Page 130 of Falling for Mr. October

“Won’t they find it strange that you’re wearing my clothing?”

She gives me the finger, and I climb off the bed to suck on it.

“The things you do to me, amore mio.”

Her gaze meets mine, and she kisses the side of my mouth, then my lips. “I probably have terrible breath.”

“You do, but I don’t care.”

She laughs, pulling away. “I’m going to run for it.”

“Do it,” I say. “I’m going to watch your butt as you go.”

She bites her lip. “They probably have a camera set up on the stairs.”

“Theo would have had to help them with it, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Did I tell you he approves of us?”

“Oh,” she says, making that one word full of satisfaction. “When did you and Theo talk about me?”

“It happened after Biceps Before Bingo, but before I ravaged you that night.”

She cracks the door open, and I grin as I watch her tiptoe out of the room, her pace so much less forceful than usual. Of course, she makes it no more than a foot when I hear her nonna from the stairwell.

“Bianca? What on earth are you wearing?”

Bianca glances back at me, her gaze rueful, as both of the nonnas step into view. “Giovanni was screaming like a big baby, and it woke me up. I ran into his room, thinking he was dying, but it was just a daddy longlegs. So I borrowed a pair of his shorts to preserve my modesty.”

I cough my way through a laugh.

“Is this true?” Nonna Francesca says, shuffling over to stand shoulder to shoulder with Nonna Rose on the landing. “You’re still afraid of little spiders? You always did need one of your brothers to take them away.”

Now Bianca’s laughing at me. Fantastic.

But she darts a glance at me and then nearly shocks me dead by saying, “Look, don’t buy the wedding linens yet, but Giovanni and I aren’t in a fake relationship anymore. We’re dating.”

A huge grin spreads across my face, and the nonnas both exclaim at once, speaking over each other.

Then an unexpected voice travels over theirs. “So it worked?”

It’s a man’s voice, and holy shit, Miles steps into view next to the nonnas. He looks so much better than he did when I last saw him, as if he’s actually been sleeping.

A patch of cling film is taped over his arm—a new tattoo, knowing him—and his brown hair is slightly overgrown. The first time I met him I thought he was wearing colored contacts, because of one of his eyes is blue, the other green. He told me the green eye belonged to his inner demon, trying to claw its way out.

His words—so it worked?—only register as Bianca plows past me, my shorts practically falling off her waist, and stampedes down the stairs and into his arms.

He doesn’t care that I’m with Bianca.

He wants me to be with Bianca.

He was maybe hoping we’d hit it off all along.

I’m grinning as I step into her room to grab a pair of real pants for her. No doubt she’ll want them in another five minutes.

When I come down the stairs, I can hear lively conversation from deeper within the house, probably the kitchen, but my nonna’s waiting for me at the bottom of the steps.

Something in my stomach sinks, because there’s a serious look on her face. It occurs to me that maybe she’s about to remind me that October’s about to come to an end, and with it our trip.

But she shocks me by wrapping her arms around me and pulling me close.