Page 6 of Summer Lovin'

As soon as they are out of earshot, I shake my head and groan, “Fuck me! Why did I come back here?”

Frankie wraps his thick meaty fingers around the back of my neck and turns me towards our corner of the parking lot—directing me back to our crew. “You came back here to get the girl.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you think you’re fucking slick, Romero? Do you honestly think I didn’t know you and Julianna made out in the woods in your truck most of your senior year?”

I shrug out of his grasp to face him. “You knew?”

“Of course, I knew, man. You’re my brother. Maybe not blood, but close enough. I knew you were crazy for that girl, and by the look on her face, I’m gonna say she’d been crazy for you, too. Fuck Capo and his controlling, manipulative bullshit. That girl is yours—if you still want her?”

“Of course, I still want her. She was my first everything. But I cannot get arrested. I can’t get wrapped up in this bullshit again. Schoolyard fights when we were under age is one thing, but we’re grown ass adults now and I will lose everything I’ve worked the last five years for if I get arrested for brawling.”

“We ain’t gonna get into a fight, man. At least, you won’t. But you bet your ass we’re going to that party tonight.”

I glance over my shoulder, but they are too far away to make eye contact with anyone. “She said the shit between her and Peter Pareto was complicated.”

Frankie nods, taking a deep draw off of his beer. “I’ve heard things. Alliances between the Capos and Paretos with Julianna offered like some fourteenth-century princess to align the two families. Rumor is Julianna didn’t even make it a full semester away at college before her father yanked her back here so she could live at home while attending school. He didn’t like not being able to control every aspect of her social life. Honestly, I feel sorry for the girl.”

“Where did you hear this?”

“Aria and Sophia told me. I think they saw her at a bridal shower or some shit a few years ago. She had a few too many mimosas and spilled her guts about her ‘perfect life’.”

Aria is Frankie and Jesus’s younger sister, and Sophia is mine, but neither would think to tell me about Jules’s business because they never knew about us—or at least, I don’t think they did. I sure as shit didn’t think Frankie knew.

This is so wrong. Jules deserves better than the life she’s been handed, and I’m finally in a place to give it to her.

“I guess we’re going to a party tonight.”

* * *

Tonight’s party theme is a 50s sock hop, and the attendees who dressed up took their costume cues from the Happy Days. Half of us are dressed like greasers, which for us means we’re wearing jeans and a black T-shirts—our normal attire. The other half look like extras in a teeny bopper movie.

“There she is, stuck in a corner, looking miserable.” Frankie draws my attention to a corner of the main lodge where a large group is assembled. Most of the Capo family fills three tables with Lawrence Capo III standing near the center as if he’s holding court. A man—I’m guessing Peter Pareto—sits next to Jules, and judging by his posture and wild gestures, he’s filling her ear with nonsense she doesn’t want to hear. Jules stares at her glass with her hands in her lap, looking like a woman who wants to be anywhere other than where she is right now.

“If I walk into the middle of that, I’m sure to be shredded.” If I have to fight a dozen men for her, I will, but only if that’s what she wants. Does she want to be saved? She sure looks like it, so the real question is, does she want to be saved by me?

“That’s why you have us, brother.”

The moment Frankie speaks, Jules brings her head up, her eyes coming straight to me. Her glossy lips curl up slightly, just enough for Pareto to notice, causing his gaze to swing my way. There are four of us—me, Frankie, Jesus, and Paco—standing in the doorway, but the other members of cHevy Hustlers are already holding court on the opposite end of the main lodge.

I narrow my eyes at the pretentious prick and then raise a challenging eyebrow. He instantly grabs Lawrence, Ty, and other Capo cousins’ attention, judging by the number of heads that swing our way.

“We’ll create a diversion while you steal some of Jules’s time. Sound good?”

“Don’t get arrested,” I mutter.

Paco chuckles low in his throat. “Didn’t we tell you? The sheriff drives a Chevy.”

Pareto grabs Jules’s elbow and yanks her to her feet, pulling her toward the side exit. I hold my ground for the couple of seconds it takes for Frankie to stride into the middle of Capo territory, holding his hand out to Rosie to ask her to dance.

This, predictably, causes a minor scene as her brother, Ty, jumps into Frankie’s face. Bad idea, considering Mercado outweighs him by sixty pounds.

“Here we go,” Jesus chuckles.

“I’m going after Jules.” I turn on my heel and head out the main entrance.

“Good luck.”

---