Page 111 of Until August

“You can drop the act, Nic. It’s a badly kept secret that you two are hooking up.Everyoneknows.”

“What do you mean?” I was still playing dumb but not really. I’d never heard any mention of it. “And who exactly is everyone?”

“The whole kitchen crew. Probably the waitstaff too.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.

“Do they actually talk about it?” Kitchens were notoriously a hotbed for gossip, but I’d always tried to instill a no-gossip rule. I guess I should have known better. Just because I never heard anything didn’t mean people weren’t talking.

“Yeah, sometimes. But nobody cares. I think everyone is just happy that you’re….” He cleared his throat and left the rest of the sentence hanging.

“That I’m what?”Getting laid?

He sighed and took a pull of his beer. “I don’t even know why I brought this up.”

“But now that you did, you can’t just leave me hanging.” I set the book aside and gave him my full attention. “Tell me what everyone thinks,” I prompted.

He sighed again. “Everyone’s been saying you seem much happier. I never worked with you before the whole Cruz thing, but they said you were different then. You used to joke around and have fun. I never saw that side of you, but now I do.” He paused, giving it some thought. “It’s almost like you were sleepwalking before. Like you were just going through the motions.” He glanced at me to see how I was taking this.

Thankfully, I was wearing oversized black sunglasses that hid my eyes. Still, I gave Luca a smile of encouragement to let him know his words hadn’t upset me.

“But now I can tell you’re starting to enjoy life again,” he said.

It did feel like that. Like August had coaxed me back to life. Maybe I should have been upset that people were talking about us, but I wasn’t. Not really. But it surprised me that they’d noticed so much when I thought I’d been doing an excellent job of leaving my personal problems outside the door.

I guess you couldn’t fake happiness, though.

“You don’t think it’s wrong?” I asked.

“Because of Cruz, you mean?”

I chewed on my lip and nodded. Although why I would seek out the opinion of a guy who had slept with his friend’s girlfriend was a mystery. Not to mention that Luca and I never had these kinds of deeply personal conversations.

All the same, I was curious to hear his opinion.

“I thought Cruz was great,” Luca said hesitantly. “You know I loved him.”

I nodded because I knew that. They were close. When I met Cruz, Luca was only thirteen. Cruz used to shoot hoops with Luca in the driveway and spend one-on-one time with him. Whenever Luca needed advice about girls or drinking or all the things a teen boy worried about, he always went to Cruz first.

Cruz was like an older brother to Luca and a big part of our family.

“So this is nothing against Cruz,” Luca said. “It’s just that you were different with him. I mean, you were completely yourself. Which means you bossed him around a lot.” He laughed like he found the whole thing funny, but I bristled, not sharing his amusement.

“Are you saying I was a bitch?”

“No. Just bossy. You know how you are.”

“I didn’t boss him around,” I said defensively.

Luca snorted. “You totally did. Don’t you remember Dylan’s best man speech at your wedding?” Luca started cracking up at the memory.

I rolled my eyes. “Nonna almost had a heart attack when she discovered what pussy whipped meant.” Dylan must have said it at least half a dozen times in his speech. Someone should have put a muzzle on him. But that was Dylan for you. He said whatever he wanted regardless of the occasion or the audience.

We’d all laughed, though. His stories were funny, and I knew he was happy for Cruz and me.

“What does this have to do with my original question?” I asked Luca.

“Okay. I’ve been thinking about this.”

My brows shot up to my hairline. It shocked me that he’d given this so much thought. No shade on Luca, but I’d never thought of him as particularly deep or introspective.