Read Online Miracle (The Pagano Family Book 6) by Susan Fanetti - Free Book Online
Authors: Susan Fanetti
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they could hope.
Tina thought that was a lie. The best they could hope would be for her mother to be allowed to rest while she was still remembered for who she really was, who she still was inside that frozen body.
So she tried to be her mother’s daughter and remind everybody who Genie Corti still was.
~oOo~
The nasty weather broke the day after the cocktail party, and the break held into the weekend. The temperature made it into the fifties by noon on Saturday, and the market was packed. Quiet Cove was a small town, and lots of people walked, carrying totes and baskets, pushing little folding carts, or towing their kids in wagons, to do their errands. A day of warm sun after weeks of grey sleet and sludge brought everyone out.
The hours passed quickly as Tina worked behind the butcher case, taking orders for meats and cheeses, calling them back to Bobby at the slicers, laughing with the customers. She didn’t have the interest in arguing politics or religion that her mother had, but she liked the Red Sox, and she was up on town gossip. And she was good with people. So she managed the rapport pretty well. She’d never be Genie, but she could keep the customers happy anyway.
When their father led the last customer out in his usual way, chatting with them as they went through the door, then closing up behind them, Tina turned to Matt and took off her apron. “Will you run the totals back here tonight? I’ve got somewhere to be.”
Her brother smirked in that way only older brothers could. “Hot date?”
Maybe. Probably not. But hopefully warm, maybe even cozy. “No. Just dinner with a friend.”
“I know this friend? She hot?”
Tina rolled her eyes. “Not your type. Will you run totals?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll put it on your account.”
“Just take it off what you owe me , jerkwad.”
He grinned at her, and she hung up her apron and went to tell their father she was going.
~oOo~
Tina hadn’t been joking about smelling like salami. And pepperoni and every other kind of sausage and meat they sold. The smell permeated the skin and stayed there for hours. Her father and brother hardly ever smelled like anything but market.
Thank God they didn’t sell fresh fish. They left that to the fish market a couple doors down.
She should have told Joey she’d meet him at eight. That would have given her enough time to shower and make an attempt, at least, to smell like something more appealing. But by the time she got back to the house to change, it was six-twenty. There was barely time to wash her face and hands before the critical ritual of standing at her bursting closet and despairing that she had nothing to wear.
It wasn’t officially a date—at least, she wanted it to be, but she’d probably be better off not dressing for an official date. There was something skittish in Joey; he almost seemed to be doing this against his will. She didn’t want to scare him off by showing up in something that said she was hoping he might take it off later.
Which probably wouldn’t happen even in a best-case scenario. He could scarcely stand for her to touch him at all. She didn’t understand why; she sure hoped it wasn’t simply that he didn’t want her , specifically, to touch him.
Not exactly a confidence booster.
But she’d forced the issue, again , and now there was pizza at Santini’s and maybe some ice cream down the street after. Or probably not. It looked like he was on a diet. He’d lost noticeable weight since that first afternoon.
So pizza was probably a bad idea, too. Fuck, she hoped he wasn’t going to sit and watch her eat. She didn’t mind eating like a person on a date, but it was weird to be the only one eating at all. Shit. Fuck.
Okay, okay. She needed to dress like they were just hanging out but be cute enough to catch his eye in case his eye was catchable. She thought his eye
Tina thought that was a lie. The best they could hope would be for her mother to be allowed to rest while she was still remembered for who she really was, who she still was inside that frozen body.
So she tried to be her mother’s daughter and remind everybody who Genie Corti still was.
~oOo~
The nasty weather broke the day after the cocktail party, and the break held into the weekend. The temperature made it into the fifties by noon on Saturday, and the market was packed. Quiet Cove was a small town, and lots of people walked, carrying totes and baskets, pushing little folding carts, or towing their kids in wagons, to do their errands. A day of warm sun after weeks of grey sleet and sludge brought everyone out.
The hours passed quickly as Tina worked behind the butcher case, taking orders for meats and cheeses, calling them back to Bobby at the slicers, laughing with the customers. She didn’t have the interest in arguing politics or religion that her mother had, but she liked the Red Sox, and she was up on town gossip. And she was good with people. So she managed the rapport pretty well. She’d never be Genie, but she could keep the customers happy anyway.
When their father led the last customer out in his usual way, chatting with them as they went through the door, then closing up behind them, Tina turned to Matt and took off her apron. “Will you run the totals back here tonight? I’ve got somewhere to be.”
Her brother smirked in that way only older brothers could. “Hot date?”
Maybe. Probably not. But hopefully warm, maybe even cozy. “No. Just dinner with a friend.”
“I know this friend? She hot?”
Tina rolled her eyes. “Not your type. Will you run totals?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll put it on your account.”
“Just take it off what you owe me , jerkwad.”
He grinned at her, and she hung up her apron and went to tell their father she was going.
~oOo~
Tina hadn’t been joking about smelling like salami. And pepperoni and every other kind of sausage and meat they sold. The smell permeated the skin and stayed there for hours. Her father and brother hardly ever smelled like anything but market.
Thank God they didn’t sell fresh fish. They left that to the fish market a couple doors down.
She should have told Joey she’d meet him at eight. That would have given her enough time to shower and make an attempt, at least, to smell like something more appealing. But by the time she got back to the house to change, it was six-twenty. There was barely time to wash her face and hands before the critical ritual of standing at her bursting closet and despairing that she had nothing to wear.
It wasn’t officially a date—at least, she wanted it to be, but she’d probably be better off not dressing for an official date. There was something skittish in Joey; he almost seemed to be doing this against his will. She didn’t want to scare him off by showing up in something that said she was hoping he might take it off later.
Which probably wouldn’t happen even in a best-case scenario. He could scarcely stand for her to touch him at all. She didn’t understand why; she sure hoped it wasn’t simply that he didn’t want her , specifically, to touch him.
Not exactly a confidence booster.
But she’d forced the issue, again , and now there was pizza at Santini’s and maybe some ice cream down the street after. Or probably not. It looked like he was on a diet. He’d lost noticeable weight since that first afternoon.
So pizza was probably a bad idea, too. Fuck, she hoped he wasn’t going to sit and watch her eat. She didn’t mind eating like a person on a date, but it was weird to be the only one eating at all. Shit. Fuck.
Okay, okay. She needed to dress like they were just hanging out but be cute enough to catch his eye in case his eye was catchable. She thought his eye
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