Page 23 of Out of the Shadow

She giggles. “Maybe.”

I shake my head, my hands stealing around her shoulders to keep her still. Smiling down at her, I pronounce, “You’re crazy.”

“Gotta keep you on your toes.”

It hits me that I have my hands around this little firecracker of a woman. And she feels good. Like, really good. I offer her my panty-melting look and take a step closer. Her breathing hitches.

We remain locked together. It’s as if the Rockettes took up residence on my spine. Can she feel it too? I squeeze her shoulders.

She blinks.

And takes a step backward. “What the hell?”

I’d forgotten all about her husband, but that comment reminds me. She’s married. Off limits. “Gotta keep the commoners safe,” I retort.

Rushing around me, she disappears inside the agency.

What the hellwas right.

Angie

“PLEASE HELP YOURbrothers load the dishwasher, Angie,” Mama asks. More like directs.

I stand to do her bidding and join Francesco and Leo at the sink. One brother scrapes the dishes, while the other rinses and hands them to me to put into the dishwasher. My sister pulled leftover container duty this time.

From the trashcan, Leo asks, “How’s the show coming along?”

“Taping starts on Tuesday because King had to take the New York real estate salesperson’s exam first.” I take a dish from Francesco and pull out the bottom rack of the dishwasher.

“He’s only been here what, under two weeks? And he already took the test? I seem to recall it took you months to go through the books. He must be smart.”

I shoot Leo a dirty look. “He took the class online. I did the in-person version.”

“That’s code for ‘remedial,’” Francesco adds, and the two boys chuckle at my expense.

Since my hands are empty, I grab a kitchen towel off the handle of the oven and swat both of my brothers on their butts.

“Ow!”

“Ouch!”

Serves them right. Smirking, I rehang the towel and wait for the next dish. They wisely change the subject to baseball. We’re all big Yankees fans here, so it’s a conversation I happily join.

When all of the dishes are set to wash, I head into the family room where the Yankees game is on. Juliana is the only other person in the room at the moment. Her husband stayed at home with her son, who’s running a slight fever.

“Speaking of King,” she says.

“I wasn’t.”

She grabs her cell phone and taps on it. Ignoring me, she continues, “Looks like you two were enjoying an intimate lunch date yesterday.”

My eyebrows meet over my nose. “What are you talking about?”

She turns the screen toward me, and I see one of the photos the papps took at the restaurant yesterday. I wave my hand. “Oh. That was nothing. I took him out to lunch to celebrate the fact that he took his real estate test. Marlene made me do it. It was no biggie.”

Juliana flips her phone so she can view it. “Uh-huh.” She giggles. “No biggie except that King’s hot as fuck.”

“Juliana! He is not. He’s just…King.” I cross my legs.

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