Page 108 of For Pleasure Or Worse

“No, no, no,” she rescinded, standing from the stool and turning in circles in the kitchen with her apple core pinched between her fingers. I pointed to the cabinet beneath the sink where our garbage can lived and she tugged it open. “That’s not good enough. I don’t want to know what you’re doing and I’m not asking for a spot on the quality assurance committee, but let me at least sleep soundly at night knowing my legal responsibility to you is fulfilled.”

“You want to work for me?” I smirked. My hands slid from my chest to my hips. “Is this you making up for the prenup?”

“That prenup would have been a mess considering all your extracurriculars.” Bella leaned against the edge of the counter. “Is that a yes? Are we in business?”

There wasn’t a reason I could think of to turn her down. Isabella was family, and proved her loyalty by showing up at our house to talk everything out. I was still adjusting to the change in the tide, and Camilla was still up in the air, but I didn’t want to push Bella away and risk losing my sisters all over again. She knew things about the industry I never would. She was smart, cunning, fierce, witty, and she took her job very seriously. It was the one thing that Bella prided herself on the most in life. To extend that to me and Mateo was incredibly generous, and something I would be stupid to refuse, especially after the incident in Vegas.

“We’re in business.” A pleased grin brightened my sister's face as I extended a hand. Then I drew it back, spat into my palm, and presented it to her again.

Her smile flatlined as she looked down at my wet skin. “You’re pretty good at that, huh?”

My eyes widened expectantly, and I jutted my hand out farther. A giggle was at the tip of my tongue as she slowly brought her palm to her mouth and spat onto it. I couldn’t help myself as I mused, “Must run in the family.”

We shook two damp hands together, and Bella immediately took off to the sink to scrub her skin clean as the front door knob wiggled and Mateo came barreling through it. “Hey, baby, you know whose car is parked outside?” He rounded the short wall and found me and Isabella standing in the kitchen and his steps slowed, eyes slicing from hers to mine inquisitively. “Hey, Bells.”

She dried her hands on a dish towel and swiped her purse off the counter. “I was on my way out. Talia, keep your phone on. I’ll be sending contract drafts your way and will need some preliminary information from the both of you. And listen, thisis a referred case, so let’s keep it between us.” Bella brushed by Mateo and patted him on the shoulder, his confusion getting more apparent the deeper the crease between his brows became. “See you in Key West this weekend,bro.”

Laughter shook my shoulders as she disappeared into the foyer and the door closed behind her with a whoosh. Mateo doubled back, his jaw cracked open, mulling it over. “I’m guessing whatever the hell that was went well?”

I shrugged, but my lips tugged upward. “I guess it did.” I couldn’t pinpoint my emotion exactly, but Mateo didn’t need me to. He opened his arms and let me melt into the firm cavern of his chest, resting his chin at the crown of my head. My cheeks started to ache with a smile.

chapter forty-two

Mateo

Palm trees swayedat the entrance of the pristine Key West oceanside resort, and salty air caressed us the second we stepped out of the car and a valet unloaded our bags under the stone porte cochère. Inside the lobby, the white marble was so shiny I could see my reflection in the floor, and massive gold-framed mirrors decorated the walls from ceiling to crown molding. It was bright and Grecian, and a hotel concierge was waiting for us with a bottle of prosecco before showing us to our bridal suite. What more could you ask for?

Most of my family was flying in from New York in batches, some trickling in throughout the morning, and I was mentally preparing myself to be reacquainted with people I hadn’t seen or heard from in several years. I had to remind myself that it was my wedding, and I needed to take time to enjoy it without the pressure of entertaining my guests, at least not theentiretime. I didn’t want to be the married couple who spent their reception hopping from table to table making small talk while everyone else got drunk and had fun, and I would absolutely make sure that wasn’t Natalia. She did all the work, and she deserved to enjoy it.

In the first few hours at the hotel Natalia met Uncle Tony, Uncle Enzo, and Uncle Sal and his son Sal, who I hadn’t realized just graduated from high school. The last time I saw him he had been walking around the backyard in a pull-up diaper full of shit. My mom and dad were having lunch at one of the cabana restaurants with my nonna Maria, my mother’s sister Victoria, and her new husband. They had their moment fawning over Tally, and how she was “even more stunning than the photos online” because all they’d ever seen of her was a passing reposted picture from my mother.

After that it was my cousins and their spouses. Most of the people I was introducing to Tally were also introducing me to their own partners; I’d been gone so long I never even met them myself. Angelo showed up at the hotel just in time to be a backboard for those conversations so I didn’t feel entirely out of my element.

When he walked in I almost didn't recognize him. He’d cut his hair from the scraggly, curled mop of brown to a short taper, and his beard was as trim and neat as I’d ever seen it. The pressure of all the family photos must have gotten to him—that, or the promise of a resort full of women in bathing suits for a whole weekend. Either way it was good to see my brother growing into himself, filling out. Giving a shit, to put it bluntly. My parents reacted to seeing him for the first time in months like he was their long-lost son returning home from war. That irony wasn’t lost on me.

Our rehearsal dinner was at seven o’clock, and by four o’clock my other groomsmen had arrived. We met them out by the oblong pool as the sun started dipping lower on the horizon. A new, foreign addition to the crew caught my attention immediately, sitting beside Wink. He stood and she followed suit, wringing her hands together at her waist like she didn’t know what to do with them.

“Holy fucking shit, he really did bring a date,” I said, tugging Sam into a rough hug. “I’m shocked.”

She was a pretty blonde. Her hair fell just past her shoulders in waves, freckles speckled her cheeks beneath light green eyes, and I almost missed the cochlear implant hiding behind her ear. They complimented one another, but their body language was too stiff to be comfortable. It was how I imagined two people on their first date would act. Too unsure to touch, too new to play. Or maybe I was reading it wrong and Wink was as gentlemanly outside of the bedroom as I imagined he was in it. A true good boy.

Natalia hugged her right away. “Hi, I’m Natalia. So nice to meet you.”

“Hailey,” she replied warmly. “Thanks for having me. This place is incredible. Congratulations, by the way.”

“He’s been hiding you from us,” I said. “Where did you guys meet?” Sam’s tongue perused his bottom lip and he looked to her like he didn’t actually know the answer. My eyebrow raised. “Trick question?”

“He doesn’t want to tell you that Hailey’s his boss.” Echo spread out in a lounge chair, tucking his hands behind his head. “You might accuse him of sleeping his way to the top.”

“War Paws is a nonprofit,” Wink cut in.

“What, does that mean you only do it doggy style so it doesn’t count?”

Hailey snorted, and Sam’s jaw twitched as he glared down at his brother. The animosity was palpable between them, but Hailey’s ability to laugh at Tyler at her own expense meant she was going to fit in just fine with the rest of us. You had to have thick skin and roll with the punches. That was why Ophelia was such a perfect fit for Pike, and Tally and I would last a lifetime.

“Just because all the women you have sex with want to do it face down doesn’t mean the same is true for your brother,” Pike added. “Sam is a hell of a lot prettier than you, blockhead.”

“Younger brothers usually are,” Angelo tossed into the mix.

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