Free A LITTLE BIT OF SUGAR by Lindsey Brookes Page B

that were puffed out with a wire hoop. And let’s not forget the professional basketball player size shoes. If I wasn’t wearing the costume, I’d probably be scared too.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TEN
     
     
     
    The doorbell rang, echoing in the hallway. I dropped the cereal bowl back into the sudsy dishwater. “Anthony’s here.”
     
    My aunt smiled. “You’d better go intercept him before your father gets a hold of him. All he’s been talking about this week is having little Italian grandbabies.”
     
    And he had no idea Anthony was taking me out. I’d kept that from my family, my Aunt Lorna aside.
     
    “Oh, no,” I gasped as I hurried to rinse the suds off my hands. Then I raced out of the kitchen, shaking the water from my hands as I went. I had to answer the door before my father did.
     
    Unfortunately, I was too late. My father had already dragged Anthony into the family room and was offering him a cup of coffee when I got there.
     
    “Hey,” Anthony said, shooting up from the sofa the moment I stepped into the room.
     
    “Hey. You ready to go?” I asked, wanting to get him out of there as quickly as I could.
     
    He looked to my dad. “I’ll have to pass on that coffee, Mr. Stewart. Gina and I have a hot date today with a few roller coasters.”
     
    That’s what he thought. Being on a roller coaster with Anthony was the last place I was going to be. At least, not without a full body rain suit.
     
    “Date?” my father repeated with a widening smile. He had this weird, ‘here’s a good catch for my daughter’ kind of look in his eyes. He’d long ago decided that I would be his means to adding some true Italian blood to the family. And he’d always liked Anthony. Luckily for me, my father had only recently started pushing at a relationship between us. Anthony had always been too old.
     
    Funny how things changed. Four years didn’t seem to be that big of a deal to my father now that I was out of school.
     
    “Yes, sir,” Anthony replied.
     
    My father put a hand to his heart and looked up at the ceiling. “Grazie a Dio!”
     
    “What are we thanking God for?” my Aunt Lorna asked as she joined us, settling into the rocking chair by the front window.
     
    “For sending Tony here to date my daughter.”
     
    “Well, he didn’t have to send him very far,” she pointed out. “His mother lives next door.”
     
    My mother’s gaze flitted from me to Anthony and then back to me again. “You’re going on a date? You never mentioned anything about going out on a date with Tony.”
     
    “It’s not a date,” I told them, not wanting to get their hopes up.
     
    “Sure it is,” Anthony argued with a smile. “I asked Gina out. She accepted.”
     
    “Sounds like a date to me,” Aunt Lorna said with a wink Anthony’s direction.
     
    “I promise you,” Anthony said. “It’s definitely a date.”
     
    No, it wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to get into that with my family. Anthony would get what was coming to him for giving my parents false hope, and I was going to enjoy every moment of teaching him a lesson.
     
    * * *
     
    “You look great,” Anthony said as he opened the passenger door of his truck for me.
     
    I was dressed in a pair of stonewashed denim jean shorts and a light blue, floral, gauzy spaghetti strap top with a solid, dark blue tank underneath it. My usual summer attire.
     
    “Thanks,” I said. So did he, but I wasn’t about to feed into his already over-inflated ego.
     
    We pulled away from my parents’ house and headed for the interstate.
     
    “How’s your mom doing?” I asked, breaking the silence.
     
    “Pretty good,” he said, glancing my way. “You know she and Lance broke up.”
     
    “No way,” I gasped. “What happened?”
     
    “She met some guy her own age at a business luncheon and they hit it off.”
     
    “So she gave Lance the boot?”
     
    “She didn’t have to. He decided to go off on some backpacking trek in