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“Not boss…partner,” his brother reminded him with a grin.
Uh, no. Not in Nick’s opinion. But he still hadn’t wanted to have that conversation.
His siblings and their families took up several tables in the restaurant-tables that would probably have been appreciated by the paying customers lining up near the front counter. But Mama would never dream of shooing them out to free up the space. She clucked around, ordering them all to eat, cooing over the grandbabies and beaming when Noelle, Mark’s wife, offered to let her feel the baby kicking in her stomach.
In Nick’s opinion, that was Twilight Zone stuff. But all the women got into it, and Mark looked like he thought it was the coolest thing since Optimus Prime and the Transformers. Nick, however, was freaked by the very idea. The only thing he wanted to feel moving around inside a woman was his own cock. A baby? Forget it.
Unless the woman was Izzie.
The thought was crazy-bothersome, even. But it wouldn’t leave his head.
“Hey, look who’s here,” Gloria called, waving toward the front door. “My baby sister! How you doin’, Iz?”
Nick immediately swung around, seeing Izzie at the counter.
“Ah, Isabella, you haven’t been to see me too much. What’s wrong with you, eh?” Mama said as she bustled over. She cupped Izzie’s face in her hands, pressing a kiss on her forehead, then grabbed her arm and dragged her over.
Smacking Lucas on the shoulder, she said, “Move over and make room for Gloria’s little sister.”
“Yes, ma’am,” his older brother said with a grin. Luke was the next oldest above Nick and Mark and, as a prosecutor, was used to ordering other people around. But, like all of them, he couldn’t refuse a command from their bossy mother.
“How’s everything, Iz?” he asked as he stood and moved his chair out of the way. “You remember Rachel, right?”
Izzie nodded, smiling at Luke’s pretty blond wife, the only fair-haired one of the bunch. A die-hard southerner, she’d somehow made herself fit in so well that Nick couldn’t imagine what the family would be like without her.
Fortunately, the room Mama had forced Luke to make was between his chair and Nick’s. Rosa Santori stole an unused chair from a nearby table and slid it in place, nearly pushing Izzie down onto it. Which had Nick ready to kiss his mother’s hand, even though Izzie looked less than happy.
“I was just picking something up for dinner on the way home from work,” she said, sounding almost dazed at how quickly she’d been shanghaied into a family dinner.
He understood the feeling. His mother was a powerhouse.
“Such a silly girl,” Mama said. “You will eat here, with the family. You’re one of us!” Trying to squeeze past her to get back to the kitchen, Mama said, “Scooch over a bit, eh?” and she pushed on Izzie’s chair until it was so close to Nick’s their thighs touched under the table.
Nick would lay money that his mother had done it on purpose. When he saw the smirk on her face as she left to check on dinner, he knew it was true.
Everyone wanted them to hook up. If only they knew…
“Hey Isabella,” he whispered from the side of his mouth.
She kicked him under the table.
“So, how do you like being back in Chi-town, Izzie?” his brother Joe asked. “Guess it’s pretty tame and unexciting after your life in New York. You must really need a creative outlet.”
There was a surprising twinkle in Joe’s eye. As he and Izzie exchanged a long stare, Nick began to have a suspicion that Joe knew a little more than he’d let on about Izzie’s nighttime life. Remembering the way Joe had steered him toward the job, and had been so adamant about Nick taking care of the “featured dancer” at Leather and Lace, he had to wonder if Joe had seen Izzie there during the renovations.
“It’s okay,” Izzie replied. Smiling, she added, “I’m just busy trying to avoid resuming my cannoli addiction. They’re my absolute weakness.”
Everyone at the table laughed. Except Nick. Because there’d been a sultry purr in her voice and he believed she’d been speaking only to him.
When he felt her hand-concealed by the red-and-white checked tablecloth-drop onto his leg, he was sure of it.
There was something really hot about having a woman you were supposed to just be casually friends with feel you up under a dinner table. Especially when that table was filled with curious family members who would love to see any sign of interest between the only two singles there.
Izzie was careful. So they definitely didn’t see her hand creep up his leg to trace the outline of his dick. That, he assumed, would be taken as a definite sign of interest.
