“You’re smart. You can figure things out and I can help. Massimo has all of those hot friends in the city. One of them is a big-time mafia boss. I Googled him. Patrick Mulligan. They have to be able to help.”
“Look, I admire your tenacity—”
“My what?” She narrows her eyes. “I’m not some medical school genius. Definition, please.”
I chuckle. “It means being persistent and determined. It’s a good thing, if channeled properly. But I can’t let you get blinded by thoughts of revenge to the point where that tenacity puts you into the hands of our family’s enemies.”
Sofia covers her face with her hands. “Argh, why do you have to be so damn logical all the time?”
“Because I’m training to be a doctor. Logic and reason are all I have. I can’t let emotions filter into my ability to see a situation clearly. That’s why I need you to stand down until we have more information. And I’m working on that.”
“Ooh, spying? I can do that!”
“Easy, Natasha Romanoff,” I say, citing her favorite female Marvel comic spy-slash-master assassin. “I have a lot of blanks to fill in first, and you’re kind of the type who likes to jump before there’s a net, you know what I’m saying?”
Sofia nods. “Yeah,” she grumbles. “I know it. I just feel so helpless. I want to do something good. To make sure those assholes pay for what they did.”
“These are badass people, babe. And they bring a lot of darkness with them. You have to trust me on this. You can’t just go and take on the mafia because you’re pissed off.” I lace my fingers with hers and squeeze. “You and Maria are the most important people in my life, all I have left. I am going to make sure you stay safe, I swear. But that means you can’t be running out and making bad choices, got it?”
After a minute, she nods her head. “Fine. I’ll stand down. But I am ready for the fight, Kristi. I promise. After everything we lost…” Her voice trails off and her lower lip trembles the slightest bit.
“I love your fire and your spirit. You always manage to sparkle, do you realize that? I never want to see that light flicker out, and I will do anything I can to prevent it.”
She averts her eyes, tracing her finger over a pattern in the granite. “You’ve always been that way. You do the protective thing well.”
“Thanks.”
“You know, those things I said before, I didn’t mean anything bad by them.”
“It’s fine. I know you’re scared and frustrated and—”
“No, stop being so forgiving,” she says, waving away my hand. “You need to hear this.”
“Okay…” My brow furrows and I lean against the counter waiting for her to speak. “Talk.”
“You’ve always been the perfect child. Even with Maria following in Mom’s footsteps with the whole gymnast thing, you’ve always been the shining star. And you know what? You deserve it. All of it. You’re brilliant, beautiful, hardworking.” Sofia shrugs. “It’s a lot to live up to, and even though I’ve never said anything before, I guess it kind of made me snap before. I should have kept my mouth shut. I guess it just made me feel like I wasn’t living up to expectations again. Not yours, I know. But there have always been ‘expectations’ here and I’ve never really done a good job of living up to them.”
“There’s something to be said for marching to the beat of your own drummer.”
Sofia snickers. “Yeah, I’m still not sure which drummer that is. I don’t have a glamorous career in front of me as a surgeon, Kristi. And that’s okay. I’ll find my way. But I want you to know that I love you and that I don’t want the things I said to come between us. Because I promise it was just stress talking.”
I hold my arms out and she falls into them. I take a deep breath of her coconut-scented hair, resting my head against her sweet-smelling head. “You’d have to do a lot more than basically accuse me of being a perfectionist to damage this whole thing between us,” I murmur.
Sofia pulls away, a smile on her pink-glossed lips. “That’s really good to hear. Because I can’t lose you.”
“You won’t,” I say, smoothing the back of her hair.
“No, I’m serious.” She narrows her eyes. “I know that there’s another reason why you went away to med school when you could have gone in Manhattan. I know you got in everywhere you applied, including Weill Cornell and NYU. But you left and went to Perelman in Pennsylvania. And you’ve barely been home since you started. You went to Princeton for undergrad and came home all the time. What changed?”
“Sof, it’s a little complicated—”
“Knock, knock.”
We both look up to see Massimo lounging in the doorway to the kitchen. His dark hair is slicked back, his tank top stuffed into the waistband of his shorts, his thick, muscled chest bare and oh my God, so perfectly chiseled.
My jaw drops and a quick look at Sofia finds her mouth in the same position.
“Oh, um, hey,” I manage to squeak out, using the back of my hand to wipe the drool drizzling out of the side of my mouth. “How was your workout?”
“Uneventful. I didn’t have a sparring partner, so…” He winks, a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. “I had to rely on my mind to keep me moving.”
My heart has jumped so far into my throat, I need to take a long sip of my seltzer to force it back down before it chokes me.
Speaking of choking…a coughing fit ensues when the bubbly liquid slips down the wrong pipe.
Pipe…
Oy, what the hell is happening to me?
“Well, it looks like whatever you did worked,” I sputter, shrugging off Sofia’s amused gaze.
There are definitely going to be words about this whole exchange.
Lots of words.
Maybe an accusation or two.
“What time is dinner?” He takes a deep inhale, his lips lifting. “It smells awesome.”
“Thank you.” I look at Sofia who is waggling her eyebrows in the most infuriating way. “I guess maybe half an hour? Uncle Frank should be here soon.”
I don’t miss the eye roll I get from Massimo in response. I can definitely understand it. Uncle Frank has been a total prick to him since I basically walked into his gym and demanded that he become our bodyguard.
I’m sure it was a total blow to my uncle’s ego, but really, his dickhead behavior should be directed at me for making the call, not Massimo who had nothing to do with my decision.
I am hoping we can bury that hatchet tonight over a delicious meal and whatever booze we have in the house.
Full bellies and loss of inhibitions should put us on a path in the right direction.
And the loss of inhibitions part will be especially helpful to me when I try to get into Massimo’s phone later.
It pains me to look at what appears to be a Photoshopped body and realize that whatever transpired between us was all bullshit, but that may very well be the reality.
And there’s only one way to find out for sure.
Uncle Frank is probably concerned about his future, but I have no plans to do anything to his position at Fire and Ice, and according to the lawyer, I now own the place.