Family Ties (Morelli Family 4)

“You were supposed to prevent this from happening,” Sal states, not at all pleased.

“She switched seats! I didn’t do it.”

“He needs to be isolated away from normal people. I don’t want him sitting next to Maddie. Fix it.”

“I can’t fix it, she’s already sitting there.”

Sal is watching like a helicopter mom at the playground. “Why are they still speaking?” He waves his arms and gets Maddie’s attention, then he sends her a good glare. Maddie pauses in her conversation and rolls her eyes. Mateo turns to see why, and she touches his arm, explaining Sal is her brother.

Mia is now scowling at Maddie too, noticing her hand on Mateo’s arm.

Oh, dear.

Mark rolls his eyes and quietly mutters to Sal, “Does that guy have a magical dick, or what?”

Mia overhears anyway and answers with a straight face, “Yes.” Then she grins at Mark across the table as he dramatically gags. She likes to torment Mark, but she promptly loses her smile and turns her gaze to Sal to address the larger issue at hand. “No, but seriously, what’s the deal with your sister?”

Before anyone can start a blood war over Maddie having the audacity to put her hand on Mateo, Isabella taps on Mia’s arm, telling her she can’t read the menu. Maddie apparently forgotten, Mia taps into her maternal side and leans in to go over the menu with Isabella.

Of course Sal and Mia had respective anxiety attacks for no reason, because after a minute, Mateo turns back to check on—well, probably Mia, but he pretends he’s checking on Isabella. Since they have their heads together going over Isabella’s potential dinner options, he can check on them both at once. Mia glances up at him and he gives her a tender smile. Since she’s not made of stone and he doesn’t hand many of those out, she bites her bottom lip and offers one back.

She then goes back to helping Isabella while Mateo looks at his own menu, but from the smug little smile playing around his lips, I have to wonder if he let Maddie steal his attention for a moment on purpose.

Sal puts it together, too. I can tell by the look on his face—that, and the fact that he doesn’t watch Maddie like a hawk after that.

Mia still glances Maddie’s way every now and then to make sure she’s keeping her hands to herself, but Mateo doesn’t exploit Mia’s territorial side any further. He seems to be in the mood for peace tonight, and given Meg and Vince are both absent, he can have it.

Well, mostly.

Mark still jokes around with Mia, and once he sees Mia’s really into Isabella, he starts joking around with them both. Mark’s goofy nature makes him a big hit with kids, apparently, and Isabella gives him the perfect opportunity to showcase it. Since Mia has adopted Isabella for the evening, she’s along for the ride, smiling when Isabella does, amused when Isabella laughs at Mark’s dumb jokes. He’s using Mateo’s daughter to impress Mia, and boy, is Mateo not impressed.

When the food comes out, Mia pushes her plate aside so she can cut up Isabella’s spaghetti and meatballs. Isabella tells Mia how she loves meatballs so much, and how her doll made so many meatballs one time, it was ridiculous. Mia chuckles at Isabella’s stories and tells her off-handedly she should learn how to make meatballs if she loves them so much.

“Okay. Will you teach me?”

Mia pauses and glances over at Mateo, as if for approval. He nods without looking up from his own plate. “Yeah, of course I will,” she tells Isabella.

Since Mateo doesn’t join in the conversation—he’s not used to kids at dinner, so he probably just doesn’t think of it—Mark hops on and regales Isabella with stories of the cookies he made at the bakery that were bigger than her head, and the cooking competition he and Mia had. Isabella is very into the idea of a cooking competition, and she is especially interested in a cookie larger than her head.

A little over halfway through the meal, Isabella tugs on Mateo’s arm and leans in to whisper in his ear. He gets up and helps her out of her seat, then with a hand on her little shoulder, looks around for a bathroom. He makes it around the table to where Mark and Sal are seated, then he glances at Mia. On cue, she drops her fork and pushes back her chair.

“I’ll take her.”

Mia heads over to that side of the table to take Isabella’s hand so she can lead her through the crowd.

Mateo places a hand at the small of Mia’s back and leans in close to murmur, “Thank you, Mia.” He watches pleasantly enough until they’re out of sight, then he leans down right where he’s standing and tells Mark, “Lay off my kid, asshole.”