Page 39 of The Fall Affair

“Now you must come in.” His sister took my elbow and steered me into the house. “I want to know the woman my brother has been talking about since I walked in.”

My eyes jumped to Matteo’s, and he shook his head. “I mentioned you were staying at Sophia’s, and that turned into Luciana grilling me about you for an hour.” He planted his hands on his hips. “I’m going to go put some clothes on.” He yelled over his shoulder as he walked down the hall, “And turn this shitty music down, Luce!”

Luciana. Even her name was pretty. I followed Matteo’s sister into the kitchen, and she used her phone to lower the music volume before grabbing a bottle of wine. “Red?”

“Umm…sure.”

She handed me a glass and tilted the bottle for a generous pour. “Do you dance?”

“Umm, no. I’m a lawyer.”

She chuckled and lifted a glass of wine already sitting on the counter. “I meant at da nightclub. Do you like to go dancing?”

“Oh!” I laughed. “Duh. I think my answer tells you how long it’s been since I was at a nightclub. I wasn’t even sure what you were asking. But I used to like to go out dancing back in the day, when I had a life.”

She tilted her head. “You don’t have a life anymore?”

“Not much of one.” I sipped my wine. “I’ve worked a lot over the last few years. Though I’m currently unemployed, so I have no excuse for not having a life anymore.”

She smiled. “Good, then it’s settled. We’ll go to Tartana Discoteca Friday night.”

“Oh.” I shook my head and waved a hand. “I’m not sure about that.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t think I brought the right clothes to go clubbing.”

“I bring two suitcases for a week stay. I’ll dress you.”

I nibbled my lip. “I don’t know.”

“You just said you have no excuse for not having a life, so stop making them up.”

She was right. There really wasn’t any reason I couldn’t go to the club. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do. So I shrugged. “You know what? What the hell? Sure. Why not?”

She clapped her hands. “It’s a date.”

“Uh-oh.” Matteo walked back into the room, and the smell he brought with him did things to my pulse. “This doesn’t sound good.”

“We’re going to da club Friday night!” Luciana announced, raising her wine glass. “You should come.”

Matteo frowned. “No thanks.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind my brother. He’s a stick in the mud. He didn’t even want to go out when we were in the womb together—the doctor had to force him to leave. You should see the pictures…” She gestured to the top of her head. “It looked like someone put a vacuum on da top of his head. Mine was perfect.”

Oh…that’s why she looks so familiar. They’re twins.

Matteo turned to me. “You don’t have to go to da club with her.”

“Of course I don’t,” I said. “I want to.”

Luciana preened, while it looked like someone had just peed in Matteo’s bowl of Cheerios. He lifted the wine bottle from the counter, and his frown deepened when he found it empty. “I guess I’ll go down to the cellar to get another.”

Luciana waited until he was out of the room, then looked at me and cracked up. “He likes you.”

“We got off to a rocky start, but I like him, too.”

“No…” She grinned. “He likes you, likes you.”