Page 28 of Tito

Valencia pulled back and told her twin, “At least we have each other now.”

Julianna smiled at her. “We missed a lot. Like elementary school, our teens, college.”

I finally broke in with, “And now, you have these fine looking Italian men who adore you.” I looked over at Romeo.

He laughed and looked all around as he joked, “I count me in that category, but where is this other hot Italian guy?”

I scoffed. “Geeze, Romeo. Everyone knows I’m better looking than you.”

Romeo laughed. “Oh yes, the Italian Stallion.”

“Better a stallion than a slick lawyer type.” I smirked at him.

“Yes, until you need a ticket fixed, then it’soh please Mr. Attorney, do your magic.”

“No, no cugino.” I shook my head. “That would be my brother, I don’t get tickets.”

Romeo scoffed now. “Oh, really? What about that scuffle in the park?”

Batting my eyes at Romeo, I said, “That was not a ticket. The guy had a big mouth and a little brain.”

“Speeding ticket, scuffle…tomatoe, tamato?” Romeo waved his hand around. “Whazthediffernce?”

The girls laughed.

I shook my head and used my thickest Italian accent, “As my cousin slash lawyer, you were supposed to fuggedaboutit!”

Him and I both laughed as well.

Then Romeo stopped laughing suddenly to stare at me. “But the lawyer in me has questions. Like why is your shirt wet?”

Julianna seemed to brighten up by all the joking as she nodded then looked over at Valencia. “Same here, why are you wearing his jacket in 75 degree weather?”

I glanced at Valencia to see her cheeks were flaming with a bright pink. I decided to save her the embarrassment. “Well, there was this bee—”

With a huge gasp, Julianna looked afraid. “Those things are deadly.”

Valencia looked over at her. “Don’t tell me. You’re allergic?”

Julianna looked stunned. “How did you…” Her voice fell away. “You too?”

Nodding rapidly, Valencia replied, “I didn’t have an epi pen, so I jumped into the pond.”

Romeo looked back and forth at them. “Oh wow, so is the reaction really bad?”

“YES!” The girls exclaimed in unison.

“Any other severe allergies we should know about?” Romeo asked. “Like we need to know this stuff.”

The girls looked at each other again and said, “Peanuts,” at the same time.

“Damn,” I said. “That’s a bad one. I mean no PB and J’s, no Reeses?”

Romeo shook his head sadly. “Halloween will be very dangerous.”

Julianna laughed. “You two actually have little boy pouts going on!”

Valencia laughed with her twin. “Yeah, you look like someone just told you that the Tooth Fairy isn’t real. I mean it’s not like you’re little kids who dress up and…” Her voice fell away as she stared at me.