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“Yes. But going to get one would have ruined my plan,” I tell her, and she shakes her head.
“Are you trying to make me mad again?” she asks, but her lips are tilted up in a sly smile.
“No, not at all. In fact,” I say, pouring more wine into both of our glasses. “I want you feeling even nicer.” I smirk, loving the pink that stains her cheeks. “We still have dessert, too.”
“Oooh, I’m ready for dessert,” she says eagerly. “Good thing I left room for it.”
I pull my phone out and send a message to Tessa’s bodyguard, Tito, to bring it up. I’ve borrowed him for the night to help me with this dinner since he wasn’t needed tonight and he’s one of the few with the security clearance to access the roof.
“It’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“Well, until then…” she smiles, grabbing the plate of scallops. “These are too good to not finish. I mean, if you don’t want them?” She bites her lip, her eyes begging me not to say I want them.
“Nope. All yours.”
Her grateful smile is instant, and I think I just fell in love with her a little. She could give me that pleading look and I’d give her any damn thing. Literally anything.
And that, right there, is the start of it all.
I know it, and I’m surprisingly not scared of that fact.
“I’ve talked a little about my family with you, but I only know about Frank.”
She looks reluctant at first, but then takes a sip of wine and dives right in. “It’s just him and my mom now. My dad passed away when I was twelve and my grandmother when I was seventeen. Her and my grandfather were kind of star-crossed lovers who ran away to the states when she got pregnant with my dad. They couldn’t have any more kids after him despite wanting a houseful, but they built a life full of love, laughter, and happiness that I’m happy to have been brought up in.”
The wistful smile on her lips at the memories makes my heart twist, wishing I could say I had the same atmosphere growing up.
“Are you close with your mom?”
“We were. Sort of.” She shrugs. “I was always closer to my dad and grandparents, and then after she got married a couple years ago, it hasn’t been the same.”
“You don’t like her new husband?”
“No, he’s fine. He takes care of her and I like that’s she’s happy again.”
“But he’s not your dad.” I finish her unsaid thought and she nods. “Who taught you how to count cards?”
“Oh, that.” She grins, her smile confident and proud. “I spent every day after school at the deli, doing my homework and helping out when I was done. My grandfather’s local friends would come in and play cards or dominos, and they’d let me watch. I was determined to understand what the hell was going on.” She laughs, sipping her wine. “Gin rummy was a favorite of theirs, but they taught me blackjack first since it was the easiest for a kid to understand. I was hooked, and I immediately needed to know how to win. Because, well…” she looks at me with a glint of mischief in her eyes. “I don’t like to lose.”
“Who does?”
“True. But I really hate losing. And the older men saw how frustrated I’d get when I couldn’t control the cards to get what I wanted. So, one of them suggested I start using my brain to figure out my odds and learn to control the cards.”
“How long did it take you?”
That twinkle in her eyes has me mesmerized. “I was determined,” she says, and I laugh.
“I’m sure you were.”
“My determination has paid my college tuition and then some, and now it’s being used to help my family. I don’t abuse it. That was the one rule my parents and nonno had as I was learning. They made me promise I wasn’t to use it to simply steal money and get rich. They wanted me to find my own path in life and not have to rely on living a life where I’d spend my days in casinos and back rooms. That life either ends early or leads to a slippery slope of other vices I have no business indulging in. At least, that’s what was said to me.”
“They were right. It’s a good rule. I’ve seen even the best gamblers fall at some point, and they don’t recover from the hole they dig themselves into.”
“I’m not greedy. I have everything I need.”
“Do you?”
“Almost everything,” she corrects softly, looking down into her wine glass. She looks back up at me through her lashes and it’s a fucking punch to my gut.
