Page 84 of No Stone Unturned

“She wants to know when the wedding is going to be held,” Slash finally said. “She’s asking a lot of questions about the preparation.”

“Oh.” I stopped in mid-shovel. “What did you say?” There was nothingtosay. The only planning we’d done had been for the engagement party and I needed alotmore downtime—possibly forever—before I planned another social gathering.

“I told her we’re working on it.”

“But we’re not.”

He smiled. “But we will.”

I set my fork down. “That was a lot of talking for saying we’re working on it.”

He picked up his wineglass, took a sip. “I’m Italian. I’m providing as much detail to the non-details as possible.”

“Wait. You don’t think she’s going to ask me any awkward questions while we’re here, do you?”

He lifted his glass to me, his lips twitching with amusement. “I think there’s an excellent chance awkward questions will arise.”

I sighed. “I was afraid of that.” I finished off the rest of my wine in case I needed the courage. “Did she ask why we’re here?”

“She did. I told her we’re here to announce our engagement in person,andwe have a little business as well. She didn’t ask further, and I didn’t provide additional information.”

After we finished lunch, we both drank a glass of limoncello, a lemon-infused vodka that Slash insisted would help me digest. It was so strong it made my eyes water, but I finished it all. By the time I finished that and we helped Nonna clean the kitchen, I was in a complete food coma. I staggered to the living room and collapsed on the couch from the effort.

“I could die happy right now,” I said with a sigh.

Slash followed me to the couch, plopping down beside me. Nonna and Principessa joined us. Nonna sat in an armchair with a pretty crocheted blanket and Principessa, not surprisingly, snuggled up in Slash’s lap. She made sure her rear end faced me, tail whipping my arm every once in a while as if to remind me Slash had his hands on her, not me.

Nonna and Slash spoke for a few minutes, until Slash suddenly stood and put the cat on the floor, much to her dismay. He headed over to a bookshelf and pulled something off a bottom shelf.

“Hey,cara, look at this. Nonna kept my old Xbox.”

I had almost fallen asleep, so his words startled me awake. “An Xbox?”

“Not justanXbox. It’s anoriginalXbox, European edition, dated 2002. You want to game on it?”

Was that a trick question? Did he even have to ask? “Does it still work?”

“Want to find out?”

“Of course. You got any games for it?”

“I do. Come look.”

I sat on the floor next to him sorting through the games. We choseHalo 2, and Slash hooked up the machine to Nonna’s television. It worked. I hadn’t played the game in ages, but once I reminded myself how to use the clunky controller, it was like riding a bike. After a brief warm-up, we started playing in earnest. This was exactly what we needed—mindless fun to clear our heads, to get to a place where we could determine the next best move.

Nonna watched us for a bit, then disappeared back into the kitchen. I hoped she wasn’t making a snack. As magical as her cooking was, I was stuffed beyond my limit.

Slash kicked my butt for most of the game, something I blamed on slow reflexes due to the alcohol and food, but I made a steady comeback until I was almost even with him. At some point, he took a break to get something to drink. I was sitting on the floor, so I leaned back against the couch, stretching out my legs. Principessa strolled past me, examining the television, then checking out the Xbox.

She sniffed around and then put her paw on the machine. She stood a little too close for comfort to the eject button for my taste.

“Hey.” I waved my hand at her. “Move away from the Xbox.” I got on my hands and knees and started crawling toward her, when she suddenly jumped onto the box. One paw landed squarely on the eject button. The game ejected, erasing our progress and scores.

She streaked away as Slash walked back in the room, holding two glasses.

He looked at the television and then me. “Where’s our game?”

I tried to calculate the chance that he was going to believe this. “Principessa ejected the disk.”

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