“Stop coddling him. He’s a soldier of the Camorra, Claudia.”
Mom sighed. “They grow up too fast.”
Dad walked up to her and kissed her temple then whispered something in her ear that had her swat his chest.
Diego groaned and walked out of the kitchen. I quickly left as well and ran up to my room. I took my secret mobile out of my desk and sent Toni a message.
“You aren’t supposed to have a cell,” Diego said.
I rolled over on my bed. He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest. “Don’t tell on me.”
Diego had enough secrets of his own, and while I didn’t know all of them, I did some. Not that I would ever tell on him, no matter how infuriating he could be, and infuriating me was his favorite sport. He came in and closed the door before walking over to me. He perched on my bed. “I won’t. Give it to me.”
“Why?”
He held out his hand. “Give. It. To. Me.”
I clutched the cell against my chest. Sometimes he forgot that I wasn’t his soldier who had to obey his commands. “No.”
Diego grabbed my arms and wrangled the cell out of my hand then unlocked the screen. I shouldn’t have used Savio’s birthday as my password.
I tried to snatch it out of his hand again. If he saw Toni’s last message, she’d die from embarrassment. Unfortunately, Diego was far too strong for me. His eyes scanned the screen and Toni’s message. His eyes widened then his lips curled.
I pinched his arm. “That’s my cell. I deserve some privacy.”
He checked my contacts, only girls from the choir and school then handed my phone back to me.
“You’re an idiot.”
“Toni doesn’t think so,” he said with a self-righteous smile.
My eyes widened. “Don’t say anything to her!”
“About her wanting to see me without a shirt or about her visit from Aunt Flo.”
“Diego! Shut up,” I hissed. “Don’t embarrass her.”
Diego got up. He rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry. It’s bad enough seeing you simper over Savio.”
He walked out with an annoying saunter. Snatching up a pillow, I threw it at him, but it missed and landed on the floor in the hallway. “You dropped something.”
The doorbell rang. I dropped everything and stormed out of the kitchen. Diego was already on his way down the stairs to get the door, but I beat him to it. A grin split my face when I spotted Toni in front of the door. She was dressed in Converse, jeans and a T-shirt. Her long brown hair was completely tousled from riding her bike here. It leaned against the tree in our front yard.
She was tanned from spending the last couple of weeks in Corse with her aunt. I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly. “I missed you.”
“Missed you too.”
“Don’t tell me you came here on the bike alone,” Diego said, scanning our front yard.
Toni shrugged. “Dad’s got to work. There’s a lot to prepare for the next fight.”
“A girl shouldn’t drive around alone in this city,” Mom said, coming up from behind. She embraced Toni briefly.
We all headed into the kitchen where the table was already set. Dad carried the huge pot of stew over to the table and gave Toni a smile. Only Nonna’s reaction was rather reserved. Not only did she disapprove of Toni’s dad raising her alone, Nonna also disapproved of the fact that Toni wasn’t a full-fledged Italian. Her Grandma had been from Corse, and that came close to a crime in Nonna’s eyes.
“Good evening, Mrs. Bazzoli,” Toni greeted my nonna with a bright smile as usual as she sat down beside me. Toni was good at ignoring other people’s rejection, which was probably why we got along so well. We weren’t really part of the IT-crowd in school.
After dinner, Toni and I headed up to my room and flung us on my bed with the girls’ magazines she’d smuggled into the house in her overnight bag.
“Did you bring the clothes?”
She nodded with a conspiratorial smile. “But you know that I don’t do sports outside of school, so I didn’t have many to choose from.”
“Everything is better than the old baggy clothes from my brother.”
“What was with him? He acted strange around me today.”
I distracted myself with one of the magazines and shrugged, not having the guts to tell Toni that Diego found out about her crush and her period because he was a nosy idiot. “Oh, he’s just angry because I get to train with Savio tomorrow. You know how he is. If he could, he’d put me on a leash.”
Toni nodded. “He’s a bit overbearing, but it means he cares.”
A hint of sadness rang in her voice.
“Your dad loves you, Toni. He’s just very busy trying to make the Arena a success. It’s not easy to earn the respect of the Camorrista considering…”
“Considering we’re not fully Italian.”
“Yeah,” I said, then nudged her and pointed toward the article I’d opened. “How to tell if a boy is into you.”
Toni grinned. “Are you going to use this on Savio tomorrow?”
I giggled. “Maybe.”
“You have to tell me everything in detail.”
“You know there won’t be anything that interesting to tell.”
She rolled her eyes. “You really sure you don’t want to give kissing a chance before marriage?”
I pushed her. “No!”
She giggled. “I would kiss Diego if he made a move.”
“Eeewww! Toni, please, I just ate. I don’t want to imagine you kissing my brother.”
She feigned a dreamy expression. “I’m sure he is a marvelous kisser.”
I tried shoving her off my bed, but she snatched the covers and with a screech, we both landed on the floor.
A knock sounded. “What’s going on here? Some people are trying to sleep,” Diego muttered, dressed in sweatpants and T-Shirt, but his hair was freshly styled and a hint of black jeans peeked out of his pant leg.
“I doubt you’ll get much sleep tonight,” I said, nodding toward his ankle. He followed my gaze then grimaced and quickly hid the black
