She holds her hands up in surrender. “What? Just a little recon, that’s all.”
His lips twitch. “And we said we would stay out of it.”
“Stay out of what?”
“A few weeks ago, you met Skye and her brother at a house showing . . .”
The penny drops. Is this Marco’s doing? He gave me two listings with big potential commissions, all to get me to go out with him?
“Marco?” I ask. Granted, the man does intrigue me, and he has occupied my thoughts a lot since the club—more than I thought he would, anyway. But I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this play.
Gilly’s head jerks back. “Oh, God no. Skye—his sister. She’s determined to play matchmaker with you two.”
“Oh,” I say. Didn’t see that one coming.
“Her heart’s in the right place, and we’re not signing with you because of that. Business is separate from our personal lives.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank you for saying that. Now I’m just glad I didn’t tell you my deepest, darkest secrets.”
“Believe me, even if you had, Gilly wouldn’t have shared. She’s of the firm belief you have to make a guy work for it,” Ezra says with a smirk.
Gilly winks at me. “And look what happens when you do, baby daddy.”
The soft smile Ezra shoots his wife is nothing short of dazzling. “Totally worth it.”
“I do need to get going. But I’ll get my assistant to send you through the draft listing contracts and then we can schedule a coffee next week to sign them?”
Gilly stands, putting her glass down as she does. She holds her hand out to me to shake. Ezra does the same, then she leads me back into the apartment and toward the front door.
“I hope you didn’t mind the twenty questions,” she says cautiously.
“Not at all. It makes sense now. Besides, it was more like five, not twenty.”
“I was gearing up for some juicy ones, I swear.”
I laugh at that. “Maybe next time. But maybe you can even the score by telling me something about Marco. A girl’s gotta have some ammunition under her belt.” Especially if I’m going to keep crossing paths with the man.
She opens the door and taps her chin. “Hmm. He’s the oldest of five, Skye being the baby. She’s a paramedic. The others are a firefighter, a cop, and an aesthetician. They’re Chicago born and bred, and his mama makes amazing gnocchi.”
“Damn.”
“What?”
“I’m a sucker for a good gnocchi,” I say.
“You’re perfect for a Rossi man. Those boys have been tearing up the female population of Chicago for years, by all accounts.”
My face falls and Gilly doesn’t miss it.
“No, no. Not terribly. I mean . . . shit. You’d think, being a lawyer, I’d learn not to put my foot in my mouth.”
“Hey. All the lawyers I’ve ever known have a tendency to do that occasionally,” I reply, trying to break the weird change in atmosphere.
“I just know that men like that, with high-stress jobs and lots of testosterone around them, like to blow off steam. Skye holds her brothers in very high regard, though. She even held off hooking up with her now husband because they all work together, and those brothers are super-protective.”
Now that I’d believe. “Okay, tell me this and I’ll let you report back to Skye anything and everything I said.”
Gilly nods, fighting a grin. There’s no missing the fact she’s all in on this matchmaking malarkey. “Hit me with it and if I know, I’ll share.”
“Is he single now?”
Her head jerks back. “There’s no way we’d set any woman up for a fall, and there’s also no way any of the men in our lives—husbands, brothers, or otherwise—would ever cheat on a woman. They’re honest to a fault, protective as hell, and, the most fun part . . . they’re dedicated to the chase when they find the one they want.”
“Hmm. Good to know. Then report back to Skye and tell her whatever you want. But if Marco wants me, then I’m all about being the chasee. If he wants the water, he’s going to have to come to the well and dip the bucket in.”
We leave it at that, but my entire way home I totally overthink my decision. Then I decide, fuck it; Gilly has nothing to gain by playing up what a good guy Marco might be. Maybe it’s time I find out for myself.
Once he makes the first move though. What kind of chasee would I be otherwise?
4
Marco
Sunday afternoon and I’m walking into my parents’ house, feeling tired from my last twenty-four-hour shift.
“Mama?” I call out.
“In here, Marco,” my mother replies from halfway down the hall.
In the kitchen, I find Mama, Skye, Cohen, and Valentina seated at stools around the center island.
After greeting the girls with a kiss on the cheek and Co with a handshake, I move around to my mother and pull her in for a big hug.
“It’s good to see you, son.” She shifts back and looks in my eyes. “You look tired though. You work too hard.”
I smile down at her and shake my head. “You say that to all of us.”
“A mother never stops worrying about her children. You know that, Marco Rossi.”
“Except me. I never look tired,” Val says, glowing like she’s slept for twenty hours.
“That’s the beauty of cosmetics,” Skye muses, earning a gasp.
Val leans over and points her finger at her. “Take that back, brat!”
That just makes Skye smirk. “If the concealer fits.”
“Bit—”
“Valentina Maria,” Mama growls in a scary ‘don’t mess with me’ tone, just as Luca and Gio walk in together, followed by Papa.
“Who’s in trouble?” Luca says with a singsong voice.
“Val,” Skye, Co, and I say in unison, making everyone except Mama and Val chuckle.
“It’s always Val,” Gio says, walking over to said sister and ruffling her hair in the way we know she hates.
“Be nice to my girl,” my father says, moving to Mama and kissing her temple.
“Val or Mama?” I ask with a half grin.
“Mama, of course. Always your mother, till the day I take my last breath.” He’s whispering by the end, earning a soft look from his wife.
This is why I’ve held out for a show stopper. A woman worth anything life throws at you and then some. That’s why I’m almost thirty-nine and single, working up to three twenty-four-hour shifts a week, and living in a house with Gio. Luca used to live with us, but working and living together was a bit too much for both of us to cope with.
Speaking of brothers . . . “Hey, where did you guys get to this morning?” I ask, switching between Gio and Luca.
“We went for a run along the Lakefront Trail.”
“You went for a run after your shift?” I ask Luca.
“Yep. Like it’s hard,” he says.
Skye snorts. “You guys are crazy.”
Luca lifts his shirt and twists his shoulders from side to side, flexing his abs. “Gotta keep in shape for the ladies.”