He starts the engine up again, and I sit back down, buckling myself back into my seat.
NEITHER ONE OFus says anything as Matt parks the car in the driveway behind Vinny’s car. Luckily, my brother and the twins decide to run out and greet us, filling the void our previous conversation left.
The twins’ excitement at our arrival cheers me up, bringing a smile to my face. However, when we both exit the car, it’s not me they run to.
“Uncle Matt!” they say in unison as they barrel toward his legs.
What? When did this happen?
Matt smiles and ruffles both of their hair. He picks up Clara in his arms, propping her on his hip, and she wraps her little arms around his neck, monkey style. Leo huffs as he sees his sister getting more attention than him. I guess he really has been spending quite a lot of time with Vinny—the kids are absolutely smitten.
“What’s up, little man? Where are your toys?” he asks.
My chest tightens at how incredibly adorable he looks, my ovaries screaming to lock this guy down. I tell them to calm the fuck down, that I’m working on it.
Leo pulls Matt’s jeans toward the door, begging him to come in and play with him.
“Hold on, kid. I gotta take your aunt’s bags into the house first.” He shoots me a smile, and I’m about to say something flirty until I realize that, oops, I can’t anymore. I check to make sure no one noticed Matt smiling at me like that before smirking back at him.
“What am I, chopped liver? You don’t care about your aunt anymore?” I mean, I am the one who isactuallyrelated to them here.
Clara reaches out for me from Matt’s arms, and he passes her to me.This is how it could be,I thinkand then promptly squash that thought before more start popping up and tearing me apart.
We’re not there yet.
Danielle and Vinny manage to wrangle the kids up, leaving us free to take everything out of the car and into the house. Matt gives my mother the flowers we just bought, along with a basket of Italian holiday foods he purchased fromEatalyearlier this week. To say he knocked the gift out of the park is an understatement—Matt definitely came to win. It seems he figured out that the way to my mother’s heart is through a ton of imported Italian fine pastas, risottos, and cookies, along with one phenomenal bottle of wine. It looks like everyone in the Castelli family is in love with Matt Wilson.
For now, at least.
I’M TRYING TO SLEEP,but I’m just too uncomfortable. My childhood bedroom is too hot, the bedsheets too itchy, and the springs on my mattress too squeaky. Every time I flip from one side to the next, it sounds as if someone has crashed into a truck full of doggy chew toys.
To be honest, it’s not the sheets or the mattress keeping me up. It’s the fact that my boyfriend kept sneaking kisses and getting handsy tonight behind everyone’s back, causing me to almost have a heart attack by the end of the night. Every time I’d slap his hand away, he’d smirk like it was a joke, like it would be funny to get caught.
It was incredibly annoying.
After dinner, I volunteered to do the dishes so my mother could rest before tomorrow, and Danielle and Vinny could put their kids to bed. Matt came into the kitchen behind me and just wrapped his arms around my waist as if we were alone in my apartment. I shoved him off as gently as possible—for which I should receive an award because,my God, that man is a fine work of art, and I have been craving him ever since that ridiculously hot kiss in the flower shop—and he just laughed as if it wasn’t a big deal. I wanted to ask him what had happened to the man who’d had a near breakdown two blocks away from my house? I wished he’d channel the cautiousness of Nervous Matt for the rest of the week, because Horny Matt was becoming a problem.
Danielle thankfully put an end to it. She came in looking for me because Clara was asking for her Auntie Liza to read them tonight’s bedtime story, thus interrupting Matt’s lapse in judgment. So I went upstairs andGoodbye’d Moonwith Clara and Leo, showered, and changed into my pajamas. I texted Matt that I was going to bed and put my phone ondo not disturb, switching off all of my alarms, planning to sleep in until noon before having to spend the entire day cooking for our family with my mom.
I’m finally drifting off, in that weird state of half-awareness, when I feel—andhear—the mattress dip next to me. I feel Matt’s familiar arms wrap around me, pulling my back to his chest, kissing me on the shoulder, his beard tickling me.
“What are you doing?” I whisper as I start to clear from my kiss- and sleep-induced haze.
“Kissing you,” he says against my suddenly very heated skin.
I turn to look at him over my shoulder, and his lips catch mine, arms tightening around me. He groans, and the mattress squeaks loudly as his hips thrust just a little against me.
Matt isveryexcited to see me.
“Matt,” I plead, pulling away from him. “We can’t do this here, now. These walls arepaper thin,and the mattress is comically loud. This isn’t happening tonight or any night that we’re here,” I whisper as low as I possibly can, aware of my mother’s superhuman hearing capabilities.
Matt groans in frustration. He loosens his grip around me, and I turn in his arms, burrowing my face in his neck. I breathe in his signature scent and hold it in for a few seconds before exhaling.
“Were you just taking a hit of me? Like a joint?” he whispers in disbelief.
I stifle my laugh against his shoulder, and his body shakes against mine as he attempts to restrain his. I shrug and say, “You smell nice. What can I say?”
He kisses my neck and sighs. “I missed you. I couldn’t sleep. I was lying in bed alone, and it just felt really weird.” Is that what was missing? Why I couldn’t sleep? I missed Matt’s body curled behind mine? “We haven’t spent many nights apart, you know.”
