Page 62 of Bellini Born
He had? From who?
If I hadn’t already sensed the tone, watching Matteo’s jaw clench so hard his cheek twitched gave away that he was fighting hard to keep a lid on his anger. Scratch anger; there was pure, unfiltered rage simmering in his eyes as he glared at his uncle.
Enzo’s eyes darted from his father to Matteo to me and the girls. “Uh, Dad, why don’t you sit down? I think dinner’s almost ready.”
Dario’s nose wrinkled when he surveyed the offering on the stove. “Thisis dinner?”
Matteo was done pulling punches. “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
“No, no.” He was quick to backtrack. “This will be fine.”
I got both girls situated in their chairs before fetching Bianca a glass of orange juice.
Enzo leaned in while I had the fridge open. “Pour a few extra glasses, and I’ll grab a bottle of champagne. We’re gonna need mimosas all around to make it through this dinner in one piece.”
Yikes.
Once we were all seated around the kitchen table, Dario asked Enzo, “Will your sister be joining us?”
Focused on filling his plate, his son replied, “Highly unlikely.”
“Wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”
Enzo shook his head. “Not a clue.”
Dario clicked his tongue. “The women of this family sure have a nasty habit of disappearing, don’t they?”
He trained his eyes on Bianca and Serafina, and it took all my restraint not to throw my body in front of them to shield them from his view.
“Hopefully, these two won’t befall a similar fate.”
Why did that sound more like a threat than genuine concern?
Taking a generous swig of my mimosa, I pondered asking Matteo to teach me how to shoot. Because if someone so much as touched a hair on one of those girls’ heads, I would be out for blood.
This motherfucker had no clue he’d just awoken a sleeping bear.
Chapter 15
Summer
“Gabi’shere.I’mgonnahead out,” I announced, poking my nose into the living room, where Matteo was on the floor playing with the girls.
“Have fu—” His words cut off abruptly when he lifted his head and caught sight of me.
Not gonna lie, rendering the man speechless was a huge boost to my ego.
Granted, I probably looked like a completely different person than the one he was used to seeing every day. My standard oversized sweatshirt and leggings had been swapped out for a skintight strapless sapphire blue minidress with four-inch stiletto heels gracing my feet. Instead of a messy bun, my golden locks were curled, the tips barely brushing my shoulders, and I’d taken the time to do a full face of makeup for the first time since I began working here.
If you couldn’t go all out for New Year’s Eve, then when could you?
Matteo’s heated gaze roved over me from head to toe, and he swallowed a few times. “Where did you say you two were going again?”
I fidgeted with my silver clutch. “We have tickets to the party at Ballistic.” That was our go-to club. Gabi had slept with one of the bouncers, and he was desperate for an encore, so he always hooked us up with free passes to all their big events.
“Ballistic,” he repeated, brows drawn down. “And how are you getting there?”
“We’re gonna order a car from a rideshare app.”
