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“You can salsa?”
“I might be Italian, but I’m every bit as Latino as possible.” He held his hand for her to take.
She folded her arms over her chest and sat back in her seat. “Maybe later. Tell me more about how you’re possibly Latino.”
“My friends, Tito and Roman.”
“Roman is the one who pops up almost as much as Tai,” she interjected, “he’s a Torres?”
“Yeah, and he’s from here. After working together for so long, we’re like brothers.”
“At the FBI?” she added.
“Yeah, we’ve worked together so long, I’ve picked up on things. Plus, I have a place in Washington Heights.”
The bachelor place in the Heights became more of a bachelor pad for the guys on the team in the dog house with their significant others. Some went down south to their partner Jerraud’s place, especially after he rebuilt his houseboat after an explosion a few years back. Their jobs with the bureau did not allow them much time to lay roots. A well-paid maid came once or twice a month to keep quiet and keep the three bedroom apartments clean. Cole and Rosalind shared a place in Southwood on the Georgia/Florida line. The team loved crashing the family. They all got along well with Rosalind and their daughter Jane. Jane was old enough to babysit. Dante let out an audible sigh and shook his head wondering why the idea of children entered his head.
“So when I told you all about Villa San Juan, you’d already been here?”
The corners of his mouth jerked back being caught in a lie.
“You are such a liar,” Harley rolled her eyes.
“What’s with you and liars?”
Harley shrugged her shoulders and looked away briefly. “I guess in that sense I am just like any other girl.”
“Not a chance.”
“I don’t want to be lied to,” she said flatly.
The table next to them received their food, something sizzling. He became aware of the room around them even more. All the other couples sat pretty much nose-to-nose and smiled into each other’s eyes. Here they sat with an argument surfacing. Dante gulped. “So, some guy lies to you and I pay the penalty?”
Harley raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. If she had lasers he might have been cut in half. “Are you saying you’re trustworthy?”
“I keep coming to find you after your ass keeps disappearing on me,” Dante flashed a smile, “that has to account for something?”
“Sure, stalker.” Harley retaliated with a dazzling smile of her own.
“Man,” he sighed, “I’ve never had to work so hard to get a woman. You have to realize this is a first for me. I usually have women eating out of the palms of my hands.”
“So find one of them,” she shrugged her shoulders.
Ouch, he winced inside. “You’re cold, you know that?”
“Perhaps,” the corners of her eyes softened. “Okay, so you grew up in Brooklyn but you joined the military? Why?”
“I got tired of my dad beating on me. My mother used to send me down to her sister’s place to get away from him.”
“Chet’s?”
“Yeah. I’m surprised I never met you before on the summers I came.”
“Summers I was here,” Harley half smiled. “So why’d you stop coming?”
Dante shrugged his shoulders, “When my sister died, mom sort of died soon after. I was too old for the summer visits and too broke for college. The Marines seemed the logical choice for me.”
“I’m sorry your dad beat you.”
