“Nice. Do you want to join me?”
“Join you?” She managed to drag her eyes to his face.
“Yeah. I can’t eat all this by myself.” He moved away from the door, obviously expecting her to come inside.
Her gaze went to the rumpled bed, and she hesitated. Being in the close confines of the small guest room with a half-naked Nate, a man she was attracted to even if he wasn’t attracted to her, was a bad idea. But the thought of being alone with her worries tonight held little appeal.
As though Nate had read her mind, he said, “It’s warm enough that we can eat on the balcony if you want.”
“I’d like that. Thanks.” She closed the door and stepped into the room. “I wasn’t sure what kind of pizza you like, but apparently Zia Maria knows. She sent you dessert too.”
“If it’s her chocolate pie, I can’t promise there will be any left for you.” He winked and dropped the towel on the sheets, then grabbed a gray sweatshirt from the black duffel bag lying open on the bed.
“Here. Let me take the food,” she offered, moving to his side. She wanted him to put on his sweatshirt ASAP. The view of his back was as tempting as his front. “I promise. I won’t eat your pie.”
“You obviously haven’t tasted Zia Maria’s chocolate pie.” He grinned, handing her the box and bag.
As Ellie walked to the sliding door, she couldn’t resist one last peek at all that enticing muscle on display and glanced over her shoulder. His eyes met hers. She cleared her throat. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Whoever was in here last left an unopened bottle of red wine. I’m good with that if you are.”
“I’m so sorry, Nate. I completely forgot someone was in here before you. I can clean the room while you eat.”
“Don’t sweat it. It’s spotless.”
She scanned the room.
“Seriously, Ellie. You should have seen the last place I stayed.” He grabbed the bottle of wine from Three Wild Women Winery and two glasses from the bathroom counter.
“Okay, but at least let me change the sheets and get you fresh towels.”
He reached around her to open the sliding glass door. “Yes to the towels, no to changing the sheets. No one slept in the bed, Ellie. Now let’s eat before the pizza gets cold.” He pulled out a chair for her on the balcony. “Sit.”
She placed the pizza box and bag on the small round table and took a seat.
“So how’s Joe doing?” Nate asked, taking a couple of napkins out of the bag before moving it aside.
“Still trying to figure out why my mother is doing this. I think we both are.”
“In my experience, it comes down to jealousy, money, or revenge. Once you figure out what’s motivating your mother, you’ll stand a better chance of stopping her. You said all they were focused on was the money, so go from there,” he said, twisting off the wine bottle’s cap and pouring them each a glass.
“Thank you,” she said, accepting the glass. “You’re right. It has to be about the money. But what I can’t figure out is why. It’s not as if my parents need it. They have good jobs, good pensions.”
“You’d be surprised how many families are torn apart over money. Whether they need it or not. Everybody seems to want more.” He lifted the pizza box lid and cocked his head. “Did you say something to Zia Maria that I should know about?”
“No, why?”
He turned the box. On the inside of the lid someone had written, You mess with Ellie, no more pizza for you.
“That sounds like Massimo, not Zia Maria. He must have heard her when she was warning me away from you.” She grimaced, realizing how that sounded. “Not that I said we were a thing. I didn’t. I wouldn’t because obviously we’re not. I actually made it clear you were just staying at the inn and not with me. Zia Maria is as bad as Granny, so I made that really, really clear.”
“You’re cute when you babble,” he said, handing her a piece of pizza. “So what did Zia Maria say? I thought she loved me.”
“She does. She just doesn’t love you for me. She told me to tell you to stop by on your way out of town tomorrow.” Ellie took a bite of the pizza, savoring the tastes of prosciutto, garlic sauce, and mozzarella cheese.
Nate had inhaled his slice of pizza while she was talking and reached for another piece. “You didn’t mention that I was going back undercover, did you?”
“No. I didn’t know that you were.”
“Good. I thought Chase might have said something to Sadie and that she’d told you.” His phone pinged. He glanced at the screen and sighed. “Obviously he mentioned it to Mrs. M. He’s turned into a regular mother hen since he married Sadie.” His phone pinged again, and he groaned. “I’m going to kill him. My sister,” he said at her questioning gaze. “He’s brought in the big guns now.”
“Chase doesn’t want you to go undercover?”
“No. He wants me to drop the case.” He wiped his hand on his napkin before responding to the texts with quick, irritated jabs of his finger.
“Is this about your friend Brodie?”
“Yeah. Chase wants me to move on, but I can’t. Not yet. Not until it’s done.” He turned off his phone, reached for the glass of wine, and then leaned back in the chair.
“I’m sorry about your friend, Nate. It must be difficult for you to be on the case given your personal involvement.”
“Thanks. It is, but I have to see it through to the end.”
“I thought the people involved were in jail.”
He nodded, then explained that he wasn’t going after the people immediately responsible for Brodie’s murder. Nate wanted to bring down the organization that had supplied the drugs.
“I don’t know much about this kind of thing, but isn’t that a job for the DEA?” she asked.
“It is. We’re running a joint task force with them and ATF.”
“At least you have backup.”
He responded with a noncommittal grunt, straightening to grab another piece of pizza without meeting her gaze.
“You don’t have backup, do you?” She took a fortifying sip of wine. The risks he was willing to take bothered her. And she had no doubt the risks were massive if Chase was worried about him.
Nate’s eyes narrowed. “What? Are you psychic or something?”
She nearly choked on her wine, covering her reaction with a laugh. “No. I’m just good at reading facial expressions…and noncommittal grunts.”
“Good. For a minute there, I thought you were like Mrs. M. She thinks she can tell people’s futures, you know.”
“You don’t think she can?”
“You’re joking, right? She pulled it on me once. Took my hand and zoned out, then started spouting a bunch of crap about soul mates and finding mine. I don’t know what scared me more, her telling me that once I found my one and only, my life as I knew it would be over or that creepy voice she used.”
Feeling defensive on her grandmother’s behalf and her own, Ellie said, “You might not believe Granny can see the future, but there are people who do. Just ask Sadie and Abby.”