Coming Home (Morelli Family 6)

“Thank you for stealing me.” I smile as he pauses in kissing me to meet my gaze.

“Best decision I ever made,” he states.

I sigh as the song ends and I’m forced to stop dancing. “We should’ve picked a longer song. Are there any six-hour long songs? We should’ve picked one of those.”

He shakes his head. “Had to be this one.”

The man on stage announces it’s time for the bridal party to join us for a dance. It mostly works out—Francesca and Sal, Elise and Adrian. Things get slightly stickier with the unpaired couples. Meg goes to dance with Dante and Mateo waves for her attention, shaking his head.

“What?” she asks, innocently.

“Nope.”

She gives him a “what the hell?” look, but she abandons Dante and goes to dance with Alec anyway.

“Why can’t she dance with Dante?”

“I don’t trust those two together,” he states. “Aw, damn.”

I turn to look and see why, and Bella is shooting Mateo a look of annoyance because now she has to dance with Dante.

“This is starting to feel offensive,” Dante states.

Sighing with regret that fills me with regret, Mateo asks, “Do you mind if I dance with Bella?”

“Oh, my god, you’re making me dance with Dante?”

“You can handle him,” he assures me, dropping a kiss on my lips before he goes to save Bella. I can’t even argue with that, so as uncomfortable as it is, I straighten my shoulders and approach my new brother-in-law with my politest smile. I’m so salty about it, though. I’d much rather dance with Adrian if I have to take a cast-off. Even Alec. Not Dante. He doesn’t like me.

“I guess it’s you and me,” I say, since he appears to be no more excited about this than I am.

With a deceptively even tone, he remarks, “Well, it seems I am the only man in the family who hasn’t had a turn.”

I can’t help rearing back a little, but the asshole is already yanking me in for this godforsaken dance. “Wow. Do you make a habit of calling women whores on their wedding day?”

“Nope. I made an exception for you.” He smiles, pearly whites gleaming. He resembles Mateo enough that it’s vaguely creepy—like what Mateo might have looked like if he’d ever actually wished me harm. A shadow of the darkest moments when I thought he might have.

“I’ve never seen you smile before,” I state.

“It doesn’t happen a lot,” he acknowledges.

“I don’t think I’ve done anything to earn your hatred. Maybe we should start fresh now that we’re family, hm?” I suggest.

“You lobotomized my brother,” he states.

I roll my eyes. “That’s insane.”

“You’re not one of us,” he states. “You may curl up next to him at night, you may call this your home, but you’re not like us and you never will be. It’s foundational with you. I just called you a whore to your face on your wedding day and your response was, ‘hey, we should start fresh.’ Not, ‘Fuck off, Dante.’ Not ‘Yeah? Let me tell Mateo you said that, asshole.’ Your response was ‘Hey, let’s be friends.’”

“I don’t need Mateo to fight my battles for me,” I tell him. “Where possible, I prefer to disarm people than to fight back. Fighting only leads to more destruction. Peace is how you resolve things.”

His eyes light up like I just proved his point. “Exactly. We are the attackers, Mia. We are the ones who start the fight. We are the ones who destroy the peace.”

I glance past Dante and see Mateo keeping an eye on us. I flash him a smile to let him know everything is fine. Glancing back at Dante, I meet his brown eyes and give a light shrug. “So? You think I don’t know that? I’m not a moron.”

“Good and bad can’t exist together like that. Sooner or later, one has to corrupt the other.”

Smiling faintly, I meet his gaze. “Good can’t corrupt evil, Dante. That’s not how that works.”

“Sure, it can,” he says, smoothly.

“Nope.” I stand firm, shaking my head. “Good heals. Only evil corrupts.”

His gaze turns calculating as he watches my face. I don’t know what he’s looking for, but it makes me uncomfortable. His hand tightens on my waist and he pulls me closer, startling me. He leans close and asks, “Have I underestimated you?”

I don’t want to be that close to this particular Morelli, so I try to put the space back between us. “I think people always underestimate me,” I tell him.

Adrian and Elise are suddenly right next to us, and Adrian shoots Dante a look before asking casually, “Everything okay over here?”

I shoot Elise a hopeful look. “I don’t suppose you want to switch?”

Elise shakes her head. “No chance.”

“We’re fine,” Dante tells Adrian, his hold on me letting up a little. “Just giving the bride my best wishes.”

“Sure, that sounds right,” Adrian replies dryly. “We’re just gonna dance here and keep you guys company, then. I’m sure you won’t mind.”