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“You sure you’re okay, Dominic?” Melanie asked sweetly, and when I caught her eye, I knew she had correctly guessed where my mind was.
“I’m fine,” I said evenly. “I’m touched by your concern, though.”
“I’m glad you’re touched,” she said, and it looked like she was trying not to laugh.
I immediately steered the conversation back to the takeout menus because Gio was looking at both of us kind of funny and I didn’t want it to be apparent that two out of the three people in this little meeting had screwed each other’s brains out last night.
“Well,” Melanie said, “the staff is going to start arriving around one so that will give us plenty of time to get everything in place before we open at four.”
“And then tomorrow we start regular hours,” Gio reminded us. “Which means we’ll be open before lunch.” He drummed his fingers on a nearby table. “I think we’re ready. What do you think, Dom?”
“I want to do some final run-throughs in the kitchen, but yeah, we couldn’t be more ready.”
“Melanie?” Gio ventured.
“I agree,” she said, and her happy smile just about melted my heart. “We’re ready.”
The three of us scattered in order to pursue our own last-minute tasks. My nerves were starting to get the better of me. Given all the enthusiasm we’d drummed up for the new location, there was no reason to believe that we wouldn’t be successful. But nothing was for sure.
At ten minutes to noon, Jason texted me to let me know he was five minutes away and that he was hauling me off to lunch whether I liked it or not.
“Esposito boys!” Jason bellowed when he busted through the door.
“What’s up, Jay?” Gio grinned as they fist bumped.
Jason looked around with his shrewd, dark eyes. “I’m impressed,” he said. “This place is destined to be the new downtown trend. Sorry I couldn’t make it to the event the other night. I was burning the midnight oil, working on this massive courthouse bid. But nothing’s keeping me from opening tonight.”
“I’m glad,” I said, “but there’s no way in hell I can run out of here and go to lunch right now.”
“What?” He seemed outraged. “It looks fine. The sign on the door says you’re not open until four today.”
“Jay.” I tried again to explain to my stubborn friend. “I’ve got a ton of shit to do. It’s opening day for fuck’s sake. I can’t just take off.”
“Half an hour,” he insisted. “I’ll bring you right back, I promise.”
“Ah, go ahead, Dom,” Gio said. “He’s not going to shut up until you go.”
“Your brother is absolutely right,” Jay said. “By the way, I’ve got good news, Dominic. I convinced the twins you were having a bad night when you blew Briana off. Apparently they like a challenge. They’re willing to give you another shot.”
“You mean both of them?” Gio said, looking confused.
“Never mind,” I growled because Melanie had crept out of the office and was standing there listening to every word.
Jason pouted. “Come on. One of these days you’ll have to relax on the work and play a little, or you’ll explode in an unholy shower of pent-up sexual aggression.”
Melanie’s eyes were on me. Gio was staring off toward the kitchen and probably pretending the conversation wasn’t happening. I just wanted Jason to shut the fuck up.
“Fine, let’s go,” I said abruptly while trying to muscle him out the door. “Thirty minutes is all I’m giving you.”
“Wait a minute.” He fended me off with ease. Jason worked out four days a week—it wasn’t so easy to muscle him anywhere. He pointed to Gio. “You coming with us? I swear I’ll keep wild tales of the bachelor life to a minimum. You can even show off pictures of your kid, and I’ll say nice things about how cute it is.”
“She,” I told Jason. “My niece is a girl, and her name is Leah.”
“Right, right,” Jason said absently. “So how about it, G-Man?”
Gio shook his head and chuckled. “Thanks, but my beautiful bride promised to stop by and bring me lunch.”
“Lucky man,” Jason said, but I knew he was being the Jason version of polite. For a smart guy he had a painfully short attention span when it came to women. I couldn’t even guess what it would take to domesticate him.
