Page 128 of Made in Love and Blood

“Carina.”

She wiggled her bare toes against the floor, suddenly finding them very interesting.

“Babe,” he murmured lower. Still, he got nothing. Salvatore dragged in a deep breath, trying one last time. “Wife.”

“Sissy found me earlier.”

“What does she have to do with anything?”

“Me? Nothing.” Carina shrugged, but her expression told a different story. “The laundry she takes care of, however...”

Salvatore’s gaze narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me here?”

“Do you know why Sissy confidently told you that the two of them weren’t having sex?”

“No.”

“And you didn’t ask, obviously.”

Salvatore frowned. “Why would I ask? Frankie has a different kind of relationship with Sissy than the rest of us. Sure, they talk.”

“She’s not telling her whether she’s having sex with her boyfriend. Please. And trust me, Sissy isn’t asking unless Frankie brings up the conversation between them first.”

“Will you just spit it out?”

“Sal,” Carina said slowly, as if he needed small words to understand, “what do my...undergarments...look like after you’ve had a good go at me, baby?”

His jaws snapped closed with a pop.

Carina nodded once. “Mmhmm.”

“That’s why she knew?” he hissed.

Her laughter felt like a balm on a raw wound.

“Jesus Christ,” he mumbled into his hands. “And so, what are you saying? What do you mean? Why did she find you?”

Every question came out increasingly desperate. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

“Because she didn’t want to find you, Sal.”

His brow lifted higher as he observed her through his fingers. “I don’t get it.”

“Yeah, I know.” Carina rubbed at her neck, avoiding his stare as she said, “You’re aware she’s spending more time with Larkin.”

“None of my business.”

“That’s nice, but...” Her words trailed off as her fingertips danced together like she had to consider how to pose her next statement. “He tells her things sometimes. Like tonight, he had the details of the driveway incident. And maybe when she had to do the laundry later, she found something in one of the baskets from a bathroom chute. And maybe—”

“Carina!”

“I’m not going to tell you what she found, just know, technically, your rules probably weren’t broken given how you laid them out.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“Salvatore, please don’t make me spell it out to you. You’re a grown man. I’m telling you right now, you don’t want to have a conversation about what your daughter probably did in a bathroom with her boyfriend. Fathers don’t need the details, okay?”

He slumped deeply into the chair. “Unreal. Fucking unreal.”