The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3)(162)

“Why are you upside down?” Brianna couldn’t help but ask.

“You know that thing where you eat your ice cream with your spoon upside down to keep from getting a brain freeze,” Carina said and sucked on her Popsicle again. “You can’t turn a Popsicle upside down, so we figured—”

“I don’t think it works like that,” Brianna mumbled, wondering why the strangest shit happened whenever Tino and Carina were alone together. “Does it work?”

“So far.” Tino sounded surprised too. He reached over and picked up the box. “Want one?”

Brianna was sort of curious despite the sugar. If Tino could eat brown rice for her, she could eat one Popsicle for him. So she set down her bag and got on the couch next to Tino. She put her feet up and dropped down next to him while he unwrapped a grape Popsicle for her. She took it and sucked on it, hard, trying to test the brain-freeze concept.

She frowned, concentrating on it, because in theory it shouldn’t be at all the same as eating ice cream with the spoon upside down. She did notice the sea of abandoned Popsicle wrappers on the floor now that she was upside down, making it obvious they’d been doing it for a while, so maybe there was merit to it.

“Nice,” Tino said with a hitch in his voice. Brianna turned to him with the Popsicle still in her mouth, seeing the hot look he gave her as he watched. “It is sorta romantic now that I think about it.”

Carina shoved Tino’s head, making him choke on his cherry Popsicle. Then he laughed so hard he put his other hand to his chest, but Carina was giving him a death glare, and Tino held up his hand in defeat.

“I’m kidding. Calm down,” Tino said in a soothing, passive voice. “That’s not my style. I’m a gentleman. It’s more like, um—” He licked the top of his Popsicle as if testing it and pushed his sister’s shoulder at the same time. “No, really, Carina, look. It’s totally innocent.” When she kept her head turned away, he started pushing at her shoulder over and over, chanting, “Rina. Rina. Rina.”

“What?” Carina shouted and turned back to him.

Tino licked the top of his Popsicle like he was licking something entirely different, moving the tip of his tongue so fast it was genuinely impressive.

At least to Brianna it was.

Carina made a gagging sound.

“What?” Tino laughed. “I thought it was romantic. You don’t think it’s romantic?” When Carina didn’t answer him, Tino shrugged. “That’s funny, ’cause your best friend told me it was romantic.”

“That better not be true,” Carina growled at both of them. She lifted her head, looking past Tino to Brianna. “Is that f*cking true?”

Brianna sucked on her Popsicle, contemplating it, because a few days ago the most she could get out of Tino was the idea of keeping it a secret. This felt like a good thing, so she agreed, “Yes, it’s true,” and then gave Carina a devious smile. “I thought it was very romantic.”

Tino cracked up, like he couldn’t have planned it better. He sounded so genuinely happy. Brianna didn’t care about anything else in the world and just laughed with him.

Even if Carina was glowering at them.

Neither of them cared.

“That’s where you f*cking went the other day!” Carina shouted at her. “Aaron’s dorm, my ass. You bitch! I can’t believe you lied to me!”

“You’ll be okay,” Tino said dismissively, still chuckling, and turned back to Brianna. “Anyway, what were you gonna yell at me about?”

“I was gonna yell at you?” she asked, because in that moment, with the amusement still dancing in his dark eyes, she couldn’t love him more if she tried.

“Sounded like it.” Tino gave one of those wide, heart-stopping grins of his. “Used my full name and everything.”

“Oh.” She remembered now, and even if they were sharing a moment, she did have to scowl at him. “Did you go to my school?”

“Yeah, I went to your school the other day,” Tino said without flinching. “You saw me do it.”

“No, did you go there without me? Did you go talk to some people?”

“If I went to your school, I wouldn’t have been talking. Figli di puttana,” Tino cursed with a scowl. “Why?”

Brianna kept her eyes narrowed. “’Cause they called me into the office and apologized.”

“So what’s the problem?” Tino sucked on his Popsicle again. “Least they could f*cking do.”

“And they upped my scholarship money. That doesn’t happen, Tino. I know you had something to do with it,” Brianna accused him, because she hadn’t thought he was going to run with that little promise over something like this. “I know it was you. You’re the only one I told.”

“Maybe they just came to their senses,” Tino suggested. “Everyone knows it’s unwise to mess with our Borgata. Someone could’ve clued them in.”

“Yeah, maybe, except then Miranda came up and apologized too, like kissing-my-ass apologized.” Brianna couldn’t keep the dismay out of her voice, even when Tino turned to look at her in what seemed like genuine shock. “I could tell she was scared to death. What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything to her.” Tino sounded horrified. “You think I went to your school and threatened some WASP-y girl from Southern California? I wouldn’t do that. I have complete confidence that you can handle that shit on your own. You could take that Miranda puttana in your sleep.”