At Wits' End - Kenzie Reed Page 0,22

down on the table, and Sara and Cesare, shooting me dirty looks and muttering to each other, pull out plastic-wrapped steaks, barbecue sauce, a bowl of salad, a bottle of vinaigrette, and salt and pepper shakers.

“Do you want me to get the grill started?” Rocco asks Sienna.

Something about the implication that I can’t take care of my wife – even if the marriage is fake – rankles me. “I’ve got it, thank you,” I snap at him.

Sara’s pulled out a box of eclairs, and Cesare is setting paper plates, silverware, and glasses on the table.

Rocco puts his hands on his hips and leans in towards me, his jaw jutting out. “I’ll just wait here to make sure you don’t accidentally blow our girl to kingdom come.”

Macho Man doesn’t know who he’s screwing with. “No, actually, you’ll move your ass out of here before I–”

“Hey! Time out!” Sienna quickly steps between me and Rocco.

Cesare’s glowering at me, all young bravado, shoulders hunched up and fists clenched. Sara’s eyes are sparking with that Ribaldi fire, and she looks like she’s about to claw my face off.

Sienna looks around at all of them. “Dial down the testosterone, folks. Do you guys want this property deal to go through, or not? Because if you do, our respective families need to pretend we don’t want to flay each other alive and use each other’s hide as boots.”

“Ew!” Sara looks at her with dismay. “Cannibal. Who hurt you?”

“I’m not a cannibal,” Sienna says patiently. “More like Buffalo Bill. I’m talking about wearing people, not eating them.”

“Oh thank God, that’s much more normal,” Sara says dryly.

Sienna shakes her head at them.

“We all just need to chill here, okay? I’m doing the heavy lifting here. I’m the one who has to play wifey all summer. All you guys have to do is not pick fights.” She links her arm through her cousin’s. “I’m hungry. Let the man grill me some meat.” She leads him back over to the table.

I light the grill and bustle around, throwing steaks on the grill as Sienna and Sara get to work mixing the salad and setting out the desserts. Cesare shoots me dirty looks from under thick, dark brows.

Rocco ignores them all and stares at me with a burning intensity.

Enough of this already. I wave him over. I’m not putting up with his macho bullshit.

Sienna throws her hands in the air in exasperation as he stalks towards me. “Guys!” she yells.

We ignore her. We’re about to start a dick-measuring contest that I plan to win.

“Something you want to say?” I keep my voice low, but I can’t keep the anger out.

“Yes. Don’t hurt Sienna. She’s a good person. Way too good for you.”

I glower at him. “Don’t hurt her? Don’t insult me. You’re the ones who forced her into this.”

“She was meant to marry one of Phil’s boys. They’re assholes, but harmless assholes. You, you’ve specifically had it in for our Sienna all her life.” Rocco chews his lower lip. “You’re right, though. I never should have let her do this.”

“Let me guess, Linda talked you all into it.”

Rocco’s gaze slides away. Linda’s been a pain in their collective asses her entire life. Year after year, she’s come and gone, sometimes dragging Sienna with her, but mostly dumping her with Fernanda and Nuccio and vanishing with whatever man she was chasing, or married to, at the time. Then she’d come back and live at Uncle Vito’s house for free, playing mommy just long enough to get Sienna’s hopes up, mooching off the family until she whirled away on her next “business trip”.

This time, from what I’ve heard, relations between the family and her are so icy that she moved out after a few days and rented an apartment in town. She’s renting from Mia’s family, in fact, and working at their restaurant.

The Ribaldis can’t stand Linda and her flighty ways, but somehow they let her manipulate them into doing crap like this. She’s very good at charming and wheedling when she needs to be.

I’m right, but he’ll never admit it. “Linda wasn’t the main deciding factor. We all want what’s best for the family.”

“And the hell with what’s best for Sienna, right?”

“As if you ever cared about her,” Rocco spits.

“As if you did. I grew up here, remember?”

And I remember a lot. Sitting high up in a tree on my property, watching Sienna play by herself in the woods. Watching her build houses out of sticks and vines. Watching her burn a