Chapter Forty Seven
Francesca
After three months of planning, I, Francesca Morelli, am marrying Antonio Salvatore Castellanos.
Well, tomorrow.
Tonight, we rehearse.
I am happy with my decision not to invite any dates because Mateo isn’t an excessively jealous person, and as he sits in the pew watching Mark crack Mia up as they walk down the aisle, even he looks a little murdery. I take that to mean Vince would have lost his shit already.
“Sorry, sorry. Should we do it again? We can just keep walking down the aisle all night. One of these times she’ll make it without laughing and fucking it all up,” Mark offers lightly.
Mateo rolls his eyes, leaning back in the pew and sighing. I don’t know if it’s actually jealousy or he just hates Mark because he’s everything Mateo finds annoying, but I’m pretty sure he’d shoot him in the face without much incentive. Like, you could offer him a rotted banana peel to kill Mark and he would accept the payment.
I look over at Sal, tapping my chin. “I don’t know. Maybe we shouldn’t have the men walk the women in. Maybe the men should stand up here with you, and the women come in on their own. Then when they leave, they obviously walk out together.”
“Whatever you want,” Sal says.
I debate for another minute, then I decide. “Okay, let’s take it from the top and do the full run through. The men will escort the ladies in, then my flower girl will come down the aisle. Then here comes the bride, and I’m up.”
“The bride,” Mia says, making a giddy face for me.
I grin. “I know.”
Now that we have it all figured out, we reset. Mateo stands now so he can wait at the back of the church with me. It all goes off without a hitch. Isabella walks a little faster we told her to, but tomorrow she will have real rose petals to drop, so that will likely slow her down a bit.
After the wedding rehearsal, we all head to the private room Mateo rented out for us at Flavor. Sal and I get there first, so I go check it out and eye up seats.
“I’m gonna put Mia here next to Isabella and Mateo.”
“Uh huh,” Sal says, unimpressed.
“Only because Isabella needs an adult to sit next to her in case she needs help ordering and cutting up her food.”
“Mateo will be sitting right next to her. She’s his daughter. Can’t he help her?”
I shake my head. “It won’t occur to him she needs help and she’s unlikely to ask him. He doesn’t do stuff like that, Ju does.”
“You just want to put Mia as close to Mateo as possible,” Sal states, shaking his head.
“Nuh uh,” I say, looking at the table. “Isabella needs to sit next to a woman and Meg isn’t coming. What’s a girl to do?”
“You’re scheming.”
“I’m a Morelli, babe, we’re always scheming. I’m gonna find a guy for Maddie next.”
“Having seen the matches you’re trying to put together, I’m gonna have to say thanks but no thanks.”
“I can put Maddie next to Mark. They bicker, but maybe that’ll distract Mark a bit from Mia. I think Mateo has already had his fill of Mark tonight.”
Sal shakes his head. “You better not get my best friend killed with your matchmaking. I’ll be really mad at you.”
I grimace, realizing my current seating arrangement has Cherie directly across from Mateo. They don’t hate each other, but they’re certainly not chums.
Mia comes in with Mateo and Isabella, anyway. Isabella is chattering with Mia about someone named Monica and Mia is feigning interest like a champ.
I wave, and point to the seats I picked out for them up by us. “You guys are right here.”
Mark is already here and seated across from Isabella. His eyes wander over Mia briefly as she double checks the seating arrangements with Mateo, then pulls out the seat directly beside her so Isabella can sit down. Mateo is on Isabella’s other side, and despite my intentions to be good tonight, I take a small measure of joy in how much they look like a little family.
“No ball and chain tonight, huh?” Mark asks Mateo good-naturedly.
Mateo glances at Mark so he knows he heard him, then blatantly looks away without answering.
Sal drapes his arm around my shoulder, leaning in. “I’m just so glad they get along.”
I grin. “Mateo is too classy for Mark. When he saw he wore jeans to rehearsal, I’m pretty sure he instantly wrote him off as a waste of space.”
“Your brother is so strange,” Sal remarks, shaking his head before heading to the table and taking a seat next to Mark. I’m seated at the head of the table with Sal and Mia on either side, and it’s weird. I immediately feel like I should get up and give the spot to Mateo since it’s his spot at home. Instead he’s down there bumping elbows with—oh, no, why is Maddie on his other side? She wasn’t supposed to sit over there.
