Love & Gelato(29)

“I was supposed to move here earlier this year, but I decided to finish out the school year in Seattle.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact that you owe me twenty euro.”

“I don’t owe you anything. Maybe next time you should have a little more faith in me.”

He grinned, raising one eyebrow. “I’ll let you off the hook this one time.”

My bones were roughly the consistency of strawberry jelly. He was so flirting with me.

“Did I hear you live in a cemetery?”

“My dad’s the caretaker for the Florence American Cemetery. I’m staying with him for the summer.”

“The whole summer?”

“Yes.”

A slow smile spread across his face. I was smiling too.

“Thomas!” Elena shrieked from the doorway.

“Sorry.” We both followed her out of the room.



So this is what it’s like to be normal. Well, sort of normal.

“First concert you ever went to.” Most everyone had moved outside to the pool and Thomas and I were sitting with our feet in the deep end. The water was glowing bright blue and either the stars had dropped down to our level or fireflies were everywhere.

“Jimmy Buffett.”

“Really? Margaritaville guy?”

“I’m surprised you know who that is. And yeah, it was pretty much a sea of Hawaiian shirts. My mom took me.”

We both ducked as a spray of water came our way. Half the party was playing a rowdy alcohol-fueled game of Marco Polo, and Marco kept getting stuck as, well, Marco. It was way funnier than it should have been.

“Okay, favorite movie.”

“You’re going to make fun of me.”

“No, I won’t. I promise.”

“Fine. Dirty Dancing.”

“Dirty Dancing . . .” He tipped his head back. “Oh, right. That horrible eighties movie with Patrick Swayze as a dance teacher.”

I splashed him. “It isn’t horrible. And why do you know so much about it anyway?”

“Two older sisters.”

He scooted in to me until our bodies touched from shoulder to hip. It was the exact sensation of licking a nine-volt battery.

“. . . So you’re a runner, you’re from one of the coolest cities in the U.S., you have horrible taste in movies, you once blacked out snowboarding, and you’ve never tried sushi.”

“Or rock climbing,” I added.

“Or rock climbing.”

Addie, you were so right. I splashed my feet around happily, sneaking another glance at Thomas. I was never going to hear the end of it. Who knew that guys this good-looking even existed? And, side note, he’d just slipped his arm around me. Like it was no big deal.

“So why did you move here?” Thomas asked.

“I came to stay with my dad. He’s, uh . . . sort of new in my life.”

“Gotcha.”

There was a crashing noise, and suddenly Ren came careening out of the darkness behind us. “Lina, it’s twelve thirty!”

“Already?” I pulled my feet out of the water and Thomas dropped his arm. I stood reluctantly.

“We have to go now. He’ll kill me! He’ll kill me. ” Ren clutched his hands to his chest and fell over on the grass.

“He’s not going to kill you.”

“Who’s going to kill you?” Thomas asked.

“Lina’s dad. The first time I talked to him he said he had a bullet with my name on it.”

“No, he didn’t.” I looked at him. “Wait. Did he?”

“He might as well have.” He rolled to his knees, then stood up. “Come on. We have to leave now.”

“You have a bunch of grass in your hair,” I said.

He shook his head like a dog, sending grass flying. “I was rolling down a hill.”

“A Swedish hill?” Thomas asked.

“I didn’t ask its nationality.”

I groaned. “Is it really twelve thirty? Maybe we could stay for just another twenty minutes or something.”

Ren threw his hands in the air. “Lina. Don’t you care whether I live or die?”

“Of course I care. I just wish we didn’t have to leave.”

Thomas stood too, then wrapped his arms around me, his chin resting heavily on my shoulder. “But, Lina, it’s so early. I’ll be so bored without you. Can’t you get an extension?”

Ren raised an eyebrow. “I see things have progressed in the last couple of hours.”

My mouth would not stop smiling. I turned my face so Ren wouldn’t see. “Sorry, Thomas. I do have to leave.”

He blew air out of his mouth. “Fine. Guess we’ll just have to hang out again.”

“Ciao, tutti,” Ren yelled to the group. “I have to take Lina home. She has a curfew.”

There was a chorus of ?“Ciao, Linas.”

“Ciao,” I yelled back.

“Wait!” Marcus pulled himself out of the pool. “What about the initiation? She has to do it.”

“What initiation?” I asked.

“She has to walk the plank.”

Ren groaned. “Marco, that’s dumb. We stopped doing that in like seventh grade.”