rice onto Leo’s plate, and then the rest onto Amo’s. It was actually really good and seasoned to perfection, but she didn’t mind letting them have it instead. Finally, she took a piece of Leo’s tuna and placed it on her plate, but as she did, she would have sworn his eye, that was as deep and blue as the ocean, had seemed mystified. Unsure what caused it, she knew not to draw attention to it as she then, riskily, went to take a piece of tuna off Amo’s plate and managed to reach across the table to plop it onto Dante’s.
Dante stared down at his plate, just as dumbfounded as the boys were that she had just done that.
“Go on,” she spat after a few silent, awkward moments. “Eat up.”
All three men picked their forks back up and ate.
She felt as if she was testing the waters, seeing what she could and couldn’t get away with, with Dante, but she was almost certain it was the fact that Leo still held an almost hidden tilt to his lips that kept the big, bad mafioso silent.
“The rice is good,” Amo practically groaned in thankfulness that there was something he liked.
“It is …” Leo agreed quietly. “Thank you.”
