Family Ties (Morelli Family 4)

“Sorry, sorry. Should we do it again? We can just keep walking down the aisle all night. One of these times she’ll make it without laughing and fucking it all up,” Mark offers lightly.

Mateo rolls his eyes, leaning back in the pew and sighing. I don’t know if it’s actually jealousy or he just hates Mark because he’s everything Mateo finds annoying, but I’m pretty sure he’d shoot him in the face without much incentive. Like, you could offer him a rotted banana peel to kill Mark and he would accept the payment.

I look over at Sal, tapping my chin. “I don’t know. Maybe we shouldn’t have the men walk the women in. Maybe the men should stand up here with you, and the women come in on their own. Then when they leave, they obviously walk out together.”

“Whatever you want,” Sal says.

I debate for another minute, then I decide. “Okay, let’s take it from the top and do the full run through. The men will escort the ladies in, then my flower girl will come down the aisle. Then here comes the bride, and I’m up.”

“The bride,” Mia says, making a giddy face for me.

I grin. “I know.”

Now that we have it all figured out, we reset. Mateo stands now so he can wait at the back of the church with me. It all goes off without a hitch. Isabella walks a little faster we told her to, but tomorrow she will have real rose petals to drop, so that will likely slow her down a bit.

After the wedding rehearsal, we all head to the private room Mateo rented out for us at Flavor. Sal and I get there first, so I go check it out and eye up seats.

“I’m gonna put Mia here next to Isabella and Mateo.”

“Uh huh,” Sal says, unimpressed.

“Only because Isabella needs an adult to sit next to her in case she needs help ordering and cutting up her food.”

“Mateo will be sitting right next to her. She’s his daughter. Can’t he help her?”

I shake my head. “It won’t occur to him she needs help and she’s unlikely to ask him. He doesn’t do stuff like that, Ju does.”

“You just want to put Mia as close to Mateo as possible,” Sal states, shaking his head.

“Nuh uh,” I say, looking at the table. “Isabella needs to sit next to a woman and Meg isn’t coming. What’s a girl to do?”

“You’re scheming.”

“I’m a Morelli, babe, we’re always scheming. I’m gonna find a guy for Maddie next.”

“Having seen the matches you’re trying to put together, I’m gonna have to say thanks but no thanks.”

“I can put Maddie next to Mark. They bicker, but maybe that’ll distract Mark a bit from Mia. I think Mateo has already had his fill of Mark tonight.”

Sal shakes his head. “You better not get my best friend killed with your matchmaking. I’ll be really mad at you.”

I grimace, realizing my current seating arrangement has Cherie directly across from Mateo. They don’t hate each other, but they’re certainly not chums.

Mia comes in with Mateo and Isabella, anyway. Isabella is chattering with Mia about someone named Monica and Mia is feigning interest like a champ.

I wave, and point to the seats I picked out for them up by us. “You guys are right here.”

Mark is already here and seated across from Isabella. His eyes wander over Mia briefly as she double checks the seating arrangements with Mateo, then pulls out the seat directly beside her so Isabella can sit down. Mateo is on Isabella’s other side, and despite my intentions to be good tonight, I take a small measure of joy in how much they look like a little family.

“No ball and chain tonight, huh?” Mark asks Mateo good-naturedly.

Mateo glances at Mark so he knows he heard him, then blatantly looks away without answering.

Sal drapes his arm around my shoulder, leaning in. “I’m just so glad they get along.”

I grin. “Mateo is too classy for Mark. When he saw he wore jeans to rehearsal, I’m pretty sure he instantly wrote him off as a waste of space.”

“Your brother is so strange,” Sal remarks, shaking his head before heading to the table and taking a seat next to Mark. I’m seated at the head of the table with Sal and Mia on either side, and it’s weird. I immediately feel like I should get up and give the spot to Mateo since it’s his spot at home. Instead he’s down there bumping elbows with—oh, no, why is Maddie on his other side? She wasn’t supposed to sit over there.

Sal realizes it too, and turns to shoot me a dirty look. I grimace as Maddie turns in her seat and smiles as she talks to Mateo. I recall her mentioning how hot he was when I first met her, and that doesn’t bode terribly well since Sal is probably remembering the same thing.