Page 40 of The Fall Affair

“I think it’s more that he’s grown to tolerate me.”

She sipped her wine, smiling. “You’re all he’s talked about since I got here a few hours ago. I already know that you made him dinner, he taught you how to ride a Vespa, and you did a good job picking grapes.” Luciana’s index finger lifted from her glass and pointed to me. “I can’t usually get my brother to say more than three words.”

The last thing I needed was to get involved with a man who lived four thousand miles away, yet my heart fluttered like I was in high school and my friend had just told me the boy I thought was cute had a crush on me. I wasn’t sure how to respond to Luciana, so I was relieved when Matteo came back into the room, effectively ending the conversation about him.

“Do you come to Montepulciano often?” I asked Luciana.

“At least once a year.” Matteo’s eyes slid to meet his sister’s, and they exchanged a funny look, though neither of them said anything more. Instead, she rested a hand on his shoulder and leaned toward me, grinning. “Someone has to remind him that fun is a thing people have and not something they do to annoy him.”

I smiled. I liked Luciana. She was funny and outspoken, but I could tell by the way she looked at her brother that she was protective of him, too. The three of us stood around the kitchen talking for another ten minutes before Luciana stretched her arms over her head.

“I’m tired from the drive. Think I’m going to go to bed.”

Matteo’s face wrinkled. “It’s only seven thirty, and we didn’t even eat dinner yet.”

She shrugged. “Allegra can eat mine. Did you eat yet, dah-ling?”

“No, but I made two pies, so I was just going to have a piece of that at home.”

“Why cut open two pies when you can share one?” She walked over to her brother, kissed both his cheeks, and mussed his hair. “Be polite to da pretty girl, little brother.” She blew me a kiss. “I’ll pop over at eleven on Friday night to pick you up.”

“Eleven at night?”

She chuckled. “Nothing to tell your friends about happens at da club before midnight.”

Midnight had been my bedtime for the last six years, mostly because I’d usually worked until eleven. Yet I shrugged. “Okay.”

Luciana disappeared, but not before calling from somewhere upstairs, “I sleep with my AirPods in, so I won’t hear a ting!”

Matteo closed his eyes and shook his head. “Excuse my sister. She’s about as subtle as a marching band in a library.”

I smiled. “I like her.”

Matteo drank the rest of the wine in his glass while studying me over the brim. “You want something else with da pie? I could make a salad?”

“Oh. No, that’s okay. I brought that for you to say thank you for the riding lesson today. We don’t have to share it.”

He held my gaze. “We don’t. But I’d like to. How about you?”

The way he looked at me made me nervous, and it wasn’t only because he was alarmingly handsome. It was because of how much I liked it. I shrugged, trying to hide what I was feeling. “Well, sure.”

The corner of his lip twitched, and I got the feeling he knew exactly what was going on with me, though at least he didn’t call me out. “How long does it need to go in da oven for?”

“Twenty minutes at three fifty should do it.” I shook my head. “I mean one seventy-five. I keep forgetting the oven is Celsius.”

He nodded and pulled out a chair. “Have a seat. You want a refill?”

“Why not?”

I watched as Matteo refilled my wine, turned the oven on, and took vegetables from the fridge to make a salad. It was sexy to see a man who felt comfortable in the kitchen.

“Do you cook every night?” I asked.

“Only when I want to eat. There’s not a lot of quick takeout in the area. The closest restaurant is a fifteen-minute drive, and food is cold by da time you get it home.”

A man who looked like Matteo must have no problem getting dates, though. “What about eating out?”

He shrugged. “Once in a while.”