AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let’s say a blessing on the food and then I’ll give you your seating assignment,” Mom said with a smile that was a little too smug. Since when had she ever assigned seats at dinner?
But Mrs. Russo began a prayer before anyone could get a word in edgewise, almost as if it were all planned.
She had barely said ‘Amen’ before Mom began to give directions. “Kids and parents, head into the kitchen.”
Alex opened his mouth, surely about to complain, but Mom silenced him with that glare. That particular mom glare that mothers must be gifted with on their way out of the hospital with their first child.
Anna and Sara, my cute and long-suffering sisters-in-law, smiled as they filled plates and passed them to kids while ushering them to the kitchen. They too seemed in on some major master plan.
“Russos, you can sit there. Changs, then Murdocks there, Russell and I there. Oh, I guess that leaves spaces for Damon, Ella, Jax, and Carlie down there,” Mom said, not even pretending that she wasn’t pairing us off as couples.
My cheeks heated. These poor men had no idea what they were getting into, moving next door to my parents.
“I could go help with the kids in the kitchen. That way Anna or Sara could have a meal with grownups for once,” I offered, trying to make my mom’s matchmaking a little less apparent. Even Carlie, who’d been thrilled about the guys, was blushing like she’d stood too near a heating vent.
Neither Anna nor Sara would meet my eyes and my offer was met with silence. Mom must have threatened them.
“I think the moms want to spend time with their families. Don’t they?” Mom asked, a slight edge to her voice.
“Of course,” Anna said as Sara nodded.
As if being married to my brothers wasn’t bad enough, now the poor women were being bullied by my mom. Granted, she treated them like queens most of the time, so they didn’t seem upset. In fact, judging by their eyes and pursed lips, they were trying not to laugh.
Traitors.
Realizing that continuing to argue would only make things more awkward, I headed to the other end of the table where Damon and Jax were already in their assigned chairs. A seat apart, just like Mom had instructed.
I eyed the brothers.
Damon shrugged. “If having a mom has taught us anything, it’s to do as any mother directs as soon as we are asked,” he said with a wink.
Most winks were creepy. Right? The kind of thing that made you shudder. Damon’s wink had just made my insides shudder. . . in a good way.
This couldn’t happen. My mom couldnotset me up and be successful at it.
So I sat down in the empty chair between the guys, intent on finding something wrong about these so-far perfect members of the male species.
ELEVEN
nadia
I glancedaround the club from my vantage point in the same seat Ella had taken just a few weeks before. There was a group of three girls to my left and the seat to my right was open.
I easily took in my surroundings, not feeling the need to be too discreet, considering most of those around me were too drunk to remember any of this later. There were a few sober folks, including the two men and one woman working behind the bar, filling drink orders as quickly as they could.
I nursed my Coke on the rocks as I continued to scan the room. If the girls knew what I did on my off time, they would either laugh at me or call me crazy. Why would I be here weeks after we’d wrapped up a case?
I could answer by saying I worried about the safety of this club’s patrons. There had still been nothing in the papers, even after we’d arrested the rapist. And sure, that guy was behind bars now, but I didn’t like the fact that the club was running as usual, with zero ramifications. Not that the club was to blame for a rapist coming there . . . actually, it kind of was. The owner was known for strong-arming the local news into avoiding any bad press, so multiple incidents had occurred here with the city still unaware. And I felt the women of our city should know what had happened in this place. They needed that knowledge so they could be more wary, a little more careful of their safety.
Instead, they all drank and danced in a state of ignorance that I couldn’t allow.
So I came here on my nights off. Watching more vigilantly, because others didn’t know to do so.
But that wasn’t the true reason I was there on a Sunday night when we didn’t have work the next morning.
The real reason was even sadder. Or maybe just more pathetic. I was here because there was nowhere else for me to go. Other than my team and Susie, I was alone in the world.
I never talked about my home life with the girls because it was so different from what they had. Ella had her tight-knit family that drove her crazy. Aria even lived with hers, going home every night to her loving parents and three younger sisters who adored her. Shai’s parents weren’t around anymore, but she had Brittany and Colt—more than enough family for her.
