Ares rattles the two ice cubes left in his short glass. “I’m good.”
“Nah,” Dante mumbles around a mouthful. When he swallows, he adds, “I’m about to get up for more anyway.”
Milo walks over to the kitchen where he opens the fridge. “Hey honey,” Linda calls, walking into the kitchen from the other room.
“Hey Ma,” he greets her, retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge.
“So, that’s the plan, right? Grabmore food and get the hell out of here?” Ollie pulls my attention back to the table.
“We’ll see. We would have to at least say goodbye, I haven’t even really seen the guys yet.” Ares pushes his plate away, clearly done. I reach over and snag his uneaten roll. Ollie’s hand lands on mine. I look up and narrow my eyes on him.
“You already had one,” I accuse. “Plus, I got to it first.” I widen my eyes at his hand on top of mine.
A wave of heat blisters over my hand, but it doesn’t hurt, it’s more of a caress, then he pulls back, giving me a saucy wink. “I can get another, Ijustdidn’t want it to go to waste. By all means, enjoy.”
I drag my prize back to my plate, thinking he gave up way too easily. “Eat the bread,Cara,” Ares demands when I don’t look away from Ollie. He snickers at me like Ijustgot in trouble. I rip off a big chunk and shove it in my mouth.
“You’re so cute.” Ollie scrunches up his nose at me, grinning.
“You should have seen her in the hallway, she looked like she wanted to pick her teeth with Frank’s bones before Mamma came over.” Dante has a wistful smile on his lips, his eyes unfocused like he’s thinking back.
“Mom said no one is expecting us to stay long.” Milo places my bottle of water in front of me, and hands Ollie a can of cola.
“Let me get a refill first.” Dante stands and goes over to the kitchen.
“I want to make a plate to go, nothing will be open later and I know we’ll all be hungry.” Milo doesn’t even bother to sit down; he joins Dante in the kitchen again.
Ares sighs, but he stands up too, extending his hand down to me. “Make a plate, we’ll get out of here and go home to relax.” My heart does a little flip-flop when he sayshome. “What are you smiling at?” He gathers both of my hands and wraps them around my back, pressing our bodies together. I’m forced to tilt my head back to look up at him.
“Nothing, going home just sounds good. Home.” A giddy giggle erupts from me. Ares leans in and plants a kiss on my lips even though I’m still smiling, and I kiss him back.
* * *
“You need to be at the venue at eleven o’clock.” This isn’t the first time Rosa has mentioned the time we need to be there. She has her hand folded over Dante’s elbow. We all already said goodbye to the others. It took longer than I expected, but making sure we said bye to all ten of their parents wasn’t as easy as you’d think. First, we had to find them, and then they wanted to chat for a few minutes.
Rosa followed us out from the kitchen, placed a covered tray in my hands, and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “I saved these for you and the boys, I hope you like them.”
“Cannoli?” Dante sounds hopeful.
“I didn’t make them,” Rosa cautions, “but they’re good.” Dante reaches for the tray. Rosa swats his hand before he can get close enough to lift the lid off. “Wait until you get home. They’re for everybody.” She knows him too well, he would probably eat them all before we got home. He grumbles but doesn’t try again.
“We won’t be by tomorrow. We have a fewlast-minute things to take care of for Saturday. You need to—”
“Be there by eleven,” Ares cuts her off.
“Okay, okay. Go home. I love you all.” Rosa pouts a little. “Love you too,” is chorused back to her from the group. I’m notone of them, I’m not there yet.
Chapter 22
“There are a bunch of sales for Black Friday, we should get a TV or two.” Ollie is lounging back on the bed, his phone in his hands. “I wish we could getsomefurniture.” His finger scrolls up the screen.
We’ve been home for a few hours. I’m sitting on the floor cross-legged, while Milo and Ollie are close together on the bed, both looking at the phone.
“Wait, what about that one.” Milo reaches over and touches the phone screen.
Ollie whistles. “That’s big.”
“That’s what she said,” Milo quips without even cracking a smile.
