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“Sure. Ice?”
“Just a little ice. And lemon. Oh, and make that sparkling water.”
The waitress cocked her head. “Club soda?”
“Sparkling. San Pellegrino, but if you don’t have that brand—”
“We might have seltzer.”
“No,” Bianca said politely. “That’s not the same as—”
“She’ll have club soda,” Chay said curtly, “with ice and lemon.”
Bianca glared at him. “That isn’t what I want.”
“It’s what you’re getting.”
“Hey,” Tanner said softly, “dude…”
“Bianca,” Alessandra said quickly, her voice cutting across her husband’s, “how about something else? Ale, maybe? Or a soft drink?”
Bianca hesitated. Was she going to ruin her sister’s evening? More to the point, was she going to let the barbarian seated next to her ruin it? No. She would not. She would, as the Americans said, go with the flow.
“I’ll have some wine.”
Everybody seemed to relax. The waitress nodded, pencil poised.
“Sure. What kind?”
Bianca folded her hands on the tabletop. “What kind do you have?”
“House red. House white. I think Charlie might have some rose.”
“No. I meant, what types of wine do you have? Say, in the reds. Merlot? Malbec? Maybe a pinot noir? Or perhaps a cabernet. What cabernets do you—”
Chay’s voice cut across hers. “The house red is fine.”
The waitress nodded. “Great choice. One house red, coming up.”
Silence descended over the table, or something that was as close to it as you could get with the Stones blaring from the jukebox.
“I can’t get no satisfaction,” Mick sang.
Neither can I, Bianca thought grimly.
She’d caught the look Alessandra had sent her about the water-and-wine thing. Must you be so finicky? the look said. The accusation was an old one. And definitely unfounded. There was nothing wrong with keeping things organized. With knowing what you wanted.
Let things slip and life turned into chaos.
Amazing that Alessandra had not absorbed that simple lesson from their childhood.
&
nbsp; As for the lieutenant… He deserved whatever she dished out.
“Well,” Tanner said briskly, “here we are. All of us in one place for the first time since Alessandra and I tied the knot.”
“Oh. That’s right,” Bianca said. “That’s where we last saw each other. The ensign and I.”
