Page 157 of Made in Love and Blood

“Play stupid games,” Salvatore replied, “win stupid prizes, son.”

20. — the job...

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Staten Island, New York

Frankie, Gallo Estate

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“You might as well get a start on breakfast,” Sissy said as she placed a platter of choices in front of Frankie. “Your father and Carina are...” She trailed off, refusing to meet Frankie’s questioning stare. “Busy,” she settled on saying.

Frankie made a face. “Oh, yeah.”

“Better than screaming at one another, I suppose,” Sissy added, shrugging. “It would be nice if they’d close a damn door once in a while, but it’s not my house, so.”

“Did you just swear?”

Frankie couldn’t believe it. The same woman who had once threatened to wash her ward’s mouth out with soap after she learned how to appropriately use the word fuck just swore like it was nothing. Crazy.

“Somewhere, pigs are flying,” Frankie teased.

Sissy cleared her throat. “Some people are bad influences.”

“Mmhmm, Larkin. That’s who you mean.”

It wasn’t a question. Frankie heard the rumors there.

“Never mind me,” Sissy told her with a tone that brokered no room for argument, “and it is definitely not Larkin. Get to eating.”

“Eating, eating,” Frankie replied, picking up the utensils on the table.

The gnawing sensation that her father would walk into the kitchen any moment edged her anxiety higher. Two weeks after her return from Chicago found them still not speaking, which didn’t help her mood as she waited for him and his wife to join her for a breakfast that he demanded she attend.

Frankie finished the two boiled eggs, a piece of buttered toast, and another that she slathered jam on just to have something different. She’d just started demolishing the bacon, forgoing the waffles with various toppings because it just looked like too much sugar when she’d already downed an iced coffee earlier.

She had a piece of bacon in her mouth as her father and Carina made their appearance in the kitchen.

“Morning,” Salvatore greeted.

Thanks to the food, she didn’t have to say it back.

Carina, however, rolled her eyes at someone on the other end of a call that she clearly didn’t want to take. “No, Jessa, I’m not going to Milan for the holidays...yeah, I know we do it every year, and it’s my house, not yours. Find another spot, I guess. You and whatever group you plan on bringing are not using my place as a free hotel.”

Salvatore smiled and thanked Sissy as she came out with their breakfast platters. “Looks great, thank you.”

“Because I want to be here with my husband,” Carina said, “and if you don’t get that, I don’t care. Goodbye.”

“That went well,” Salvatore muttered, keeping his gaze on the food in front of him, “by the sounds of it.”

Carina threw him an annoyed look as Sissy placed a platter at her seat as well. “Honestly, I considered selling it and then calling her to say that’s why I wouldn’t be going.”

He chuckled. “To what, avoid saying anything about me?”

“I just did, didn’t I?”

Frankie’s father didn’t reply.