Allie smoothed my hair against my back. “You did it, sis.”
I looked back and quirked a brow.
“You met your man,” Allie explained.
Maria smiled, her eyes fleeting between the road and me. “You can no longer say you’re the no-strings-attached-meaningless-sex girl.”
”You’re bad,” I told her, swatting her as I did so.
She gave me a stern look at my swat. “Okay, what did I say? Hands to yourself.”
I laughed and Allie joined in, too. “I say we speed up a little and cut in front of the boys,” Allie said, changing the subject.
I snickered. “Maria is way too square for that.”
Maria gasped. “Am not.” Then she looked in the rearview mirror and put her blinker on. “In fact,” she said, as she studied the traffic (there was hardly any). “I’m going to do it.”
“Wooo!” Allie and I shouted simultaneously.
“Go, Maria!” I added as she hit the gas and maneuvered around the guys, leaving them in her dust.
* * *
Knox
“Dude, what are you doing?” Brady raised his voice since the wind was loud with all our windows open. “You just let the girls cut us off.”
Dom straightened his back and didn’t look away from the road. “Sorry, that’s Maria. She can cut me off anytime she wants.”
I smirked. “Yeah, I’m sure she can do more than that to you.”
“Hey,” Dom admonished. “That’s Maria you’re talking about.”
I cocked a brow and cleared my throat. “That’s exactly why it’s true.” And all I needed to hear to know that there was definitely more to Dom and Maria than what met the eye. There was a story there, I was telling you. Because that reaction he’d had, about talking about Maria, was the same I had whenever anyone talked about my girl.
I decided to switch topics. A little anyway. “So Bianca told me Isabella is coming with Angelo later.” Still Maria adjacent, but it couldn’t be helped.
Dom nodded. “She is. Isabella loves coming here, walking barefoot on the sand. She gets such a kick out of finding seashells on the beach.”
“How old is she?” Brady questioned.
“Five,” Dom answered, the corners of his lips curling upward.
“Allie has a picture of her on the fridge. She’s cute,” Brady said. Then he leaned forward and patted my shoulder. “What about you, man? You and Bianca are an item now, so have you two talked about kids?”
I swallowed, and pulled on the back of my neck, grinning like a schmuck. We’d never set out to talk about it. All I knew was that she always imagined herself having a boy, and I wanted lots of kids, like a whole damn football team. I was an only child, and it was fine, but not great. I wanted my kid to have what Bianca had—a big family. It was better that way.
Answering Brady’s question, I said, “I know we both want them, but how many”—I shrugged—“we haven’t talked about all of that yet.”
“Just make sure you put a ring on it first,” Dom said, holding up one of his hands and wagging his ring finger in the air. “Because if you don’t, I hate to see the storm Angelo brings upon you then.”
A roar of laughter came from Brady. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it funny. I mean, I wanted to find it funny, but I also knew there was truth to what Dom was saying.
I swallowed. Hard this time. It was the damn lump in my throat—thank you, Dom. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on knocking Bianca up before we’re married.”
“I’ve never met Angelo myself, but something tells me you’re making the right call with that one, man,” Brady said.
* * *