Page 9 of Thief of my Heart

“What nickname was that?” Kate asked.

I hid my reddened face and mumbled something into my jacket sleeve.

“What?” my sister asked again.

I released the sleeve. “Cherry Popper,” I muttered, my face heating up even more.

Kate’s eyes widened in shock before she burst into laughter. “Oh my God, that’s horrible!”

“It doesn’t even make sense!” I exploded. “It was my cherry that hadn’t been popped. I wasn’t going around popping others! And honestly, how do you even pop a cherry? It’s a piece of fruit, not a bubble.”

Angie and Linda started giggling with Kate, and I couldn’t help but join in. It was ridiculous, really. But the fact remained that the idea of Gina Reyes had loomed over me for years. It shouldn’t bother me that she was the uncouth (and yes, ridiculously fine, smoking hot) new mechanic’s ex-girlfriend. Just like it shouldn’t have bothered me that she apparently wanted him back.

But it did. It really did.

“So, what are you going to do about it?” Linda wondered once the laughter had died away.

I shrugged. “Why would I do anything? I don’t have any claim on the guy. Or any interest, for that matter.”

Straight-up lies. I was going to be in confession for hours this Sunday.

“Mami, please,” Angie put in as she studied her bright pink acrylics. “You turned red the second we brought him up. I remember what Mike Scarrone looks like. Like that bad boy in American Beauty, but with muscles. And tattoos.” She cocked her head. “At least I think Mike has tattoos.”

“He has tattoos,” I confirmed, neglecting to mention how many there were or that I’d wondered how much of his body they covered.

I couldn’t, however, ignore the way my skin tingled at the memory of his sleeves of ink. His coveralls had been tied around his waist, and he wore a stained white tank on top that did nothing to hide the wiry muscles rippling underneath the thin cotton, where the winding designs covering his arms from knuckle to neck disappeared.

I had busied myself in the tiny kitchenette just to stop from staring. Between the body art, the five o’clock shadow matching his dark brown hair, the lightly tanned skin smudged with grease, and the soulful brown eyes…one thing was for sure. Michael Scarrone wasn’t one of these boys who had broken my heart. He was one hundred percent man.

And that felt more exciting and more dangerous than any crime he may have committed.

I shook the memories away. I couldn’t afford to be distracted by pretty, dangerous men.

“Even if I was interested, I have too much going on. Starting with studying for this damn test.” I pulled my own packet from the backpack on the floor and set it on the desk with a loud smack. “We aren’t here to gossip, babies. College applications are in, and Mama wants a scholarship. So let’s get to work.”

* * *

A few hours later, after Angie and Linda had left and Kate and I had finally gotten our sisters to sleep, we crawled into our own beds. On the other side of the wall, I could hear the murmurs of my grandparents before they went to sleep too. Matthew had arrived thirty minutes ago, carried a plate of leftovers to the attic, and disappeared for the night.

We had just turned out the light, and I was trying to close my eyes when Kate spoke.

“It’s okay if you’re a virgin, you know.”

I flipped over on my pillow so I could see her pale face across the darkened room. “Um, I know.”

“I’m just saying. It’s fine.”

I traced a finger over my bedspread. “Well, someone has to set a good example for the rest of you.”

Kate didn’t laugh at my feeble joke. “You’re eighteen. I don’t think you need to worry about that for the littles. Certainly not for me. Not anymore.”

“What does that mean?”

She shrugged. “That’s it’s not a big deal. At least, it wasn’t for me.”

I was stunned into silence. I wasn’t angry that my little sister wasn’t exactly a girl anymore. Kate was cute, and at sixteen, she was old enough to make her own choices. And even though she was still working through her awkward phase, she was pretty. None of the Zola kids were bad-looking.

Maybe what really surprised me was that it happened for her before it had for me.

---