Page 291 of Come Back to Me

“With my sharp and pointy shoe, Mom? Nope,” I chirp.

Cody clears his throat then grows still as I place my hand on his knee.

“Christy, are you trying to make trouble? We have guests!”

“They’remyguests!”

Raquel, accustomed to our bickering, smiles and changes the subject. “I was wondering when we’d meet the man of the hour, Tee. You kept him tucked away from us, hmm?”

“I tucked away nothing. My man’s a shower, not a grower. Plus, he knows how to treat me like a lady in and out of bed.”

Tony turns green, Raquel gags on her breadstick, Nonna cackles, and Dad chokes on his wine while Mom gasps. “Tee!”

Zee just rolls her eyes, but Colt chows on someantipasti—he’s as used to my ways as Zee is now.

I shoot Mom an innocent smile. “I speak the truth. I have to. He’s a cop. He might arrest me if I lie.”

“I think that would be against the law,” Cody inserts, but he’s shaking his head.

In his expression, I can see he’s both exasperated and trying not to laugh.

“Laws are made to be broken sometimes.”

“No, they’re really not,” Zee chimes in.

I tap my finger against Cody’s knee. “Surely they can be.”

He grabs said finger and holds my hand in place. “No, Tee. That isn’t how the Constitution works.”

“I told you I couldn’t be a teacher, Daddy. I don’t even know how our Constitution works.”

He scoffs. “If you think I’m bringing that up when your cheer brigade is here, you’re crazy.”

“And on that note…” Nonna lifts her glass in a toast. “How did you know you loved myconiglio,Cody?”

I smile brightly. And I let my hand lift higher on his knee when he makes the mistake of reaching for his cutlery.

Still, he smiles. “I couldn’t even tell you. It just feels like it’s always been inside me, Nonna?—”

“I know whenshefell in love withyou, Cody.”

“Snitches get stitches,” I grumble.

“Oh?” Cody asks.

“She was at the table with me and you popped up at the door to come and drive her home. She sang a few notes—” Unable to help myself, I sing them. “—and that was when I knew.”

Cody turns to me with a wide grin. “I’m your muse?”

My cheeks grow pink. “Nonna!”

She cackles, her mischief landing.

“How didn’t I know this already?”

I trail my fingers higher up his knee as a warning. “You were slow to catch on. Why else have I been making more music than a music box?”

He beams at me, his pleasure so incandescent that it makes my heart sigh. “Where’s my EP?”

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