Page 24 of Ties That Bind Us

I threw the covers off and rolled over to grab my phone. It was nearly eleven o’clock—I was going to need to rush to make it to my afternoon class on time. Columbia was over an hour from my house, and I needed to shower and make myself presentable.

I made my way downstairs. I had slept through breakfast but I could grab something quickly. I could hear Bella and Vince in the kitchen. I wasn’t ready to deal with them yet, but it didn’t sound like I had a choice.

“Come on, just for a few hours,” Vince was whining as I came around the corner.

Bella rolled her eyes, ignoring his comment.

“Well, good morning, sleeping beauty.” She smiled, welcoming me as relief from whatever conversation she and Vince were having.

“We thought you were dead.” Vince feigned shock.

“Good morning to you too,” I growled, slouching onto the bar stool next to Bella.

“Maybe Ava can do it for you,” Bella suggested.

“Do what?” I hadn’t even been awake for fifteen minutes and I was already being roped into doing something.

Vince’s expression changed and he put on his best face of flattery. “Avs, can you take Sophia to the mall this afternoon? She’s losing her mind because none of her clothes fit and shopping really isn’t my thing.”

Of course he was trying to pawn his pregnant wife off on someone again. She had been at her wits’ end with him the last few weeks, with the pregnancy hormones flaring, and he was spending quite a bit of time here to stay out of firing range.

“As thrilling as that sounds, I can’t. I have class,” I said, grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl and peeling it. “Why don’t you call Angie? She loves that kind of thing.”

“Because Angie is already on my back about this. She thinks I need to man up and take care of Soph.” Vince groaned like everyone was plotting against him somehow.

“I kind of agree with Angie on this one. She’s your wife. Remember all that in sickness and in health shit you promised?” Bella chimed in.

Vince threw his arms up in exasperation. “You guys don’t get it. She threw a curling iron at me this morning. A fucking curling iron, which was hot. She is going to murder me in my sleep one of these days.”

“Speaking of crime . . .” Something outside the kitchen window caught Bella’s attention. “Is that a Caponelli at the front door?”

“What?!” Vince and I shrieked at the same time.

What the hell was he doing here? Hadn’t we talked about dinner? It wasn’t even lunchtime. How was I going to explain this to Bella and Vince? I had no idea if they knew anything about our arranged marriage yet.

The doorbell rang and all three of us stayed frozen in the kitchen. I had a fleeting thought of running up to my room and locking myself in, but I knew that wouldn’t do me much good. Sooner or later, I was going to have to face all of this. I had to have done something in my past life to deserve this kind of karma. This had to be some kind of sick joke, the entire thing.

“Are any of you going to get the door or are you just going to stand in there like a bunch of baboons all morning?” my mother yelled from somewhere down the hallway.

“I’ll get it.” I sucked in a sharp breath. Perhaps I could intercept him and I wouldn’t have to explain any of this just yet.

When I opened the front door, Nick was standing with his back to me. He had on a pair of jeans and a tight T-shirt that showed off his rippled muscles. He turned at the sound of the door opening and splashed a huge grin on his face when he saw me.

“Hey!” he said excitedly, his lips turned up into a goofy smile. It was contagious, and I couldn’t help but smile myself.

“Hi,” I stammered, caught off guard by him yet again. “How did you know where I live?”

Nick chuckled in amusement. “I did a little research. A perk of the job, I guess.”

Right. He was a future Mafia Don after all. He probably had a majority of the city’s personal information in the palm of his hand.

“I talked to the security guard at the front, he said your dad put me on the list. Sorry, I would have called but I don’t have your phone number yet.”

“Are you here to see my dad?”

“Uh, no.” Nick smirked, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’m here to pick you up. Our date, remember?”

“Aren’t you a little early for a dinner date?”

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