Surviving Mateo (Morelli Family 2)

I plan on surprising him with my arms around him, but he’s too perceptive and spins around to smirk at me as soon as I ease the door open.

“Well, good morning to you, too,” he says, his eyes moving over my body.

I cut off his perusal, moving forward and wrapping my arms around his neck to kiss him. “I figured we should get a head start.”

“That’s true, you promised me lots of naked Meg today.”

“And I take my promises very seriously,” I tell him solemnly.

“Oh, me too,” he says before capturing my lips.

After a very pleasurable shower, we grab some lunch downstairs with the girls and head to the play room. After some family time, Mateo hauls me back upstairs and we spend a decent chunk of the afternoon in bed.

Even though it’s Sunday, Mateo says he has to get some work done afterward. Typically he takes Sundays off, other than whatever shop talk happens while the men drink in the study before dinner, but obviously right now we’re all on high alert.

Mia and Vince get to the house a little early tonight—Mia’s doing, as she pulls me aside to give me the pregnancy test.

“Are you going to take it right now? I’m so excited. Can I come? Is that weird to ask?”

I laugh at her excitement over my possible pregnancy. “No, I’m going to wait until morning. You’re supposed to take it first thing for the best results, if I remember correctly.”

“If that thing’s positive, we have to go baby shopping this week.”

“I think we should go shopping this week either way so you can show me that lilac dress you wanted.”

Looping her arm through mine, she says, “You spoil me.”

“Just call me sugar daddy,” I reply.

Vince eyes up our entwined arms before giving me a slight look of censure.

“What?” I ask innocently. “You’re not jealous of me, too?”

Mia elbows me in the side for that one, but Vince just rolls his eyes. “Your boyfriend’s rubbing off on you,” he tells me.

“Often,” I reply, grinning at the face he makes in response.

“No one was harmed in the making of our girls’ night,” Mia assures him, reaching her hand up to caress his face lovingly.

“This is going to be a sad dinner,” I state. “No Adrian, no Francesca. Sad.”

“Mateo’s brother’s coming tonight with a plus-one, so their spots will be full,” Vince tells me.

“Which brother?”

“Dante. I don’t imagine you’ve met him, he doesn’t usually come to family dinners.”

“Oh, cool. No, Mateo hasn’t even mentioned him.”

“They don’t really get along,” Vince states. “But it’s all hands on deck right now, so…”

“Why don’t they get along?” Mia asks.

I’m surprised she hasn’t met him either, since she’s been around a lot longer than I have.

Vince rolls his eyes. “Falling out over a girl, what else?”

Shaking my head, I say, “Man, all of you Morelli men owe me a fruit basket for taking him off the market. It sounds like he was a real troublemaker before I came on the scene.”

Smirking at me, he says, “We’ll all chip in and get you one.”

Mia and I get a head start on dinner. It’s really weird just having the two of us in here though.

“Is this what it’s going to be like now?” Mia asks. “Good thing we like each other.”

“We need to find Joey a girl,” I tell her. “One we like and want to deal with on Sundays.”

“Or Alec,” she suggests. “He’s kinda cute, that nose aside.”

“I never talk to Alec, so I don’t know. I just want Adrian back. Elise is all right, but I miss Adrian already.”

“Tell Mateo to offer him a big raise.”

“I think he did,” I admit. “He tried to get him to stay, but it was a no-go.”

“I loved Adrian when he wasn’t tattling on me. He was like a cuddly, gruff, homicidal teddy bear.”

Raising my eyebrows, I tell her, “That’s maybe not the best description.”

The door flings open and in walks some woman I’ve never seen before. She has brown hair and blue eyes, and she’s wearing a tight black dress with matching black pumps—and boy, does she look pissy.

She glances from me to Mia, approaching the sink to wash her hands. “What are we making?”

“Uh…” Mia just stares at me, like I might know who it is.

“Where’s Francesca?” the new girl asks, grabbing a hand towel and drying off. Then, without asking, she reaches into the cupboard where we keep the wine glasses and pulls one out. Again, without asking, she walks over to the pantry and pulls out one of the ‘emergency wines’ we keep in there, in the event we run out at dinner and no one is around to go to the cellar. I watch as she walks over to the correct drawer and extracts a corkscrew, opening the wine and pouring a large quantity of it into her glass.