Coming Home (Morelli Family 6)

Vince never thought that. He never looked at me and saw something less-than that needed work. He was perfectly happy with the girl who couldn’t afford spaghetti sauce.

My hand absently falls to my stomach, but I don’t have the time to sink into thoughts about Vince, and it wouldn’t benefit me anyway, so I shove them away.

“Holy Moses,” my mom says. I can see how wide her blue eyes are from here as she traipses across the lawn in $12 heels and a tan dress that fits too snugly. We told people not to bring gifts to this thing—I mean, seriously, what could they give us?—but she has a card in her hand.

“Hey, Mom.” I offer up a warm smile, pushing my pink Chanel sunglasses up on my head and fixing my hair around them. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her. I didn’t visit a ton when I was with Vince, but I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen her since I got together with Mateo. Vince didn’t especially like visiting my mom, but he always went with me. Mateo has gone once—the first time, and only because I played the “well, Vince was going to go with me” card, and he indulged me.

Mateo was fine with entertaining my mom when there was something he wanted out of her, but she no longer serves a purpose, so he has no further use for her.

She’s completely awestruck by the house. I’m not anymore, but I still remember that feeling so I get it.

“It’s like one of those fancy French chateaus,” she says, like she’s ever seen one. “This place is fit for a king.”

Wrapping an arm around my shoulder to give me a fond squeeze, Meg says, “Well, she’s basically marrying one.”

My mom couldn’t be more delighted. She spins around again, looking back at the house and shaking her head as she murmurs, “Wow.”

“Can I get you a mimosa?” Meg offers.

Mom spins around, nodding. “That would be great, thank you.” Once Meg is gone, my mom comes closer to me, but keeps her gaze on the long stretch of house. “Boy, you’ve done good for yourself, haven’t you?”

I smile faintly. She’s just impressed with Mateo’s obvious wealth, so I feel weird agreeing. None of this is what I love about Mateo.

My mom doesn’t even know any intimate details of my life, though. She didn’t even know I was gone when Vince hauled me off to Vegas.

We walk across the perfectly manicured green lawn until we make it back to the covered patio area. There are a couple of obvious security cameras in black bubbles along the way, but I have no idea if there are hidden ones, too.

“This is just—Wow. You should take me on a tour of the place,” she says, eagerly glancing through the window. She’s actually looking into the servants’ quarters over here, but even that is nice, just smaller than the rest of the house.

“Maybe after drinks,” I say, nodding. “Mateo’s out right now, but he’ll be back for dinner. He can be kind of particular about people in the house, but I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“He has a lot of rules, huh?”

I smile faintly. “He has a few ideas of how things should be.”

“I can’t believe my daughter lives in a gorgeous place like this with some fancy, classy man,” she murmurs, glancing around again before following me back to the pool where the rest of the ladies are. “You sure didn’t get your taste in men from me.”

I bite back a grin, tucking a chunk of hair behind my ears. “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure. He makes plenty of trouble; he just has a bigger bank account than yours have.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” she says congenially. “Just the other day Bob’s check bounced when we went to pay the rent. Came home to an eviction notice on our front door—the people we rent from now are real hardasses, you mess up once and they’re trying to kick you out.”

“You guys should buy.”

“Oh, I don’t know. He still hasn’t even proposed. Can you believe that? My daughter’s barely out of college and she snatches up one of Chicago’s wealthiest. Me, I’ve been around the block a dozen times and I still haven’t managed to get the rock.”

“You’ll find the right one eventually,” I tell her, though honestly I’ve given up believing that. “How are the kids?”

“They’re good. Allan wants to play football in school next year. Casey just got a pet hamster named Toodles. Crazy how fast they grow up.” Her gaze drops to my toned, flat stomach. “I can’t believe I’m gonna be a grandma. I feel too young to be a grandma.”

I place a hand on my tummy, feeling myself glow a bit.

I take my mom back over to mingle with the ladies and introduce her around. Francesca has never met her but she doesn’t seem impressed—probably because my mom can’t stop talking about how big the house is and how she can’t wait to go in and look around. I’m literally hiding my face with embarrassment like a teenager again.