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Thankfully, Anni hadn’t been upset after what had happened between us on the tennis court—if anything, she’d been softer toward me this evening.
Perhaps I’d been wrong in my initial estimation of her? Maybe I’d been wrong to hold myself back so much from her? I hadn’t wanted to let her get close to me, but that was what was happening now.
CHAPTER 33
LORENZO
A couple of weeks later, Anni’s parents invited us to Staten Island, and we decided to head there for the weekend.
We hadn’t been back to New York since the wedding and took the children with us as well, and it was nice to see them excited about the trip.
We took our private jet and then picked up a car to drive from the airfield to Staten Island.
As we drove across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, Anni gave a satisfied sigh. “Whenever I come across this bridge, it always feels like coming home. It’s the best view in the whole wide world.”
Today she was wearing a white strapless jumpsuit that had an enormous white bow around the waist, plus white stiletto heels. I considered asking her to wear something more conservative and suitable for her new role as my wife, but given that we were just visiting her family, I decided that they must be used to her strange dress sense by now and so let it go.
We arrived just before dinner. After drinks in the drawing room, Napoleone announced that dinner would be at the clubhouse tonight.
“At the clubhouse?” I asked.
“Yes. It’s the monthly Mexican Night, and I know you wouldn’t want to miss that.”
I stilled. “I thought your monthly Mexican Night is held at the end of every month?” I had purposely asked Anni about this and then deliberately scheduled our trip for the start of the month so that we would avoid the Mexican Night and fucking sombreros.
Ma Veneti shot me a devious look with her beady eyes. “We postponed the last one—especially so that you would be able to enjoy it with us when you visited.” I had the distinct feeling that she was gleefully inflicting another Mexican Night on me because of my refusal to wear a sombrero at the engagement party.
We made our way to the clubhouse. Although the children had been in the clubhouse for the wedding reception, tonight it felt different to them with the richly colored papel picado decorating the walls and the band playing lively Mexican music.
Clemente clapped his hands in glee, loving the energetic atmosphere and eager to explore his surroundings. Clara, who had taken a shine to Ma Veneti, sat between her and Anni, and allowed the older woman to keep her occupied with the contents of her purse.
Anni’s older brother, Christian, was sitting across from us. “Seeing your kids is making me broody,” Christian remarked.
“You, broody?” Anni laughed at her oldest brother.
“Yeah, I need to have an heir one day, so why not?” Christian had the same green eyes as Anni and most of the other Venetis, but his seemed menacing for some reason.
“You’d need to find yourself a wife first, and you’ve always said there’s no one in the Imperiosi families who interests you.”
“Now we have this alliance with the Fratellanza, I could find a girl from Chicago.”
That was never going to happen, I thought to myself. Napoleone was easy enough to work with as he was getting on in years and wanted a quiet life. Christian, on the other hand, was hungry for power and ruthless enough to do whatever was required to get it. I couldn’t see any Fratellanza man entrusting their daughter in marriage to Christian, alliance or not.
A little while later, I caught sight of Napoleone arguing with Anni’s other brother, Leoluca.
“What’s that about?” I asked Anni, my voice quiet.
Anni’s brow creased with a frown. “I love my papà, but he’s always been too hard on Leoluca.”
“In what way?”
“Papà always says Leoluca is a bitter disappointment to him and Ma.”
“He seems to be doing a good job to me. From the little I’ve seen of him, he appeared every inch a typical Made Man in terms of what he does and what he achieves.”
“But he’s areluctantMade Man, and that pisses Papà off to no end.”
“And your ma is disappointed about that too?”
