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“I’m not trying to buy your blessing, Tony,” Jack said, surprised at how quickly he had lost control of the room. Why did the man have to make it such hard work? “I thought you might be interested in sharing your recipes with a wider audience.”
“Thank you for the offer but I would rather not encourage your connection to my family. I am fine with allowing you to use my kitchen in a professional capacity and my wife enjoys the company of Julietta. She is a lovely girl. But that is where it ends.”
So much to enjoy in that little speech. Jules had already been christened with an Italian name. Bully for her. Neither could Jack fail to miss that undertone of pity for the sister who was saddled with a piece of bad news like Jack for a brother. But best of all was the jibe about not wishing to encourage Jack’s connection to Tony’s family. That one had goal written all over it.
“I’m really grateful to you for taking my sister in while I travel. I intend to pay—”
Tony waved his knife magnanimously. Or maybe it was more of a threat. “Keep your money for the next time you get sued for that temper of yours. My daughter has a lot of responsibilities and all these distractions take her away from what’s important. The restaurant, her mother.”
“And her art?”
For his impertinence, Jack got a shoulder lift that might beat Laurent in a Continental shrug-off. “It is good for her to have a hobby, I suppose.”
“It’s more than a hobby, Tony. She’s very talented.”
“I do not need you to explain what my daughter is. I have known her all her life, you have known her for a few minutes.”
A fizz of annoyance arced over Jack’s temples. “You expect too much of her. She’s your daughter, not your skivvy. It’s not like you listen to her, anyway.”
Tony’s hand stilled in mid-chop. He placed the knife down carefully, as though concerned it might suddenly develop a will of its own.
“And you should mind your own business,” he said, his voice injected with steel. “Think about putting your own house in order before you start interfering in mine.”
Okay, he deserved that. No one knew more than Jack how much he had failed Jules and a reminder from the DeLuca paterfamilias knocked the wind out of him. Tony picked up his knife and sliced through an onion so quickly that Jack felt a squirm of discomfort in his crotch.
“Do not cut the celery so thin,” he added without even looking up.
Keeping his knife in a kiss with the board, Jack shifted his chopping from mincing to coarse. Had he somehow wandered into Tony Soprano's kitchen instead of Tony DeLuca’s? The kind of women he usually dated didn’t have wise guy relatives who would break his legs or encase him in concrete if he didn’t treat their clanswoman right. He’d already suffered through
this shit with Tad and Cara, and while he didn’t need this guy’s say-so to see Lili, it was rather early in the game to descend to rudeness about it.
“Tony, I understand I might not have been your first choice for Lili.”
Tony scoffed. “You understand, yet here we are after you agreed to stay away from her. This video business, the cruel things that are being said about her. None of this would have happened if you weren’t in my daughter’s life.”
Jack’s heart squeezed. Not usually this slow on the uptake, it should have occurred to him sooner that any father would suffer on his daughter’s behalf even when he was pissed at her.
Alternating between injury and offense pretty much described his relationship with Jules, and if that video had happened to his sister, the fucker would have needed a very deep hole to hide in.
“Tony, I know you only want to protect her.”
“Someone has to.” He turned, about as agitated as Jack had ever seen him. “This isn’t the first time people have bullied and taunted her. Her schooldays were a nightmare and this has brought it all up again. What are you doing to keep her from being hurt?”
Maybe not enough, but at least he was holding her and telling her every day she was amazing instead of acting like a bloody martinet.
“Tony, I love your daughter and I will stop at nothing to keep her safe.” It wasn’t a real answer to Tony’s demand for assurance but as Jack heard the words coming out of his mouth, quiet and steady, he knew it was the only answer. First time he’d said it aloud, too, and it didn’t sound as odd on his lips as he would have expected. It sounded brilliant.
There had been so many times it had been on the tip of his tongue to tell Lili, usually while he was buried inside her, drowning in those shotgun blues, every part of his body so recklessly happy. She owned his heart, but until she was ready to open hers to him, he’d use his time wisely to curry favor with the people she cared about. Starting with the man before him.
Your move, Il Duce.
Tony raised his eyes to Jack’s. There might have been respect lurking there, but it could just as easily have been Tony musing on the best way to chop up Jack’s body. Several strained seconds ticked by before the maestro spoke again.
“The moment I saw Liliana’s mother, it was colpo di fulmine.” He looked down, focused on a knot on the chopping board. “Love at first sight.”
Jack swallowed. Loudly. Were they having a moment?
“Of course, I was only ten years old at the time.” Alrighty then, so much for bonding. “And my daughter feels the same way about you?”
