The Woman in the Back Room (Costa Family)

"Ma..." I said, shaking my head.

"I missed teasing you boys about dating and sex when you were younger. I'm making up for lost time," she told me, eyes dancing. "But that's beside the point. I don't see any reason why you two can't give it a shot, even if you very slowly ease Ottavio into it."

"She works for me."

"For now, yes. Not forever."

"If it went south quickly, I..."

"Could just go back to avoiding her?" she suggested. "Santi, you've been without someone for so long. You deserve some happiness. Why are you fighting this so hard?"

"Celeste," Salvatore said. "Have I thanked you for having me?" he asked, moving up to the island, dipping a tortilla chip in the spinach and artichoke dip.

"Not in the past five minutes," my mom said, giving him a motherly smile. She liked watching people enjoy her food. I guess it was a mom thing.

"Has your son admitted to you that he's got a thing for the kid's bodyguard yet?" Salvatore asked, making me wonder if anyone at all had been fooled. Did her brothers know? Her step-mother? Worse yet, her dad?

"We were just discussing that," my mom said, mixing the vegetables in the pan.

"Discussing what?" Lorenzo asked, coming up to grab a bottle of Scotch off the bar cart, pouring a fresh glass.

"Your brother and the kid's nanny," Salvatore announced, making me need to close my eyes and take a deep breath.

"Yeah, what's going on with that?" Lorenzo asked.

"He doesn't think it's good for Avi right now."

"Who says Avi has to know?" Lorenzo asked, shrugging.

"And I imagine he worries about the Family thing."

"The Morellis wouldn't have any issue with it," Lorenzo said.

"You can't know that," I shot back. "She has brothers."

"I don't think Alessa is the type of woman who would have her brother's whoop your ass if you hurt her," Salvatore said. "She can take care of herself."

That was fair too.

"It's not going to happen," I insisted. "So we don't need to talk about it."

"Just saying," Lorenzo said, grabbing my shoulder. "If it happens, it's fine. Don't worry about the Family shit."

"Look at that. You have your brother's approval," Celeste said. "So, if it happens, it happens. No big deal."

"It's not going to happen," I repeated.

But that didn't stop me from thinking of the possibilities as we sat down to dinner, as we all collapsed to the living room after, while Salvatore rolled up his sleeve and cleaned up, insisting he'd had a lot of practice while working in the prison kitchen.

It was after nine when Salvatore and Brio brought me and Avi home.

"She's not here yet," Avi said, looking disappointed when we walked into an empty house, the two of us waiting in the kitchen while Brio and Salvatore did a quick check of the apartment. "She's coming home, right?"

"I'm not sure, bud," I admitted, realizing for the first time that we hadn't discussed that. She was well again now. She didn't need medical assistance. It would make sense for her to just crash with her family for the night.

"She'll be back tomorrow though, right?"

"Of course she will," I told him, leaving off the fact that it was her job, that she had to be. I didn't want him thinking he was some sort of obligation. She called herself his friend, and I didn't want him thinking otherwise.

"Before school?"

"No school. Remember? Not until Monday. So, yeah, she will be here sometime around when you get up," I said, watching him let out a big yawn. "Why don't you go brush your teeth and head to bed?" I suggested. "You've had a long day," I added when he yawned again.

"Okay," he agreed. "'Night."

"'Night, bud," I said, nodding.

Not long after, Brio headed out, and Salvatore took up position outside the apartment door with Christopher. The two had a pretty competitive rummy competition going, a game Salvatore used to make time pass in prison. Except now he played for cash instead of bags of food or whatever else they traded on the inside.

With nothing else to do, I took a shower and got ready for bed myself too, resisting the urge to message Alessa, to ask her about her holiday. I could even do so with the excuse that Avi was asking when she would be coming back.

But I resisted.

Only because I put my phone on my nightstand and walked away from it as I went out to the kitchen to grab some of the pie my mother sent home with me because we hadn't had enough room to try all the ones she'd painstakingly slaved over.

I was just about to dollop some freezer whipped topping on the pie when the door opened, and in walked Alessa.

She froze a couple feet in the door, eyes landing on me. I wasn't imagining the way her gaze went hungry as she looked me over, standing there with my wet hair and in a pair of dark gray pajama pants. And nothing else.