Once Burned (Morelli Family 3)

“I love the beach,” she says, grinning. “When I was younger, I always used to dream of living in a house on the beach someday. It’s so peaceful. There’s something about the waves lapping at the shore that just soothes me.”

“Then I’ll buy you a beach house someday,” I tell her.

“You’ll buy us a beach house,” she amends, poking me in the chest.

I can’t help smiling. “Yeah. Us.”

When I finally drag myself out of bed to shower and head downstairs for the day, I can’t even wipe the stupid smile off my face.

Mateo’s at the table alone, sipping his coffee and reading his paper. He looks up as I come in, and even once I’ve thrown some food on a plate and returned to the table, a ghost of a smile still hangs on my lips.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow.

I don’t even try to play it cool as I drop into the seat next to him. “Elise.”

“Yeah?”

“Elise is awesome.”

He grins, putting his paper down. “Good. It’s nice to see you happy.”

I shake my head, reaching for my cup of coffee. “I can’t believe she likes me.”

He laughs a little, probably surprised by my candor, but I don’t even care. “I’m glad she does,” he says earnestly. I know he doesn’t especially care if Elise was pleased with wherever he decided to send her, but he knows I do.

“You won’t need me when you and Meg go on vacation, right?”

“I shouldn’t,” he says, shaking his head. “Unless you want to come. Have a couples getaway.”

“Oh yeah, that’s what I want to do with my time off,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“I figured,” he says lightly.

“You going to Paris?”

Rolling his eyes, he says, “Fuck Paris.”

“Elise wants to go to the beach,” I tell him. “I can think of worse ways to spend my time.”

“Actually, that’s where I want to go,” he says, cracking a smile. “Maybe we should reconsider the couples getaway.”

I shake my head. “You tell me which ocean you’re visiting, I’ll pick a different one.”

“That’s not very brotherly,” he tells me.

I give him the deadest expression I can possibly muster, but he just grins and takes a sip of his coffee.

“We’re going to have to have a funeral, you know.”

“You’re going to have to have a funeral,” I state, turning my attention back to my plate. “That has nothing to do with me.”

“He left a will, too,” Mateo points out.

I sigh, not wanting to even think about it. The old man probably left emotional landmines there, too. “I hope that’s not you someday,” I tell him, flicking a glance at him.

“I like to think I’m an improvement over the last Mateo, thank you very much.”

“Hopefully Meg’s baby will be an improvement over the current one,” I say. “Who knows, maybe three or four generations down the road, someone normal will carry your name.”

Mateo smirks. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

“It’ll be nice for him to have a mom.” His smile falls, not dramatically, not with any kind of excessive sadness, but he looks a little pensive as he nods his agreement. Since we’re talking about it, I decide to go ahead and tell him, “Elise wants kids.”

His gaze returns to me. “Do you?”

I shrug. “It’s not something I ever thought was in the cards for me, but… sounds nice.”

Mateo nods. “It’s pretty nice.”

“More people to keep safe,” I mutter. “Sort of stresses me out.”

“Well, put a baby in her now and my new one will have a friend. They’ll be just like us,” he adds, smiling faintly.

“The next generation,” I say, rolling my eyes. Then I add, “Hopefully not just like us. If you turn on me and end up raising my kid, I’m going to be so pissed.”

He knows that’s only partially a joke, because he responds, “I maintain we should do a DNA test, just so we know.”

“And I maintain that I don’t want to know and it doesn’t matter. Finding out would only make you paranoid if I am.”

“But it would set my mind at ease if you weren’t,” he points out.

My eyebrows rise, since he didn’t even make a half-ass attempt to deny it. “You’re too smart to be this stupid, Mateo,” I tell him, shaking my head.

“Don’t pretend you have no ambition, Adrian,” he says, rolling his eyes.

“Not nearly as much as you. You know what I do have?” I ask, meeting his gaze, because I’m so fucking serious right now, and I want him to see that. “Loyalty. To you. You want to be able to count on me, we’ve gotta stay on the same side. You have nothing I want; I have no interest in usurping you. Don’t be a dick.”

“You know how I struggle with that.” He says it like a joke as he picks up his coffee cup, but I roll my eyes, because it’s not a joke at all.