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“You know what?” I asked.
“What?”
“You never actually told me what you were laughing about that day. In the massage room.”
I vowed the woman was not getting out of this bed until she fessed up.
“I couldn’t tell you at the time because it sort of revealed my feelings about you.”
“Sort of? What do you mean?”
“Your masseuse,” she confessed. “Part of me wanted her to pull down your towel so I could get a peek of your ass.”
“And the other part of you?”
“Decided if she did that, or anything else even remotely flirty, I’d jump off the table and bitch-slap her.”
My chest and shoulders rumbled with laughter as I imagined Thayle, buck-ass naked, getting up off the table to do just that.
“What?” she squealed. “You don’t think I’m capable of holding my own in a girl fight?”
I finally stopped laughing long enough to answer her question. “Judging by the glare you gave Ava that night at dinner, I think you’re perfectly capable. But”—I held up a hand as Thayle opened her mouth to object—“there will never be a need. I have eyes for one woman and one woman only.”
“Who?” she demanded.
“You know exactly who.” I pulled her atop me, picked up the hat, and put it on her head., “The future Mrs. Antonio Grado.”
epilogue
Dominica
“Oh,for God’s sakes, get a room.”
Don’t get me wrong, Neo and Thayle together was a dream for me. Who wouldn’t want their best friend as a sister-in-law, something I was positive would happen sooner rather than later. I’d been teasing them about a double wedding with Cos and Brooke, but Neo told me to mind my own business.
As if I’d start now.
But for a guy who had never so much as held a woman’s hand in our presence? Not that he wasn’t affectionate. Likely Marco’s over-the-top antics had made Cos and Neo a bit more reserved when it came to flaunting their “lady friends,” as Dad called them, around the family.
“What did I do?” Neo asked as if he were innocent.
It was a Wednesday night and, as was the family custom, everyone was in the tasting room with a few friends and special customers. Our parents had some of their friends here tonight too, and the eight of them huddled around the fireplace on the far side of the room. Soft music played, and all of the registers were closed. No working on a Wednesday night. There was a bring-your-own-bottle policy and only the cafe was open, but even there we only staffed one cook. And they rotated so anyone off-shift could come and enjoy.
Everyone should own their own vineyard, if only to have a Wednesday night. Even with your brother nearly full-on humping his girlfriend right in front of you. Neo came up to Thayle from behind as she poured a glass of wine behind the tasting bar. Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed her neck, Thayle dipping her head to give him better access.
I looked away, toward the crowd. I was no prude, but the thought of my brother with any woman, even Thayle...yeah, no thanks. The last time I’d seen his ding-a-ling, it was the size of a small straw. Of all of us, he liked to be nude the most, until Mom finally made him cover up even around the house. You’d think by fourth grade the boy would have had some natural modesty.
I laughed out loud thinking of the time, in KC’s Taphouse, when I’d walked up to the bar, coming in on the most unfortunate of conversations. Two of Neo’s ex-girlfriends were comparing size, and apparently my brother’s ding-a-ling had grown. So gross.
“What’s so funny?” Thayle asked.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
With another kiss, this time on the cheek, my brother moved away.
“Okay, now will you tell me?”
I considered it, and said, “Nope.”
