Page 34 of Ciao, Amore

“Nice to meet you,” she said simply.

She didn’t quite look Dani in the face. No handshake. No attempt at a smile. If it weren’t such a warm day, Nico would have felt crystal fractals of frost grow on his shoulders from witnessing that reception.

Nico’s smile dropped as Dani forged ahead, attempting to be pleasant with a brief “it’s nice to meet you too.”

Isa, who had paused from splashing her cousins, glanced at Dani with a look of almost sympathy.

“Hi, Dani,” she said.

The tween still didn’t smile, but Nico was grateful she’d tried harder to acknowledge Dani when she was otherwise trying hard to be cool and nonchalant. At least someone knew how to be polite.

“On your way to meet Nonno for lunch?” Lina asked him. “Tell your father his suit is at the tailors’, and he needs to pick it up by four.”

Clearly, there’d be no more conversation between Lina and Dani. Awkwardly, Dani stood there while Nico answered her. “Yeah, I’ll tell Pop.” Inside, the warmth that he’d felt for Dani after their ride was about to flare into anger at his mother.

Fortunately, his annoyance was short-circuited a little when Tommy’s six-year-old gawked up at Dani and grinned, piping, “Hi,” with her missing teeth. Nico grabbed her by the top of her brown waves, and she giggled.

“You’re messing up my hair, Uncle. Will you bring me something from the store?”

“What store? I ain’t goin’ to no store,” he chided. Then he conspiratorially whispered, “Don’t tell your mothers, but I’m gonna bring you guys back a ton of candy.”

With the exception of Angelo and Isa, the kids cheered. Despite his anger at her behavior, he calmly said, “See you tonight, Ma?”

Her response was a mumbled, “See you tonight.” Nothing else for Dani, not a glance, not even a fake smile.

What the fuck? He very specifically remembered asking Lina to give Dani a chance. She’d promised to at least be polite, but this was barely even that. His face flaming, Nico turned away and forced a grin for the kids, who tentatively splashed Dani and then went back to splashing each other.

Tight with angry disbelief, he shook his head at his mother’s back and grumbled under his breath. Dani probably thought his mother’s literal cold shoulder was about what she’d interrupted that morning. Only he understood too well this was about his choice to bring her here at all.

“That was rude,” Nico fumed as they walked toward the sister-wives. “I’m so sorry she acted like that. I’m gonna have to talk to her later.”

“Nah, it’s okay. She doesn’t know me, and this is her time to be with her family.”

“I don’t care. And that’s not what her attitude is about.”

“Then what is it?” Dani asked in a confused tone.

“I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Okay. But please don’t fight with her about this. It’s not worth an argument. I’m here to have fun, not to stir shit up. I’m okay, you’re okay.” Dani smiled at him, trying to prove this reaction didn’t bother her, when from the deflated expression in her eyes, he knew it did.

After that, Nico lost some of his enthusiasm for intros. He walked her to the lounge chairs, handing Little Angelo to his mother, who took off immediately. One by one, Nico pointed at his sisters-in-law in order of which brother they’d married.

“This is Tori, Merelys, and Vanessa. Ladies, this is Daniela. Take care of her for me today while I go find out what your knucklehead husbands are up to,” Nico said without fanfare.

“Don’t worry, we got her,” Tori said, looking Dani up and down.

“Walk me back,” Nico said.

Not that he needed to ask. Dani clung to his arm in the face of all these new people, as if she was realizing that she and Nico would be separated for the first time since they’d left New York. The prospect of that made his stomach tighten.

As they walked back to the boardwalk where the scooter was parked, Dani murmured, “Are you really sure you’ve got to go?”

“Why? Are you gonna miss me after all?” he asked. He swung one long leg over the side and sat down.

“No,” she insisted, rolling her eyes at him. Fiddling with his shirt collar, she murmured, “Well, I might have gotten a little used to your shady ass over the last forty-eight hours.”

“Has it only been that long? Feels like a year hanging out withyoursmart-ass.”

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