Page 30 of Gin & Trouble

I snapped my mouth shut.

Dante, being Dante, continued, “We’ve known each other for a few months, and I’m doing my damnedest to convince her to go out with me again.”

Enzo chuckled and held his hands a little higher. “You sure that’s a good idea? She’s dangerous.”

“And Shanna isn’t?” His laugh tore straight through me.

Seeing them joke back and forth made me homesick. Not that my sisters ever goofed around with me like that, but a girl could dream.

“I’ll have you know my wife hasn’t stabbed anyone since we’ve been married.” Enzo gave me a pointed look. “Unlike some people.”

“Keep it up and I’ll stab you myself.” Dante nudged his shoulder.

I couldn’t help but compare their features. They looked a lot alike. So much so that I wondered if I’d imagined Enzo’s resemblance to my father.

Rather falling down the is-he-or-isn’t-he rabbit hole, I ripped open several bandages and took Enzo’s hand. “Let’s get this cleaned up.”

10

Dante

I lovedmy big crazy Italian family, in small doses and preferably two or three members at a time. Taking on the entire Marchionni clan at once was chaos. I’m talking the kind of stress that would drive Mother Teresa to drink.

I’d arrived at my folks’ place a couple hours early to help set up for Rocco’s first birthday party. At least, that was what I told myself and anyone else who asked what I was doing there. A lame excuse, considering Enzo had brought his catering team and my mother had hired freaking staff to take care of the grunt work.

Truth be told, I’d come to pump my brother for information about the incident with Julia.

“Tell me again.” I followed Enzo beneath the party tent and set an enormous tray of animal-shaped sugar cookies on the table.

“We’ve been over this a hundred times. You were there. You saw what happened.” He ran his un-bandaged hand over his lips. “She dropped a family photo, and stabbed me with the broken glass.”

“Right, but what makes you think she did it on purpose?”

Nothing about what had happened that night made sense. Besides the wild wine chase she’d sent me on and cutting Enzo’s hands, she’d vanished after tending to his wounds. If that wasn’t bizarre enough, I hadn’t heard a peep from Julia all week. She’d called off sick with the flu on Monday, and as of Friday, hadn’t returned to work. She hadn’t logged into our online game, nor had she opened any of my emails.

I’d grown so desperate and sent chicken soup and ginger ale to her home address—only she didn’t live there—not unless she slept behind the counter of a coffee shop.

“Like I’ve told you before, she was following me around half the night. I ignored her, but—”

“Get to the part where she ended up in your office.”

“She was on her knees cleaning up the glass. She looked up at me and went into some sort of trance.” He shrugged. “She just checked out.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. He always did have a flare for the dramatic. “Uh huh. Go on.”

“When she snapped out of it, she had this crazed look in her eyes. I thought she was coming on to me. You know, giving me thelook.”

“I promise you she wasn’t coming on to you.” I’d heard it before, and I would bet my left nut I’d hear it again, but I didn’t believe it.

“Where you there when she dropped the frame?” Enzo gave me a checkmate grin.

“No, but everyone knows you’re married.”

He shrugged. “Wedding rings work better than oysters for some women.”

I shoved my hands into my pockets to keep from punching his smug face.

This is a waste of time.

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