Page 96 of Come Back to Me

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is.” Nonna smiles, and that smile’s so knowing, so kind, so loving that I glance away.

There’s a welter of wisdom and understanding in that smile.

Someone who’s been there, done that, and not bought the T-shirt, but the whole fucking store. And I don’t want to be commiserated with.

I want to wallow.

“I’m impressed that he managed to annoy you so swiftly,” she admits.

“Impressed?” I almost drop the ball of yarn. “Nonna! You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I’m always on your side,piccola, but that doesn’t mean I can’t read a situation. You like him. The humming only confirms it. He inspires you to make music.”

“I don’t like him. He’s a jerk.”

“You liked him plenty. Before he... Whatdidhe do?”

Gnawing on my lip, I suck on my cheeks, nibble, anything to stop the words from flowing. But she’s my earliest confidante. Even before Zee. I used to tell her everything?—

“You remember I told you about t-the ‘Dear John’ letter I received from my soldier?” The habit is too hard to break. “The bastard who dumped me via mail?”

“Yes.” Her brow furrows in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Cody wrote it!”

“He wrote it?” she repeats, bewildered. “How could he... Unless, he was the pilot?” When I nod, her eyes widen. “My, that’s serendipitous, isn’t it?”

“Serendipitous?” I shriek. “More like acalamity.”

“Hardly. You live in the same house,piccola. He’s handsome. He has a good job despite the fact he never needs to work. He’s a good man. Decent. Worthy of you.”

I gape at her for long enough that she nudges my chin to close my mouth. That’s when I sputter: “If he’s so good, then why the hell did he dump me via a letter?”

“You were dating? One of those LBDs?”

I refuse to laugh when I’m so annoyed. “LDRs, Nonna. A LBD is a little black dress.”

She clicks her fingers. “So many abbreviations, not enough time.”

“I get it. But no. We weren’t dating. Not technically. The potential… I know we had it. I waited… We were friends, but... God, Nonna, I wrote to him for years. I told him stuff I haven’tshared with you or Zee! He was a confidant and I’d fallen for him. Maybe he...”

No, he fell for me too.

I might think he’s a 24-carat asshole, but he wouldn’t have...

The truck.

God, I hate him for making me dumb.

“I don’t understand, Nonna. I don’t know why he’d do that.”

Not when he must have wanted me too.

“Have you asked him?”

“I don’t want to look at him, never mind talk to him.”

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