Family Ties (Morelli Family 4)

“I do know that,” he disagrees. “Remember, we talked about this? The sunken ship? It’s not happening.”

“The girl I warned off?” Ethan inquires.

I nod, leaning forward so I can see him better. “Turns out, she’s meant to be with my brother.”

Salvatore shakes his head at me and takes a drink. “They’re definitely not meant to be. Your Morelli brain-washing is just tricking you into thinking that.”

I point to Salvatore accusingly, but address Ethan. “Strong opinions from the man who has never even met her, and has seen my brother on only a handful of occasions. Clearly I’m not better equipped to make that call.”

“I feel like I’ve met her,” Sal states, rolling his eyes. “I’ve considered kicking Mark out of my house when he actually started describing what her shampoo smells like.”

Ethan laughs. “Oh man.”

Sal nods, looking to Ethan as if for back-up. “I literally want to kill him sometimes.”

“That makes, what, three admirers? Willow was like that. Drove me fucking nuts,” Ethan states, shaking his head.

“Well, one is her actual boyfriend, so only two admirers. And my brother is a secret admirer.”

“He’s something, all right,” Sal mutters.

“Stop trying to dash my romantic aspirations.”

“Your brother doesn’t deserve Mia. Neither does Vince. She should jump ship from your family and come date Mark. Mark would be nice to her. We could be couple friends with them, since you like her so much. Make everyone happy.”

“Until my brother kills him dead, then I think we’d all be a little less happy.”

Ethan nods, apparently agreeing with me. “She has a solid point. No one with half a brain is going to try to take a girl Mateo Morelli wants for himself.”

“Oh, but you haven’t smelled her coconut hair,” Sal says mockingly. Then normally, he adds, “She’s not his girl. She’s Vince’s.”

“I’m sorry you don’t believe in love,” I state, shaking my head in mock disappointment.

“I’m sorry that I’m the only one at this bar who doesn’t want to sentence Mia to a lifetime of abuse at the hands of your shitty brother,” Sal states, like I’m the crazy one.

“My brother isn’t abusive,” I say, a little defensively.

Sal’s eyes go wide, but Ethan interrupts again before he can respond. “You know what, I think I should be getting home.”

My gaze drifts to him as he stands and pulls out his wallet.

“Oh, are you sure?” I ask. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your guys’ night.”

“This is not a guys’ night. I don’t have those with him.”

“Don’t listen to him, he likes me more than he thinks he does,” Ethan says lightly, dropping some cash on the bar and tucking his wallet back in his pocket.

“Well, it was nice finally meeting you. I’d love to meet Willow sometime.”

Ethan nods. “We’ll set something up.”

Sal and Ethan say their goodbyes and the bartender finally realizes there’s another person at the bar. I order myself a piña colada.

Sal sits back down once Ethan’s gone and glances over at me.

“He’s not at all what I pictured,” I inform Sal.

“No?”

I shake my head, thanking the bartender as he slides my drink across the counter and walks away. “For some reason I was envisioning a balding, doughy, kinda sleazy middle-aged man with a puffy face.”

“Is that not what Ethan looks like?” he jokes.

I give him a dry look. “Yeah, because you’re a man you clearly can’t see his chiseled features, million-dollar smile, and dreamy blue eyes.”

Sal rolls his eyes. “Gross. You’re not allowed to be attracted to my almost brother-in-law.”

I grin, taking a sip of my drink. “Obviously you’re far hotter, but you always made him sound like a creep, and he’s pretty hot.”

“You of all people should know someone can be a creep and also have a traditionally attractive appearance.”

I know he’s talking about my brother, but I don’t want to get back into that. I don’t even feel like defending Mateo right now, it just happens by instinct when Sal pokes and prods at him.

“He wants to be couple friends,” I tell him, smugly.

Ignoring me, since he’s weird about that phrase, Sal changes the subject. “I’m glad you could get away tonight. Bonus Francesca time is my favorite.”

I nod, sipping my drink. “If the new maid doesn’t annoy the living fuck out of Mateo with her brashness, maybe he’ll lose his focus for a little while again. I’d love to spend more of the summer together.”

“Tell her to distract him really well and we can go away for a whole weekend,” he suggests.

“Well, that’s probably not going to happen. I’d be happy to just get back to skipping the occasional dinner though. Then I don’t have to endure them when nobody’s really there anyway and I get to see more of you. It’s a win-win.”

“I want you overnight,” he states. “This no overnight bullshit is killing me.”

Sighing heavily, I droop. “I know. I’m sorry.”