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“You really don’t exchange gifts with your brothers?” she asked, seeking to end the silence.
“We’re wealthy men. If we want something, we buy it. A gift exchange just for the sake of observing some holiday tradition is pointless.” He picked up his wineglass from the coffee table and took another sip.
She followed his lead, reaching for her wine as well, hoping it would provide some level of defense. “Gifts aren’t just about buying something the person wants. They’re meant to be meaningful, thoughtful.”
“For example?”
“This fall, I managed to get my brothers and I together in the same place at the same time for a portrait. My mom has wanted it for years, but it’s been impossible to synch our schedules because Bruno always had something with the kids or Aldo was on duty or Elio was on the road with the team.”
While Aldo was still a paid firefighter for the city, Elio had hung up his skates at the end of the last hockey season, returning home to be with Gianna.
“Elio and his wife just had a baby, right?”
Liza smiled. “A little girl. In September. She’s absolutely adorable.”
“You like being an aunt.”
“I loooove being an aunt,” she corrected. “You know, Penny said she and Gage are trying to get pregnant. Are you ready to become Uncle Matt?”
Matt sighed, lifting one shoulder. “I don’t have a lot of experience around small children. Conor can assume the role of fun uncle.”
Liza waited to see if he added a “just kidding” to that comment, but she could see he meant what he said. “So no kids in your future?”
Matt shook his head. “I have no plans to get married or have a family.”
“Oh.” She started to ask why, but Matt seemed to anticipate the question and he shut her down.
“So you’re giving your mom the portrait for Christmas?”
Liza nodded. “Actually, I got two of the pictures framed, and I can’t wait to see her face when she opens them. I bought all of us flannel shirts in coordinating colors. We paired them with blue jeans, and in one we’re doing the usual cheesy smiles, but the second one wasn’t posed.
“Bruno’s a big guy, with a big appetite, and the most obnoxiously long, thick, unruly lumberjack beard. Mom and I have been begging him to shave, but he says his wife Vivian is crazy about it. Anyway, we’re sitting there, waiting for the photographer, when Bruno runs his hand down his beard…and a French fry falls out and lands on Aldo’s shoulder. All of us fell apart laughing, and the photographer snapped a picture of it. It was our favorite of the bunch. We’re pretty sure that’s the one Mom’s going to hang up in the living room for guests to see.”
“You’re close to your parents, to your brothers.”
“Yeah. Very. Mom and I talk on the phone at least three times a week. And my brothers…well, they’re more than brothers. They’re my best friends too. You know how it is. You have Gage and Conor.”
Liza wished she could take back her comment, even though she wasn’t sure what she’d said wrong. The shadows that never completely left his eyes grew darker, and she knew she wasn’t imagining the outright pain that flashed on his face.
Of course, Matt was the master of control, so she only got a glimpse before he schooled his features and turned to put his glass on the coffee table once more.
She’d become very good friends with Gage over the past year, but the subject of Matt wasn’t something they discussed much. At least not from Gage’s perspective. When she looked back, she realized the only times she and Gage talked about Matt, it was her doing the talking, and by talking, she meant bitching.
She didn’t know much about the Russo brothers’ relationship other than the fact the three of them ran the family business together. Now…she was curious.
Matt, however, was good at dodging subjects he didn’t want to discuss. He shifted closer, taking her glass from her and setting it next to his.
Then he began pulling the pins from her hair.
The familiarity should have felt strange, but like her unbuttoning his shirt, it seemed natural, right.
Once he’d removed the last pin, he ran his fingers through her hair, his fingertips rubbing against her scalp in such a sensual, gentle, hot-as hell way, she closed her eyes and sighed.
“That feels good.”
“You have beautiful hair. So thick.”
Her eyelids lifted and she watched as he continued to run his fingers through her long tresses. Before she could think better of it, she reached out to draw her hand along his cheek, rough from his beard.
