Family Ties (Morelli Family 4)

Sal reaches over and places his hand on top of mine, giving it a little squeeze. “No reason to apologize.”

“I’ll try. I’ll monitor the new maid situation and slip away as soon as I can for an overnight. If I have to, I’ll go to dinner and just leave after to escape his notice.”

“If you can do that, we should be doing it already,” he states.

“Well, I can’t yet. I have to wait until he actually starts fucking the maid. I don’t think he has yet. Or maybe he won’t start at all, because he will realize she doesn’t compare to—”

“Don’t say it,” Sal says, dramatically pressing his hands against his face. “Please, for the love of God, don’t say it.”

I grin, at this point just enjoying teasing him. “I wish you’d just agree with me, then it would be a moot point. You could nod, say ‘yes dear’ and then we move on.”

“Never gonna happen.”

“I’m sorry you’re on the wrong side of history.”

“I’m sorry you have Morelli brain,” he shoots back.

“Whatever, you love my Morelli brain.”

Sal’s dark eyebrows rise. He’s so damn cute when he’s disapproving of my lineage. “I love you despite your crazy Morelli programming, not because of it. Big difference.”

I lovingly caress his hand on the bar top as I tell him, “When we’re dancing at their wedding, I’m going to be so smug.”

“You are an insane person.”

I grin, wink, and take a sip of my piña colada. “We’ll see who’s crazy when they’re our new couple friends.”

“You’re gonna give me nightmares.”

“They probably won’t be fun couple friends. I mean, she will, but he’s always going to half-suspect your father of wanting to kill him, so that might put a hitch in things.”

“You realize this girl doesn’t even like your brother, right? The one whose wedding and married life you’re currently planning?”

“She does, she just doesn’t know it yet. Our kids can all have play dates.” I shake my head, pressing a hand to my chest as if overcome. “It’s all going to be so perfect.”

Sal shakes his head, tipping his beer back for a long drink. “Do they just grind up crazy pills and put them directly in the water supply at your house? Maybe that’s why Mateo enforces Sunday night dinners. Maybe he doses everyone with the wine.”

I have to laugh, since that’s not outside the realm of things my brother would do. I play along anyway, though. “Maybe he does. Maybe after your first family dinner with them you’ll understand.”

“I don’t think there are enough drugs in the world to get me to endorse your plan to marry a rape victim off to her rapist. I’m really, really confident about this.”

“Sh,” I say, bringing my finger up against his lips. “Don’t ruin it.”

Chapter Twenty Six

Mateo starts sleeping with the stupid maid.

Since my brother’s love life has become a contest between me and Sal, he treats it like a victory. I inform him he has only won a battle, but I’m still going to win the war. We both win the greater pot—more time together. Now that Mateo’s tucked away with his pretty little distraction, I’m able to slip out to visit Sal after dinner four nights the first week.

It. Is. Incredible.

Friday I get to spend the night with him, and I decide to call myself off Saturday morning so we can have the morning together, too.

Sal and I make breakfast together. I sit at his table in one of his T-shirts after an amazing night of togetherness, and life is absolutely beautiful.

Sunday Mateo brings his maid to family dinner. She leans down to whisper intimately in his ear right in front of Mia, and he caresses the maid’s hand on the table. I’m not worried on a grand scale; it’s very like Mateo to be aggressively into a woman early on, then his interest tapers off as he figures her out and gets tired of her. Not Beth or Mia, but the flavor of the week types like the maid. The more intensely interested he is at the start, the faster he peels back the layers, figures her out, and finds her lacking in some area; consequently his interest dies as quickly as it started up.

I’m not worried about any of that. Mia is still with Vince right now anyway.

No, what ruins Sunday for me the bomb he drops at dinner about unfriendliness with the Castellanos family and how Mateo is “planning something” now because they’ve given him no choice.

I barely make it through the rest of the meal. I know I have to keep my cool in front of Mateo, but all I want to do is scream and cry.

I also have no idea what to do.

Telling Sal what Mateo said would be a complete betrayal. It’s exactly the kind of thing neither of us can do, and why we don’t talk about this sort of thing. But not telling Sal could be potentially dangerous for him.