The kid still watched me.
“You know,” I explained, like a baby could understand a thing I said, “you’re lucky you’re almost as cute as your mama, kid. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother.”
He gurgled again, his grin widening when I shook my head at him. The dimples were deeper now, and his eyes almost disappeared when he flashed a toothless smile.
“Don’t get ideas. Those dimples don’t do shit for me.”
“Dimitri,” Antonia called from the door, and I turned, moving my chin to acknowledge her. “They’re ready. Bring the baby.”
The servers carried the food from the kitchen, and Mateo’s gaze moved with each tray of pasta, ham, and fish as we walked toward the dining room. Ma had had the busboys position all the tables edge-to-edge, making one long table down the length of the entire restaurant.
“Here,” Antonia said, reaching for Mateo when we made it to the table. “I’ll take him.”
For some reason, I felt possessive over someone who wasn’t my family. “Fuck off,” I told her, smiling when she flipped me the bird.
She shook her head, muttering something I knew she’d never say if Pop were around.
“And stay the hell away from Luca.”
Antonia laughed, looking across the table for the man in question. When she caught his attention, she nodded him over, motioning to the empty seat next to the one she’d chosen.
Luca was too much of a chickenshit to look at me before he sat. I thought of calling him out, but my ma chose that precise moment to appear, pulling a very different-looking Maggie behind her.
And then, I didn’t give a shit about Luca and Antonia, drooling babies, or Christmas Eve dinner.
She was wearing a fitted red dress I remember calling indecent when Antonia wore it in public. But on Maggie, it was perfect—it fit her luscious, full curves, moving when she did. Ending mid-thigh, the dress gave a tease that there was so much more to the woman than a hard worker and a tired single mother.
I lifted the baby when he wiggled in my arms. “Sorry, kid,” I told him, unable to keep my attention from Maggie as she walked toward me. “She’s got you beat.”
Then I handed the boy over to Antonia, not waiting to see if she wanted him still or not, before I met Maggie by an empty chair, pulling it out for her.
I liked the way her pretty face brightened and how she watched my hand on the back of the chair.
“Um…gracias,” she said, sitting straight, looking more elegant than uncomfortable. She split her attention between Mateo, who was happily bubbling spit at Antonia and Luca, before she looked me over.
“You look…beautiful,” I told her, leaning closer.
“Oh. Um…” That blush grew redder, and this time, Maggie smiled. “Thanks, Smoke.”
There was still a small look of hesitation on her face, along with a hint of worry. I knew that look. I’d seen it before. But I’d never been the one to put it on a woman’s face.
Maggie went perfectly still when I stretched my arm around the back of her chair, angling closer. She smelled like the sweetest perfume. Her mouth was full and pink, her skin looked soft and warm, and I was not thinking of any woman but the one inches from me now.
“I don’t pay compliments,” I told her. “When I give them, I mean them. And right now, I fucking mean it.”
“So…you’re not…”
“Angling?”
“Yeah,” she said, her face relaxing, “that.”
“No, I’m not angling.” I leaned back but kept my hand on her chair. “Not before dinner anyway.”
“Friends,” my mother said, pulling my attention from the sweet smile on Maggie’s face. “Welcome, welcome! We’re so happy you’re here with us…”
My ma was filling in for my father, who was off running an errand he wouldn’t tell anyone about, which pissed me off, but now I was too distracted by Maggie to let it bother me anymore.
Ma repeated the same spiel Pop liked to make every year, and it was always good. Welcome everyone, thank them for coming, say a prayer, and then we’d eat.
But tonight, as my mother spoke of family and friends, old and new, my attention wasn’t on her words or the familiar faces readying to celebrate. It wasn’t even on the smirk on my beautiful mother’s face as she paused in her speech to watch Maggie and me.
At that moment, my mind was on one thing and one thing only—giving Maggie and Mateo the best Christmas they’d ever had.
A nod of my head, a text to Dino and the plan was set in motion.
