“Well…”
The long pause concerned her. Mallory began to backpedal. “If you’re tied up right now, it’s okay. I can wait.”
“No, darling. You don’t need to wait. In fact, it might be a good idea for you to come over.”
“Come over? I was just thinking we could chat on the phone.”
“Oh? Areyoubusy? If you only have time for a phone call, that’s fine, but I have something to show you…something important. It may take a while to explain. Can you come for dinner?”
Dinner. She hadn’t even thought about dinner yet. It would be nice to have a home-cooked meal, other than her own crappy cooking, and talk face-to-face about paranormal things.
“Yeah, I’d like to come to dinner if it’s really okay. I didn’t mean to invite myself over.”
“You didn’t.” Gabriella chuckled. “I invited you. Just now.”
Mallory giggled. “I guess you did. I’ll just need a few minutes to get there. When are you planning on having dinner?”
“Whenever you get here. I have some leftover manicotti I can reheat. Antonio will be out with his old firefighting buddies for the evening, so it will just be the two of us. They’re going to a Red Sox night game. I’d like the company.”
Mallory felt better knowing that she wasn’t an imposition. Also, it sounded like they’d get some privacy. “Thanks. I’ll see you in thirty or forty minutes, probably.”
“Great. I’m looking forward to it.”
* * *
Gabriella hung up the phone and turned to her husband, who was placing bits of raw meat into the birdcage.
“What time are you leaving for that game?”
He turned, a surprised look on his face. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“No, it’s just that Mallory is coming over, and it sounded like she needed to talk. Just in case it’s girl talk, I thought it might be easier if you weren’t here.”
The little bird that was Dante hopped up and down and chirped at the sound of Mallory’s name.
“That would be Dante’s young lady, correct?”
“Yes. I can feed the boys.”
“I thought you wanted Kizzy here too. Since they both need the same information, I didn’t think you wanted to go through it twice.”
“It would be easier for me to get the whole explanation out at once, it’s true, and it might be nice for them to have each other to sympathize with, but Mallory—well, she seemed a little nervous at even the mention of Kizzy’s name when she was here for Luca’s graduation dinner. Did you notice that? I think there’s something between those two. Noah and Dante denied any rivalry with each other, but something was clearly going on.”
Dante hopped up to the edge of the cage as if he were listening intently.
“And you’re sure you don’t want me here?”
“You can stay if you want to, but it sounded like maybe Mallory wanted to talk to me alone. I don’t mind going through it again with Kizzy.”
At that moment, the doorbell rang.
“Coming,” Gabriella sang out. She walked to the door, and upon opening it, she saw the beautiful brunette she had met at the basketball game. “Kizzy! Please come in.”
She held the door open wide for the young doctor and shot a questioning glance at Antonio.
Kizzy seemed hesitant but entered and held out her hand as if to shake Gabriella’s.
“Oh, we can’t have that. No handshakes here,” she said and grasped the girl around her back. Both of them were petite, so it was a treat for Gabriella to hold someone her own size.
