Chapter 0301
At Luca’s house, the company is really the thing that shines. His cousins and family are just so funny – they’re also a little bit mean to each other, in a teasing, familial way, but every insult is lined with love and is so damn funny that I’m laughing until my sides ache.

And of course, my sides aching makes it difficult to get down all of the food that’s pressed in my hands. But considering how delicious it is, I definitely prevail in my quest to eat absolutely everything. God, I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten so much or so well. There’s plate after plate of pasta, and meat, and seafood – and then the sweets! Cookies, and little slices of coffee-soaked pastries, and gran’s coffee cake, served with coffee – which is a good addition, considering how many tiny glasses of clear liquor I’ve been passed and drank. I’ve never had it before, but it’s delicious, and tastes like licorice.

“Ugh, how are you not fat,” I groan, leaning against Luca on the couch as one of his cousins takes what is probably my ninth plate away. Luca grins and slips an arm around my shoulders.

“I know, it’s the greatest disappointment of Gran’s life that she can’t fatten me up,” he murmurs, smiling around the room at the family he so clearly loves, who shout and joke and play with each other. “If it were up to her I’d be like…a little beachball, unable to get up off this couch, just hers to keep and pet and love and feed, as she likes to do.”

My eyes drift to the little fat dog that sits on the back of the couch behind Luca in what is clearly his habitual spot, his tongue lolling happily out of his mouth and his legs sticking out comfortably from his belly. “You mean like Valentino, over there?” I point at the adorable old pup and Luca bursts into laugher.

“Yes,” he says, nodding and tightening his arm around me, “just like Valentino, her favorite son.”

I smile up at Luca, buzzing with happiness, completely charmed by all of this. “I like your family,” I whisper. “They’re really great.”