Page 38 (1/1)
“Just eggs Ma”
“Move out of the way, Miss Sophie, I got it; you sit and have your cuppa”
Ma knew better than to argue because, for all that Sheila is a five-foot-nothing black woman in a house full of Italians, she is not one to bea lot “Sheila, you need to stop it though with these guys Pretty as you are, I’m sure you can find some nice professional man to settle doith”
“Girl, you know I love e juice out of lee, and I know deep down that this is one of the reasons Sheila is still here long after the tere old enough not to need her And why Pop had found a new job title and a way to keep her around He’d do anything to hear Ma laugh like that or see that look in her eye
Gianna flashed intoit off like I’d been doing since I woke up thison my mind I felt heat in one beyond what could be considered decent
“Did he hit you?” The tomen almost jumped out of their skin when pop’s voice ca into the kitchen before his head did I didn’t flinch since I’d heard hi and sensed his presence outside the door seconds before he spoke Sheila squealed and juain
She waved the spatula she’d been ready to use to turn so in at doors Draco Russo? You’re like to giveheart attack”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping I ca his sisters and overheard you talking I told you the last time…”
“No, he didn’t hit me; what do you take irls?”
Just then, the twins ca pleased with themselves Who knohat the heck they’d said to Pop, but he seeirls leaned over to kissdown at their places The noise level went up a couple octaves, and conversation went in ten different directions at once, as is to be expected when teenage girls are involved
I’m not sociopathic, narcissistic or any of the other fucked up things you nosing since I beca teen But it never ceases to aiven situation Like right now, I’m here in the kitchen with theht on
It’s not so much that I’m not a part of all this As far as they know, I am I smile where it’s needed, nod at the correct time when spoken to, and can even ju a beat But I know that it’s all fleeting I don’t feel any way about it; it is what it is I could hear the fro way off
The shit used to scarefor answers to explain just what the fuck I am It’s also how I learned to controlinfor breakfast? Cardboard on toast?” That’s what Sheila calls the egg white oetables and fresh s
“We have to watch our weight, our birthday is coood” That sent the conversation in a whole other direction which had Pop s off on a tangent Just anotherin the Russo household
I realized that no one else ever co, none of the other staff, Iaround upstairs In fact, the only ti is when Ma reads soazine and have all of us dressed to the nines just to sit in the forht-course meal Then Sheila puts her subordinates into service