Page 53 of Made in Love and Blood

She pulled him in for a hug, and he one-armed it back with a laugh.

“You gotta clinch this up in less than a minute, do you get me?” he asked her. “You got this. We’re not running into overtime here.”

Her head bobbed in response.

“What’s the fuckin’ deal?” he asked when the two pulled away, gazes locked in a contest that rivaled Salvatore’s earlier moment with Giorgio. “What’s the job?”

“Get me the ball,” Frankie replied.

“There you go.”

“Are you in on this or not, Gallo?” the coach shouted. “How much time do you think we get for a timeout? Come on!”

His yell didn’t matter.

She already turned back.

Halfway to the team’s benches, Frankie looked over her shoulder at the section meant for her. This time, she did see her father standing next to the two women sitting on either side. Her smile brightened her entire face, instant and brilliant. He made the heart she loved so much with his thumb and pointer finger, earning him one back.

The exchange drew Nico’s attention, as well.

“They’re going to win this,” he told Salvatore, who nodded back.

Totally oblivious.

But not Salvatore, he saw it. That moment between them that proved even an unlikely friendship could bring connection. He seriously considered, if not monitored or discouraged, whatever that had been between Nico and his daughter would quickly grow. Or rather, it could.

Salvatore felt a tug on his hand. Carina’s pointed fingernails scratched gently against the inside of his palm as his ass hit the seat. He let her take his hand. It gave him time to think. Her other hand patted the top of his before her fingernails drummed a beat. It stung enough to get his attention given the way she found his newly healed scars without trying at all.

“What?”

“I know what you’re thinking,” she told him.

“You don’t.”

A cherry red nail poked him again. “It’s nothing.”

“Right now, maybe.”

Carina met his gaze, unflinching. “Tell her no and mean it, Sal. You’ve never done it in her entire life. Tell her no.”

“How about if we just don’t give it attention?” Sissy asked them both.

“Well—”

“Well, nothing,” returned Sissy. “She’s going to be eighteen in a couple of days, and a good drive away in an entirely different location a short while after that. Where’s the boy going to be? Hopefully busy. It’s nothing.”

Salvatore wanted to believe her. Carina, too. His best option did boil down to leaving the two kids alone unless something happened that required him to step in.

“What would it really hurt, anyway?” Carina asked beside him.

“Don’t even go there.”

She knew very well what it would mean.

The implications...

A possible in to Salvatore’s life for Giorgio.