Page 47 of It's Always Sonny

I took advantage of that once.

Maybe I shouldn’t have. Is that what happened our last semester together when I’d get her to miss class?

Whatever happened then, the reality now is that I could steal a lot of kisses from this woman. I want to—oh, how I want to—but maybe I shouldn’t let myself.

Maybe I should show some self-control until Parker Jane is wholly, completely, utterly mine.

A light bulb flickers on in my head.

That’s it.

If I’m going to show her how perfect we are for each other, I can’t slip into the old push and pull. I have to show her I’m not the same guy. I have to show her I’m interested without being pushy.

She puts her finger to her ear and fiddles with her earlobe, and it’s then I see another thing about Parker that’s changed: she has a second piercing in her left ear. But there’s no earring there, even though she wears small gold hoops in her first holes.

She catches me looking at her earlobe, and she drops her hand abruptly.

Don’t push it, I warn myself. If you want something different with her, then you have to be different.

I’m not sure I know how to do that. But I know I can’t do it at all if I’m focusing on her earlobes or her delicate hands or … any part of her, really. I lift the itinerary and glance at it one more time. “This is smart, Parker. Thanks for caring so much about my family.”

Her spine straightens, and she puts back on that false smile. “Thanks. I hope it works for all of you.”

Was there an emphasis on all? “What do you mean?”

“Nothing you don’t already know.”

“Indulge me.”

One of my cousins passes the table, and Parker grins as she hands her an itinerary. Where her scowl is distracting, this grin is unsettling.

“Some of your in-laws don’t chase the party quite as hard as the rest of the Lucianos do,” she says. “I hoped this would strike a good balance.”

Ouch. If that’s not veiled criticism, I don’t know what is. Old Sonny would let that sting for hours and not talk about it. I pride myself on being a peacekeeper, but I don’t want to leave things unsaid between us that need to be said. “Let’s rewind to the whole ‘chase the party’ thing. That’s how you think of us?”

Her head cocks to the side. “Is it wrong?”

“Who we are at a family reunion every two years isn’t who we are in every other moment of our lives.”

“Even you?”

“Even me,” I say. She bites the inside of her lip, and it’s new, so I don’t know what it means. Watch me, I want to say. Better yet, join me, I want to coax. But is that what got us into trouble before?

She blows her lips out, and looks past me for an instant, but she doesn’t agree or argue. “You should eat breakfast before the events start. It’d be a shame if you weren’t crowned the Ultimate Luciano.”

“I don’t need a trophy to prove what everyone knows.”

“HA!” Sienna says this from behind me, and I whip around to see my sister and her husband with glinting eyes. “You think you can beat me? Even without your bum knee, I’d own you.”

I shake my head and look back at PJ, who’s smirking after setting me up. “That job already belongs to someone else.”

I raise an eyebrow at the girl of my dreams, and I can practically see her body go up in flames. Proverbially, of course. It’s cold out.

I then head over to the buffet line with Sienna and Chris, but I steal a backwards glance at Parker and catch her blowing air slowly out of her pursed lips.

“You’re sure spending a lot of time talking to PJ. You going for it?” Sienna asks.

“Nope. I’m going to invite, not entice. Time to let her come to me instead.”

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