Family Ties (Morelli Family 4)

I shake my head. “Maybe. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Maybe they’re secret swingers,” he suggests.

“Oh, yeah. Clearly Vince is just a really skilled actor.”

“Maybe they just share Mia. Maybe Meg’s into girls.”

“Okay, I think we’re getting into your fantasies more than Mateo’s love life. Also, this is way more explicit than I need to get in regards to my brother’s love life.”

Sal shakes his head. “Nah, I could maybe get behind you and Mia together, but Meg’s crazy. I wouldn’t invite her into my fantasies.”

“Oh, my God.” I roll my eyes, shaking my head. “What is it with guys fantasizing about two girls?”

“Two hot girls kissing? Where’s the mystery? There are two. And you get to watch them both kiss each other. It’s all very self-explanatory.”

“Have you ever done that before?”

“Have I ever—goddammit, I walked right into this.”

I laugh a little. “I’m just curious.”

“Sure, I have. A couple times.”

My eyebrows rise. “A couple times? So, more than once. Huh. Okay.” I miss a beat. “Just kissing, or…? How does that even happen? Do you just pull up a chair, or were you involved?”

“Do we have to talk about this?” he asks, glancing over at me.

I shrug. “You obviously have more experience than I do. I just wondered. I like knowing about your fantasies.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s a fantasy of mine, just something that came up, so I thought, hey, what the hell. There are two of them; why not?”

“A couple times with the same girls, or different girls? Was Vivian one of them?”

Now he rolls his eyes at me. “No, Vivian was not one of them. I don’t know why you’re so interested in Vivian. Vivian was nothing. Literally a boredom buster.”

“How would you rate our sex life compared to your sex life before me?”

Laughing, Sal shakes his head. “Nope. No way. We’re not doing this. I’m very happy with our sex life. Our sex life is perfect. I’m not comparing or rating, none of that shit.”

I nod, since that’s probably for the best. I’m curious now that I know he’s done it, but I probably wouldn’t want details. Picturing him with anyone else makes me violently ill and also just violent in general.

I reach over and take his hand, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. Now that I’m winding down from the excitement of today, I’m just so grateful he’s normal.

“I’m so happy we’re getting married. Thank you for all you’ve done for me, for all you continue to do. You’re really the best, and I’m the luckiest woman in the whole world.”

Sal gives my hand a squeeze and looks over at me with a heart-stopping smile. “You know I’d do anything for you.”

Chapter Forty Six

Francesca

My bridal shower goes off without a hitch, but Sal’s mom doesn’t come.

I offer to go to his mom’s Sunday for dinner, but he says no and we have dinner with my family instead. I know he really doesn’t mind spending the family day with my family every week, but considering I know he spent every Sunday before me at his mom’s, I have to imagine it’s not making her like me any more that he’s not now.

So I ask Mia to cover my afternoon at the bakery Monday and I drive over to Sal’s mom’s. He doesn’t know I’m going because I don’t think he’d approve. I told Maddie, but mostly only because I’m a little paranoid about how much his mom hates me, and if she sics some goons on me or something, I need someone to know where I went. Her daughter probably wasn’t the best choice, but Mia knows where I’m going, too, so one way or another someone will find out.

My heart pounds as I stand on the porch, waiting to see if she’ll even answer the door. I knocked and pushed the doorbell, just in case she didn’t hear one or the other. I know she saw me, because I saw the curtain move when she looked out to see who was on her doorstep.

I almost give up and go back to my car when the door finally opens.

“Mrs. Castellanos,” I say, offering a hopeful smile.

She’s scowling at me, the door only cracked open like I’m some potential burglar who might break down her door and steal her jewelry. Her gaze drops suspiciously to the white box in my hands, like maybe I brought hand grenades with me.

I guess it’s not impossible that she thinks any of this. I am a Morelli. There has been violence between our families. She doesn’t know me, so she doesn’t know I’ve never been involved in anything like that. My brother has a reputation for respecting tradition when it suits him and breaking with tradition the moment it doesn’t, so hey, if he could use a female, maybe he would. It’s not done in our kinds of families, but Mateo does whatever the hell he wants.