Sal realizes it too, and turns to shoot me a dirty look. I grimace as Maddie turns in her seat and smiles as she talks to Mateo. I recall her mentioning how hot he was when I first met her, and that doesn’t bode terribly well since Sal is probably remembering the same thing.
“You were supposed to prevent this from happening,” Sal states, not at all pleased.
“She switched seats! I didn’t do it.”
“He needs to be isolated away from normal people. I don’t want him sitting next to Maddie. Fix it.”
“I can’t fix it, she’s already sitting there.”
Sal is watching like a helicopter mom at the playground. “Why are they still speaking?” He waves his arms and gets Maddie’s attention, then he sends her a good glare. Maddie pauses in her conversation and rolls her eyes. Mateo turns to see why, and she touches his arm, explaining Sal is her brother.
Mia is now scowling at Maddie too, noticing her hand on Mateo’s arm.
Oh, dear.
Mark rolls his eyes and quietly mutters to Sal, “Does that guy have a magical dick, or what?”
Mia overhears anyway and answers with a straight face, “Yes.” Then she grins at Mark across the table as he dramatically gags. She likes to torment Mark, but she promptly loses her smile and turns her gaze to Sal to address the larger issue at hand. “No, but seriously, what’s the deal with your sister?”
Before anyone can start a blood war over Maddie having the audacity to put her hand on Mateo, Isabella taps on Mia’s arm, telling her she can’t read the menu. Maddie apparently forgotten, Mia taps into her maternal side and leans in to go over the menu with Isabella.
Of course Sal and Mia had respective anxiety attacks for no reason, because after a minute, Mateo turns back to check on—well, probably Mia, but he pretends he’s checking on Isabella. Since they have their heads together going over Isabella’s potential dinner options, he can check on them both at once. Mia glances up at him and he gives her a tender smile. Since she’s not made of stone and he doesn’t hand many of those out, she bites her bottom lip and offers one back.
She then goes back to helping Isabella while Mateo looks at his own menu, but from the smug little smile playing around his lips, I have to wonder if he let Maddie steal his attention for a moment on purpose.
Sal puts it together, too. I can tell by the look on his face—that, and the fact that he doesn’t watch Maddie like a hawk after that.
Mia still glances Maddie’s way every now and then to make sure she’s keeping her hands to herself, but Mateo doesn’t exploit Mia’s territorial side any further. He seems to be in the mood for peace tonight, and given Meg and Vince are both absent, he can have it.
Well, mostly.
Mark still jokes around with Mia, and once he sees Mia’s really into Isabella, he starts joking around with them both. Mark’s goofy nature makes him a big hit with kids, apparently, and Isabella gives him the perfect opportunity to showcase it. Since Mia has adopted Isabella for the evening, she’s along for the ride, smiling when Isabella does, amused when Isabella laughs at Mark’s dumb jokes. He’s using Mateo’s daughter to impress Mia, and boy, is Mateo not impressed.
When the food comes out, Mia pushes her plate aside so she can cut up Isabella’s spaghetti and meatballs. Isabella tells Mia how she loves meatballs so much, and how her doll made so many meatballs one time, it was ridiculous. Mia chuckles at Isabella’s stories and tells her off-handedly she should learn how to make meatballs if she loves them so much.
“Okay. Will you teach me?”
Mia pauses and glances over at Mateo, as if for approval. He nods without looking up from his own plate. “Yeah, of course I will,” she tells Isabella.
Since Mateo doesn’t join in the conversation—he’s not used to kids at dinner, so he probably just doesn’t think of it—Mark hops on and regales Isabella with stories of the cookies he made at the bakery that were bigger than her head, and the cooking competition he and Mia had. Isabella is very into the idea of a cooking competition, and she is especially interested in a cookie larger than her head.
A little over halfway through the meal, Isabella tugs on Mateo’s arm and leans in to whisper in his ear. He gets up and helps her out of her seat, then with a hand on her little shoulder, looks around for a bathroom. He makes it around the table to where Mark and Sal are seated, then he glances at Mia. On cue, she drops her fork and pushes back her chair.
“I’ll take her.”
Mia heads over to that side of the table to take Isabella’s hand so she can lead her through the crowd.
