Or she assumed she had made that clear to Corrado and Alessio.
Now, nothing was clear.
That’s what killed her.
“Okay, so I was kind of right,” Greta said.
Giulia made a noise under her breath. “Sounds complicated.”
“Funny,” Ginevra replied.
Siena gave her a look across the island. “What is?”
“It never seemed complicated at all. Easy, really.”
More like ... it was where she was meant to be.
And now, she wasn’t there at all.
Where were they?
Siena whistled. “Props to you, though, because I have a hard enough time keeping up with one man let alone two.”
Ginevra grinned at that, her cheeks heating all over again. “They ... made it worth it.”
Giggles echoed from the table behind her.
Damn.
Young ears, again.
Because even if she had been very careful to explain the relationship without making it seem tawdry with sexual innuendo and details, those girls were still fifteen, and seventeen. They were still teenage girls.
“What’s their names?” Greta asked.
“Are they cute?” Giulia put in right after.
To Siena, Ginevra mouthed, “Help me.”
Siena shook her head. “Nope—on your own here.”
Perfect.
“Thanks.”
“Well?” Greta demanded.
“I’m not sure it matters. I kind of left them high and dry, and—”
“That doesn’t tell me their names.”
“Or if they’re cute,” Giulia added.
Ginevra turned around to eye both her sisters with a curious eye. “Corrado and Alessio.”
“And,” Giulia said, eyes wide.
“They’re both ... very handsome.”
That was putting it mildly.
Giggles lit up the table again.
Ginevra figured, this would be a long night.
“Not that it matters,” Ginevra said, “because I am here, and they’re not.”
“But is that how you want it to be?” Siena asked behind her.
That question was easy to answer.
No.
She wanted both with her. That didn’t mean she would get what she wanted, though. As far as she understood, neither of the men had tried to contact her, and she didn’t have a way to get ahold of them, either.
It was what it was.
Even if she hated it.
• • •
“Okay, but like how does it work, does one get mad when you don’t spend enough time with them, or—”
“Could you save some of your questions for another day?” Ginevra grumbled as her sisters followed behind her in the hallway of their apartment building. “Because that would be great, Greta.”
“I’m just curious.”
“You have asked me a lot of questions in the last three hours.”
Too many questions.
Their dinner with Siena turned into a game of twenty-one questions with Ginevra. All focused around things she didn’t want to explain to her younger sisters, but also a topic that made her heart ache.
She couldn’t win.
“And,” Ginevra said, coming to a stop in front of their apartment door to pull the keys from her bag before sticking it in the lock, “while I get you want to understand how it works, it’s also none of your business. Some things are private unless I offer the information to you, Greta. Respect that.”
Greta leaned against the wall and rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
“Thank you.”
“Still think it’s complicated,” Giulia muttered next to Greta.
Well ...
“I guess that means it’s probably not for you, huh?”
Greta considered that for a second before she nodded. “That’s fair.”
Ginevra waited just long enough to decide that the girls had finished with their questions for the evening—thank God—before she twisted the key in the lock and opened their apartment door. The first thing she noticed was the lights. They were on when she had shut them off before leaving.
The second thing she noticed? A leather jacket hanging over the arm of the couch just beyond the hallway.
The third?
His scent.
Leather, smoke, and man.
Distinct to Alessio, and Ginevra swore every nerve in her body lit up when she dragged in another lungful of the smell. There wasn’t enough, and she might never taste it on her tongue again.
The girls, seemingly unaware of their sister’s frozen stance, pushed past her to enter the apartment. They didn’t notice the familiar cologne Alessio preferred lingering in the air, or his jacket tossed over the back of the couch.
She might have spoken up ...
Might have told them to wait ...
Her words wouldn’t come.
The girls didn’t even reach the end of the hallway before Alessio stepped around the corner, directly in their path. Giulia, with her head down to watch whatever she found interesting on her phone, rammed into the back of her sister when Greta came to a full stop in front of Alessio.
He tipped his head to the side, amusement lighting up his gaze when the two teenagers lifted their heads to meet his stare. His lips quirked into a wicked grin, too, almost making Ginevra laugh at the sight.
“Hello,” he told them.
Giulia squeaked.
Greta said and did nothing.
“Do they not speak?” he asked, his gaze lifting to find Ginevra at the end of the hall. She found affection staring back.
Her heart beat again.
“They do, you shocked them, Les.”
“Les—Alessio?” Greta asked.
Giulia made another one of those squeaky sounds.
“That is my name,” Alessio told her sister.
“Oh, wow,” Greta mumbled.
Alessio cocked his head to the side again. “Uh, what?”
Ginevra pressed her lips together and decided the wall was a far more interesting thing to stare at because it would not make her laugh out loud.
“Greta, Giulia,” she said, still keeping her attention on the wall, “this is Alessio. Les, these are my little sisters.”
“They don’t talk well,” he noted.
Ginevra let out a sigh.
Greta huffed. “How did you even get in here?”
“Picked the lock.”
“What?”
Ginevra looked their way again only to find Alessio had arched a brow when he drawled, “I picked the lock with a tool in my pocket—I’ll show you sometime.”
Greta glanced back at Ginevra and pursed her lips before she nodded. “Okay.”
Okay.
Just like that.
Giulia giggled under her breath, likely because she wasn’t sure how to handle this situation.
“Would you two give us a few minutes alone? Close your bedroom doors, too, please.”
Giulia looked like she would argue, but Greta pulled her away from Alessio as they slipped past him in the hallway. Once they had left around the corner, and the sounds of a bedroom door slamming shut—they each had their own room, but must have gone into just one—Alessio’s attention came back to Ginevra.
And shit.
She felt that.
“You left,” he said, “and you didn’t even say goodbye. You left ... and you haven’t even tried to call, or anything.”