Chapter 16
Marissa
I’m working until close at Milano’s. No customers are in the place, but my nonno’s in back, doing inventory. It reminds me of the evening Gio first walked in. Maybe that’s why I’m half-expecting him to show up.
Or maybe it’s just wild, undying hope.
Like the hope that my mom will one day show up and apologize for missing my childhood.
Yeah, right.
But when I catch the deep tones of Gio’s voice coming from the back, my heart surges into my throat.
He’s here.
Talking to Nonno. Maybe fixing things.
That’s how stupid my mind is.
I go stand just outside the doorway to the storeroom just to be sure my fanciful thoughts are s**t. And they are.
It’s not Gio, but it sounds a lot like him. “You don’t blackmail a Tacone and live to tell about it, old man.”
A Tacone. My
