“This is Jade.” Matteo’s thumb strokes the back of my hand. “Jade, this is my mom, Andi, my father, Carson and my Uncle Caleb.”
Holy shit. He brought me over to meet his parents.
My heart races. “Hi!” I smile at the three of them. Nervous doesn’t begin to touch the way I feel right now. Hell, I don’t even know what I’m feeling. An anxious feeling rolls through my stomach.
“Hi, Jade,” Andi says, taking a step closer to pull me in for a hug. “It’s so lovely to meet you.” She pulls away for a moment. “I love your dress.”
“Oh, thank you.” Heat creeps across my cheeks and I glance at Matteo. His smile doesn’t leave his face.
“Jade.” His father nods and holds out his hand to shake mine. He looks like an older version of Matteo. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You as well.”
His uncle steps over, holding out his hand. “Thank you for coming tonight.” He nods his head toward Matteo. “Thanks for keeping this one out of trouble too.”
Matteo chuckles, pulling me back to his side. “The three of you do not get to interrogate her tonight.”
“Does that mean we’ll get to another night?” Andi asks him without missing a beat.
Carson arches a brow as he grabs his drink from the table and takes a long sip.
Matteo looks at me, his eyes scanning my face. “I hope so.”
A smile tugs on my lips and I turn to them. “I’d love to be interrogated.”
“Don’t tempt them, Sunny,” Matteo laughs, his fingers wrapping around my side. “They can be ruthless.”
“Oh, please,” Andi waves her hand. “We are harmless.” She smiles at me. “I’d just love to know more about the woman who’s stolen my boy's attention.”
My heart crawls into my throat. With the way the three of them are studying me, I can’t help but wonder if this is the first time something like this has happened before.
“Another night,” Matteo promises them. “We’ll be back,” he says, whisking me away from the table. “Sorry about them,” he says to me after we get out of earshot. “My mom loves to know everything about people.”
“Don’t apologize. They seemed very nice.”
His throat bobs as he swallows. His eyes are unreadable and he shifts his weight on his feet, his voice dropping lower. “I just wanted them to meet you. I’ve uh—I’ve never brought anyone to meet them before.”
The butterflies in my stomach flutter to life. “So, I was your first?”
A ghost of a smile dances across his lips. “You’re a first for a lot of things, Sunny.”
“So are you,” I admit, right before we’re interrupted by a few of his teammates.
And fuck me for wanting him to be my last.
Matteo’s hidden in a separate room with the rest of his team, and Elena and I are lowering ourselves down into seats near the front row.
“Remember,” Elena says quietly, grabbing two more flutes of champagne from the server who passes us. “It’s all for a good cause.”
The auctioneer’s voice breaks through the speakers at the front of the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be starting our auction with the first player of the night.” He pauses as the crowd claps, before he begins again. “First up, we have one of our power forwards, Mr. Matteo Ford.”
My stomach flutters as Matteo comes through a doorway to the left. He’s still wearing his mask and stops beside the auctioneer.
“We’ll start the bidding at $100.”
His mouth begins to move, the auctioneer chattering away as he moves through a few playful raises, the price climbing up to one thousand dollars. It makes a massive jump to two thousand as a woman’s voice calls out from the other side of the room.
