Page 4 of The Woman in the Garage

With that, knowing I was close to losing it, I strode toward my uncle’s old office, steps deliberate—quick but not hurried.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw David give me the smallest of nods.

“Bitch,” I heard mumbled just as I closed the door.

That was fine.

I could be a bitch.

So long as I wasn’t the rug they walked all over.

I locked the door, glad that my uncle kept all the blinds drawn in the glass room, so no one saw me as I sank down in his old torn leather chair.

And cried.

CHAPTER TWO

Santo

“Jesus Christ,” I hissed, breaking off mid-stride when I saw someone moving around my kitchen.

“Charming as always,” Smush said, rolling her eyes at me. “If you got up before ten, you wouldn’t even know I was here.”

“You been talking to my mom?” I asked, making a beeline for the coffee pot, brows pinching when the light was off and the contents cold.

“Your lady friend turned it off before she left,” Smush told me as she pulled toothpaste and floss out of one of the bags. “She was pretty. Should I tell Aunt Giulia to start planning the wedding?”

“Why do you hate me?” I asked, dumping the pot of coffee, figuring it just made more sense to get some on the road now. “She’s already breathing down my neck. You think it’d be enough that Nino, Mass, and August got women and are popping out kids.”

“That is a Grassi mother,” Smush said with an understanding smirk. “They’re not satisfied until we’re all married and reproducing. If you think you have it bad, imagine how hard she is on Valley.”

That was likely true. And my sister spent a lot more time around my mother than I did. She had to be getting nagged relentlessly.

“So what was wrong with this one?” Smush asked as I went into the fridge to grab a yogurt, seeing she had already restocked that for me.

“What do you mean?”

“The girl. She was super pretty. And sweet.”

She was.

“Nothing’s wrong with her.”

“But you’re not going to be calling her again.”

“Probably not.”

“Why not?”

“We both just wanted some fun,” I told her. At her dubious look, I shrugged. “She was just in town for a wedding. She’s back to California tomorrow.”

“Convenient.”

“Hey, I’m not against finding the right woman. Until then, I’m just as happy to find a lot of the wrong women.”

Smush shook her head at that. “Shouldn’t you be at work by now, slacker?” she asked.

“Eh, just doing my rounds today,” I said, finishing the yogurt and tossing it in the trash.

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