Then, he heard her whispered, “Thanks.”
He almost didn’t.
It was so low.
She did lift her head again, but that time she wouldn’t meet his gaze. Instead, opting to stare at anything else but him. The blush was still very present on her cheeks, and the smile was long gone, but at least, she wasn’t hiding from him. Wasn’t that a step forward?
He thought so.
Penny shrugged. The oversized, black hoodie that swallowed her body right down to her knees barely moved at all from the action. Her blue stare drifted to him, and only briefly met his gaze, before darting away just as fast. He could hear every awkward syllable when she told him, “Sorry—you probably think I’m a freak.”
“Why would I think that?”
“Because I don’t know how to talk to a gu—you. Anyone, really.” Penny sighed, closing the folder in her lap before she added, “But my therapist keeps telling me that I should try to start conversations more even if I don’t want to. It’s the only way I’ll learn how to ... talk?”
Why did that sound like a question?
Luca didn’t get the chance to ask.
“But I don’t really know how to,” she said, reverting back to the same soft tone as before that was quieter than a mouse skirting across the floor. “Talk, or start a conversation, I mean.”
That made him smile.
He couldn’t say that he didn’t pity the girl—her situation before she came to live with his sister and best friend kind of made that hard. If anyone deserved pity and time to get their life straight, it was Penny.
“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Luca said, winking her way when Penny’s head snapped up, and those wide eyes nailed into him. “You’re doing great—all things considered. One step at a time. One breath after another. Even if that’s all you can do, you’re doing it. You know?”
Penny blinked, but otherwise, offered nothing in reply.
Luca figured she deserved to know ... “I’m not going to pretend to know your life or the shit you’re going through, but from what I do know ... hell, you get out of bed, Penny. You’re alive. Trying. You know that’s all Naz and Roz ask of you, right? Just that you try. They’re willing to do whatever you need so that you can keep trying.”
It took her a second.
Eventually, she murmured, “Yeah, I know.”
“And that song—I think it would be awesome if you played it in a minor key, or at least the last stanza.” Luca grinned, waving a hand when he added, “But I don’t know shit about music. Not like Roz or you, anyway.”
That made her laugh.
Really laugh.
A genuine sound that had her young face lighting up in such a way that it was impossible for Luca to tear his gaze away when she dared to toss her head back as the amusement radiated from her. She was too beautiful of a creature to be constantly sad, but he couldn’t help but wonder ... how long it had been since she laughed like she just did?
She should do that more often. He hoped that eventually, she might be able to find someone who made her laugh like he just had. Again and again. Everybody deserved someone to make them happy.
Luca would have said more, but the buzz of his phone stopped him. Pulling the device from the pocket of his dark-wash jeans, the same ones his father had bitched about the blown-out knees the last time Zeke saw him wearing them, he checked the messages.
One from Naz waited.
Did you grab the file from my office yet?
Right.
The entire reason he was here. He didn’t regret agreeing to help Naz out more than he already did while his friend needed it, but shit ... Luca didn’t stop running. If he didn’t have time for his college obligations before, he sure as hell didn’t have time for them now.
Raising his phone for Penny to see, Luca offered an apologetic expression when he said, “Sorry, I gotta grab something for Naz and head out before he comes looking for me. You good?”
Penny smiled.
It seemed real.
“Yeah, Luca. I’m good. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
And he meant it.
On his way out of the house with the file in hand, Luca heard the echo of the same song that greeted him when he entered the house. Only now, she played it in a minor key.
LUCA ARRIVED AT DIZZY’S to find Naz had situated himself at the bar where he could enjoy a glass of whiskey while he finished up a phone call. He only heard the tail end of the conversation as he approached and took the stool next to his friend.
“Can’t say we’re going to make it happen that soon, Zio,” Naz said into the phone, “but I’ll let Dad know and see if he wants to go with Chicago for that offer. You know how he is ... yeah, it’s all about that bottom dollar. Later.”
“Chicago, huh?” Luca asked when Naz ended the call and tossed the phone to the bar top. “Donatis are making deals with Chicago?”
“Occasionally. Depends on the—”
“Money.”
Naz grinned. “This business is all about money. Even when it’s family.”
Right.
Luca wouldn’t forget it.
Turning so his back faced the bar and he could observe the empty club, Luca rested his elbows on the edge. The folder he had grabbed for Naz hung from his fingertips, waiting to be passed over. A lot could be done to the club to spruce it up and make it a bit more ... seemly. Especially for a business that Naz used on a regular basis. Yet, his friend purchased the club over a year ago and had yet to make any effort to get the place up to the standard of his name.
“You ever gonna get this place Donati ready?” Luca asked, knowing Naz would understand what he meant well enough.
Naz scoffed under his breath. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a place you frequent regularly and own should actually look like you own it. Right now, it looks better fit for the dregs.”
“It’s fine for me.”
Luca shifted his gaze Naz’s way. “Is it?”
Naz only shrugged. “Despite how some people in our business like to present themselves to the rest of the world, I’m fine being exactly who I am. If that makes me stand out amongst the crowd, so be it. I’m not the standard, Luca. I am the exception. Exceptional.”
Luca grinned.
He couldn’t help it.
That was the same shit their fathers had been telling them for years in regards to the family business. They didn’t have to follow the rules—they were the fucking rules. If only Luca could apply that same philosophy to everything else in his life, shit would be grand.
Right?
“And knock that shit off,” Naz muttered, rolling his eyes Luca’s way. “You sound like your father when you mouth off like that, you know?”
Yeah.
Shit.
“Here.”
He slapped the folder in front of his friend, but Naz didn’t bother to reach for it when he muttered around the rim of his glass, “Thanks. Saved me the time of driving out of the city just to pick it up. You’d think I might have my shit together by now, but—”
“We’re all doing what we can.”
Naz chuckled and set the glass back to the bar. “Yeah, tell me about it. Between Roz being pregnant ... Dad piling on more shit for me with business, and everything else, I don’t know what I’m doing half the time. Supposed to be a genius here, but I can’t even remember a fucking file I put right on my desk, so I wouldn’t forget it this morning. Some shit, that.”