Family Ties (Morelli Family 4)

I know how weird it is to ask this for so many reasons, but I can’t stop myself. “That doesn’t make you jealous, even the tiniest bit?”

Now she flushes, smiling a little self-deprecatingly. “I didn’t say that. But it doesn’t matter. I’m just a territorial person—but he was never mine to begin with, so…” She steals a glance at me, gauging my reaction to all this. “If I’m being honest though, that first night when Meg started asking me questions about sleeping with him, I sort of wanted to scratch her face off. Just a knee-jerk reaction,” she adds, grinning when I start laughing. “Obviously. I have Vince.” Her smile wanes a bit at her own reminder. “But, yeah. That’s why.”

“Do you like him, like him?” I ask impulsively.

“Francesca, I’m with Vince. And he’s with Meg now anyway,” she replies, eyebrows rising slightly, as if to reprimand me.

I roll my eyes. “He’s banging a pretty new maid; I don’t think anyone needs to start monogramming towels yet.”

“Francesca,” she says, laughing a little, but widening her eyes at me.

I shrug. “I’m just being realistic. You think he’s the first master of the house to sleep with the help? Don’t take it to heart. She’s just a warm body to pass the time with. Now answer me without worrying about her.”

“She’s not,” Mia disagrees, shaking her head. “She’s not even a maid anymore. He moved her into his bedroom a couple days ago.”

This is news.

“He did what?” I demand.

She grimaces apologetically. “Sorry. I assumed you knew. I knew, and I don’t even live there anymore.”

What the fuck, Mateo?

“He likes her,” she tells me, pressing her lips firmly together and shrugging. “He never really liked me. I was just a pawn to him. I was the warm body to pass time with.”

It breaks my heart that she thinks that. I wish I could tell her about the night she and Vince moved out when Mateo missed her. When he poured several thousands of dollars worth of liquor down his throat in an attempt to ignore his feelings for her. How he told me how much he enjoyed when she let him hold her, when he woke up to her snuggled up against him.

But I can’t, because there might be fucking cameras. He would be pissed if I told her that.

“You’re wrong,” I tell her, since I don’t know what else to say.

Mia breaks my gaze, training her eyes on the carpeted floor. “Well, if he ever did, he doesn’t now. I knew Vince and I would fall apart if we stayed at the mansion, so we left. Maybe things would be different if I would’ve stayed, but I didn’t. And Mateo let me go—he gave me exactly what I asked for, and he doesn’t strike me as a self-sacrificing man, so it couldn’t have cost him much. It was just a game to him, Francesca.”

“If you believe that, why in God’s name do you care if he’s happy?”

She shrugs, flushing and going back to fidgeting with her shorts. “I want him to be happy because I care about him, not because he’s done anything to deserve it.”

I can’t help shaking my head. “I can’t believe he moved the maid into his bedroom. What the hell is wrong with him?”

“It’s fine,” she says, offering a smile. “I’m fine. He’s good. I have Vince. He has Meg. We all win this way.”

“You earned him, and she just waltzed right in and scooped him up. She did nothing.”

“She has more game than I have,” Mia says lightly.

“She won’t last. At best, he’s bored. At worst, he’s rebounding. The maid is a temporary amusement. Don’t give up on him.”

“You’re a terrible influence,” she informs me, shaking her head in disbelief. “You always seem so proper, and here you are encouraging me to steal my ex-tormentor from his girlfriend.”

“She’s been his girlfriend for like three seconds,” I state. “And he already has to lie to her about who he is. He’s making a mistake if he’s really getting serious with her, but I don’t think he is. I’ve seen him with one girl like you, and I’ve seen him with countless girls like her; the girls like her never last.”

“I’m not sure there is another girl like Meg,” Mia states.

I push up off the couch, because now I’m determined to go talk to my brother. It’s almost dinnertime anyway, so he and Adrian will probably have a drink in the study. I need to catch him before we eat, because I need to talk to him before Meg shows up.

Not a maid anymore. What the hell, Mateo? Why does he always have to screw up his love life?

Mia stands up, too. “For what it’s worth, I appreciate your enthusiasm. I had no idea you even thought he liked me.”