Mateo places a hand at the small of Mia’s back and leans in close to murmur, “Thank you, Mia.” He watches pleasantly enough until they’re out of sight, then he leans down right where he’s standing and tells Mark, “Lay off my kid, asshole.”
Mark holds his hands up in surrender. “Hey, man, I was just—”
“Trying to impress the panties off Mia, yes, I know. You’re wasting your time. Which is fine, I’m sure you have a lot of that to waste—just don’t bring my daughter into it.”
Mateo straightens and goes to walk away, but stops short when Mark remarks blithely, “You shouldn’t fear a little competition, Morelli; it’ll keep your game sharp.”
I grimace, because Mateo turns right back around. I didn’t think he’d take the bait since he clearly doesn’t take Mark seriously, but there he is with a hook in his mouth.
“Competition?” Smiling as if amused, Mateo remains towering over him, but places a firm hand on Mark’s shoulder. “You can talk all the shit you want, Mark. That’s all it is. I can talk, too—and I could back it up.” Indicating Mia’s empty wine glass across the table, he says, “See, all I have to do is keep ordering her wine so she won’t be able to drive herself home. You can dream about what it’s like to have her mindless with lust in your arms, but I could actually have it. She’d put up a meager protest. I’d ignore it and fuck her anyway. Then she’d come all over my cock, crying out my name and begging me for more.” Straightening, giving Mark’s shoulder another squeeze, he says, “That’s how I could spend the rest of my night, if I were so inclined. Can you say the same thing?” He pauses just long enough, then releases Mark’s shoulder and pats him on the back. “Of course you can’t. That’s why you’re not competition.”
I suck in a breath and let it out, reaching for my own wine glass as Mateo walks back around to his side of the table.
Poor Mark, usually in such good spirits, has an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. “You know, I don’t hate a lot of people, but I hate him.”
Sal nods his understanding and I watch as Mateo signals the waitress and, just to be an asshole, orders Mia another glass of wine. As he settles back in his seat, faintly smirking, he shoots Mark a little wink.
“See, this is why we should’ve invited Meg and Vince,” Sal tells me, eyeing Mia’s wine glass with obvious discomfort.
“He won’t really do it, he was just running his mouth,” I tell him, shaking my head. “He just wanted to piss Mark off.”
“You sure about that?”
“He said he could spend his night that way, not he would. I’m at least 60 percent sure he’s not gonna do it.”
Sal snorts, shaking his head and taking a drink. “He’s such an asshole.”
I glance down at said asshole, but my gaze drifts to Cherie, seated across from him. Her face is set in a scowl and she has her phone out, thumbs flying across the screen. I realize since she’s on Mark’s other side, she just heard everything Mateo said to him. I’m just about to go down and do damage control, make sure she’s not texting Vince and getting Mia in trouble, when Mia and Isabella come back from the bathroom. I don’t want her to overhear me talking about what he said, so I stay put. If it is Vince she’s texting, I’m probably too late to intervene, anyway.
When Mia sits down, she’s mildly surprised to see her wine glass refilled, but since it’s there she drinks it anyway. After she empties that glass, Mateo orders her another. She’s tipsy enough at that point she doesn’t object. I’m still reasonably certain Mateo is only ordering her drinks to irk Mark, but Sal is less confident. He tenses along with Mark when Mateo orders another glass for her and glances at me with mild aggravation.
I pat Sal’s hand on the table. “I’ll talk to him and make sure he’s not up to no good.”
Sal rolls his eyes. “Yeah, because he’d obviously tell you.”
Mia’s pretty wasted by the time she finishes that glass. Before she heads to the bathroom, she stumbles over to Mateo and leans down to tell him, “Don’t order any more. I have to pee.”
“Thank you for the update,” he says lightly.
Mia nods, one hand on his shoulder for balance, but then she notices Maddie looking. Pointedly resting her other hand on his other shoulder, Mia lingers and holds Maddie’s gaze.
Maddie lifts her eyebrows. “I was just being friendly. Down, girl,” she says before turning away.
Apparently satisfied, Mia wordlessly removes her hands and heads for the bathroom.
Sal watches the whole exchange, noting Mateo’s satisfaction once Mia’s done marking him as her territory. As soon as she bumps into a chair on her way toward the hall, Sal’s frustration peaks and he gets up from the table. “I’ll be back.”