“What?” Justin asks, shocked. “I need Evan.”
“I’m here,” he says, and he comes to stand next to who must be his wife, Justin’s sister Zara.
“Dylan,” he says, pressing the button to turn the camera around. “What did you say about Evan Richards?” Dylan smiles and becomes shy. “It’s okay, buddy. He knows,” Justin says.
“I said he’s good,” Dylan says, almost hiding his smile.
“And …” Justin says.
“But you’re better,” he says.
Zara starts laughing, and Evan yells, “Bullshit!” Loudly.
“There is a kid in the room,” Zara says, and now Evan grabs the phone from her.
“I want to speak to Dylan,” he says, and Justin hands Dylan the phone.
“How old are you?” he asks Dylan.
“Eight,” Dylan says.
“What level do you play?” Evan asks him.
Zara is in the background. “Would you stop harassing the child, Evan?”
“I play forward,” Dylan says proudly.
“When I’m down in two weeks, how about we play one-on-one?” Evan says, and I hear dogs barking in the background.
“You just threw down to a child,” Zara admonishes.
“It’s on,” Dylan says, and I shake my head as he hands the phone back to Justin.
“Okay, just thought I would share that with you,” Justin says when he gets the phone back.
“I’m sure you did.” He laughs. “Where are you?”
“We are at Cicionni,” Justin says.
“Who is we, Justin?” Zara asks, and I see Justin give the same smile he did when he was talking about his family.
“Dylan and Caroline,” he says and comes closer to me. “Caroline, say hi to my bratty number one.” He turns the phone on me, and I try not to panic, but I swear my hands start shaking, and I have the sudden need to drink another gulp of wine.
“Oh, shit,” Evan says in the background and comes closer to the phone. “It’s about to be real.”
“Hi,” I say, and Zara’s eyes open wide.
“Hi,” she says, “it’s so nice to meet you.”
“You, too,” I say, and I don’t know what else to say so Justin takes over.
“Okay, squirt, call you later,” he says.
“I’m so telling everyone,” Zara says, and he laughs, then he hangs up. Before I can ask him what she means, the door opens, and Lara comes back with another waiter, both of them carrying trays.
“I hope you guys are hungry,” she says, and I don’t say anything else because two pizzas and two huge plates of pasta are set down on the table.
Dylan digs into the spaghetti and then eats a slice of pizza, and the only thing that I can fit in my stomach is two slices of pizza. But Justin eats us both under the table, and when I look at him, he just winks at me.
When Lara comes back in, she takes the remainder of the food and offers to box it up for us. “I’m stuffed,” Justin says, stretching backward and then putting his arm around my chair to pull me closer to him.
“Did you eat enough?” he asks, and I look over at him and nod.
“Okay, you two,” Lara says, coming back in with a tray. “I made this special tiramisu and then a Nutella cheesecake this morning,” she says, putting the dessert in the middle of the table.
“If I eat anything else, I’m going to explode,” I whisper, but Justin sits up and takes a spoon and then cuts a piece of tiramisu and brings the spoon to my mouth.
“Taste it,” he says, holding the spoon to my lips. I open my mouth, and the cool of the cake hits my tongue, and then the sweetness follows. “Good, right?” he says and takes another piece and eats from the same spoon.
Dylan is eating his own piece, and I swear the kid has a hole in his stomach sometimes. “Dylan, don’t make yourself sick.”
“Mom, it’s so good,” he says, finishing the whole piece.
“Here, taste this,” Justin says, holding the spoon to my mouth.
“I can’t,” I say, trying to duck from him, but he doesn’t let up.
“Just taste a bite,” he says, and I open and take the spoon, and I swear I will never taste anything as good again. “Good, right?” I nod my head.
I watch the two of them finish the dessert, and then Justin stands. “Let’s go, sweetheart,” he says again. I look at him, and he just smirks at me. Then he turns to Dylan. “Ready, champ?”
“Yup,” Dylan says and gets up, and Justin grabs the bag with the takeout. I follow Justin out of the room and expect him to walk ahead of me, but he doesn’t. He waits for me and then puts his arm around my shoulder. When we walk past the hostess stand, he doesn’t even look their way.
“Thank you for coming,” the two women say, and all he does is nod. We are almost out of the door when a couple of fans come over and ask for pictures. He is very polite to them, and they pose for pictures.
“It’s so cool,” Dylan says next to me, and I have to agree that it really is. When he finishes, he comes to us, and we walk back into the lobby.
“Let’s get you guys home,” he says as we walk through the lobby and to the elevator. I try not to look around too much, and when we get into the garage, I follow him to the SUV.
“Look at that red car,” Dylan says, pointing at the sleek red car next to the SUV.
“You like that one?” Justin asks, opening the passenger door for me and then the back door for Dylan.
“I bet it goes fast, fast,” he says, sitting in the car seat.
“I’ll take you out in it this weekend,” he says to Dylan, and Dylan squeals while I just stand here looking at him. He slams the back door and turns to me. “You ready?”
“That’s your car?” I ask him, looking at the red car. I don’t know what it is, but it just looks expensive.
“Um, yeah,” he says. “That one also.” He points at a truck and then the sleek black BMW next to it. “That one also.”
“You have four cars?” I ask him, and he puts his hand on my back and ushers me to get in the SUV.
“Does it matter?” he asks, and I want to say yes, it does, but he just continues. “It’s a car.”
“Yes,” I say. “Four. You own four cars.”
“Well, five,” he says. “I keep one at my parents’ house for when I visit.”
He smiles. “Now, let’s get Dylan home. He must be tired.”
“Smooth,” I say. “Very smooth.”
He looks at me and winks, and my stomach literally flutters. “Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet, sweetheart,” he says, closing the door.
“Mom,” Dylan calls from the back seat, and I turn around. “I really like him.”
“Yeah, baby,” I say, looking back to the front. “Me, too,” I say quietly under my breath.
Chapter Seventeen
Justin
“Four.” I hear her mumbling from beside me. She turns her back to the door and looks at me. “Four cars.”