She bites her bottom lip and smirks. “I like your ass,” she replies, and I can only shake my head.
“You’ll fit right in with this bunch.”
“Thank you,” she says, staring at me with those green eyes that render me speechless.
I search her gaze. “For what?”
I should be the one thanking her for being here with me tonight even though she doesn’t have to be.
“For making me feel wanted.”
“Tilly.” I bring my lips closer to hers. “I can’t explain all the things you make me feel.”
There’s nothing more to say. This woman has made me feel more alive than I have in the last three years. I want to lose myself in her.
I bend forward, placing my lips on hers ever so lightly. The kiss is sweet, pure, and everything I’m feeling. She kisses me back, gripping my arms tightly. Our hot breath mingles with the cold night air as I back away and try to catch my breath.
“Don’t do that.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Don’t kiss you?”
“Not like that. Not when we have to spend the evening with your family.”
I laugh and kiss her forehead. “I promise I won’t kiss you again until we’re alone.”
She snuggles into me, wrapping her fingers around my collar. “I could stay like this all night.”
I’m just about to ditch my family when there’s a knock at the window. My ma’s face is pressed against the glass, and she’s gawking at us. “Get in here,” she says, but her voice is muffled by the street noise and the music from inside the bar.
Tilly snorts. “Guess we’re taking too long.”
“My ma is so nosy.”
“It’s nice.” She looks up at me with a sweet, innocent smile.
“I’ll remind you of that in a few hours.” I open the front door to a very impatient Betty.
“Everyone’s waiting for you two, while you play kissy-face on the street.” Ma’s tapping her foot with her arms crossed.
“Kissy-face?” I repeat, unable to stop laughing as we follow her through the busy bar.
“Come on. The food’s almost ready.” She motions for us to follow her up the stairs as she moves faster than she usually does. “You know your brother. He’s always starving.”
“They’re all overdramatic,” I tell Tilly as I have her walk in front of me and behind my mother.
“They’re here,” Ma announces as we step foot on the landing to her apartment. “I found them making out on the street.”
“Way to go, bro.” Vinnie winks.
Tilly blushes at my brother’s dumbass comment and my mother’s overstatement of what she saw downstairs. Maybe in my mother’s time, making out meant a brief kiss on the lips, but not in this century.
Ma grabs Tilly by the arm, pulling her toward the living room and away from me. “Come, let me introduce you.”
She’s getting the Gallo baptism by fire without any tiptoeing into the horde.
I collapse into the kitchen chair next to Vinnie and shrug off my jacket, but I keep my eyes trained on Tilly.
He leans into my personal space. “You’re a goner.”
