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“Jesus, man. I think that’s a given.” Luca placed his hand on Conor’s shoulder. “You’ll be lucky if they don’t camp out here until then.”
The three of them laughed. Harper hadn’t lied about her lack of knowledge regarding hockey. He thought Conor had exaggerated, until the man confessed to watching hours of YouTube videos of game highlights in preparation for this party.
Luca had teased him for being a nerd, doing homework, while reassuring him that he hadn’t needed to study just to watch hockey with the gang.
Conor stood when everyone else rose and started to tidy the room.
The Morettis partied hard, but when the fun was over, they always stuck around to deal with the mess. With so many hands at work, the theater room was put back to rights quickly. Liza, Keeley, and Hazel had headed to the kitchen to help Harper pack away the leftover food. She’d made a ton after listening to Luca talk about the spreads his aunts and Nonna put out at family gatherings.
Luca placed an empty wings platter on the counter, while Conor followed him with the chip and dip bowls.
“I clearly overestimated the food.” Harper spun around the room, looking at how much was left.
Luca stepped next to her, wrapping his arm around her waist. “If Elio had shown up like he was supposed to, you wouldn’t have had enough,” he joked.
She grinned. “Well, those leftover containers I bought for shrimp-and-grits night are still here, since you and Conor plowed through all of that in one sitting.”
Conor pulled the containers out of a cabinet, encouraging Liza, Hazel, and Keeley to fill them with leftovers to take home.
Soon, everyone began to leave, one couple or throuple at a time, until only Luca, Conor, and Harper remained.
“What an incredible afternoon,” Conor said, smiling widely.
“You’re one hell of a host,” Luca said.
“You really are.” Harper stretched up on tiptoe to give Conor a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you so much for including me. Now…” she said. “Do you guys have plans for the rest of the evening? Because if you don’t, I was hoping we could have another drink or two and chill for a while. I have soooo many questions about everyone who was here.”
Luca was thrilled she wanted to know more.
Conor walked to the fridge. “I don’t have any plans for the evening. Beer?” he asked before pointing to the counter. “Or red wine.”
“Wine,” Harper said. At the same time Luca said, “Beer.”
Conor chuckled as he pulled a beer out of the refrigerator and tossed it to Luca. Then he opened the wine and grabbed two glasses. “Back to our spots on the couch?”
They walked to the living room, and they did indeed claim the same seats they’d taken a week earlier, though Luca noted that this time, there was less distance between them. Harper still sat in the corner seat, but he and Conor had shifted away from the ends of the couch, sitting sideways in the middle of their sides of the sectional, facing her and each other.
“So let’s have it,” Luca said to Harper. “What are your questions?”
“Gio and Rafe,” she started. “They’re with each other and Keeley?”
Luca nodded. “Yeah. They are. Same with Kayden, Aldo, and Hazel.”
“And that works?” she asked.
“You just spent the last four hours with them. What do you think?” Luca asked with a grin.
“They look very happy,” Conor said. “I’ll admit, I’ve always wondered how they make it work, but it’s clear they do.”
“I think it’s awesome,” Harper admitted.
Thank God, Luca thought, grateful that Conor and Harper seemed accepting of the threesome concept. Then he did an internal eye roll, aware he was getting carried away, putting the cart before the horse, imagining the three of them in a relationship that hadn’t even reached the first square on the game board. While they’d spent a lot of time with each other this week, what they’d been doing was far from dating.
Hell, none of them had even kissed.
“Do you think the throuple-ing is some sort of genetic thing with your family?” Harper asked with a twinkle in her eye.
Luca suspected she was joking, but he shook his head, taking the question seriously. “I don’t think it’s genetics as much as experience. We watched my sister, Layla, fall for her guys, Finn and Miguel. When you see something like that, see firsthand how well it can work, it sort of opens your eyes to more possibilities than you realized were there. Then Gio and Rafe both fell for Keeley—they’d been best friends forever, and they didn’t want to lose each other fighting over a woman. So…”
