With all the chattering and shoulder slapping, I managed to catch sight of Paige. Was all of this sudden attention too much for her? Following the conversation in the jet, I assumed she might be feeling stretched thin.

The smile on her face said otherwise.

My mother took Paige’s hands in hers and stepped back to survey her. “Your hair is getting long!”

“Yeah,” Paige agreed. “I’m thinking about cutting it.”

“It will be beautiful either way.” She looked over at Sophia. “How about I steal you two away for a little bit and show you around?”

“Sounds good,” Sophia agreed.

My mother winked over at me before putting her hands on the twins’ shoulders and directing them towards the hallway.

“So?” Franko pressed. “Are we going to play?”

“Let’s wait until Lia gets here,” Tre answered.

Franko made a face. “She can’t even hold a ball.”

“Put her on Tre’s team,” Dominic said. “He’s practically pro. It’ll even things out a bit.”

Tre shrugged. “She just needs practice.”

“I just need a drink,” Pops put in. “And Angelo just got here. Give him some space. Let’s go to the bar.”

We followed him to the billiards room, Franko and Tre jostling and joking the whole way. I tuned most of it out, but still managed to catch the terms blue balls and bro.

In the billiards room Dominic went to the bar to pour our father and himself some whiskey. I declined the offer for a drink and settled down into the leather love seat.

“The girls look good,” Pops commented, taking his whiskey. “But how are they really?”

I thought about how to answer him. A lot had happened in the last year. The arranged marriage that almost went down. Paige’s repressed memory of her parents’ deaths. The Italy properties Moretti left to the twins after Sophia offed him.

“Sophia is great,” I answered. “She was made for this old-world business.”

Pops sipped his whiskey. “And Paige?”

I wasn’t ready to say anything personal in front of Franko and Tre, who were at the far end of the room, glued to something on Tre’s phone screen. Probably porn with the volume turned down to mute.

“Paige is different,” I whispered. “She’s had different experiences. She and Sophia are like night and day.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“She saw some things she shouldn’t have.”

He nodded in understanding. “Did she get help?”

“Yes, years ago.”

Pops shook his head. “Leave it alone.”

I stared at him, surprised. “Seriously?”

“You can suggest counseling, but you know my feelings about that. It’s a waste of time. All that gushing on a couch with some idiot who has a bunch of degrees, and no fucking life experience? Half the time, they can’t tell their heads from his assholes, and they want to give someone else advice?”

I smiled. Maybe Pops wasn’t the right person to have this discussion with.

Dominic took a seat nearby, listening but not saying anything.

“She’s resistant to change,” I explained. “She won’t let go of that apartment she’s in with Sophia. She keeps all her stuff there, even though she barely spends any time in the place.”

“This seems to upset you.”

I leaned back into the cool leather. “I guess so.”

“But why?”

Dominic spoke. “Because he wants her to be his.”

I glared at my brother, but couldn’t deny it. Paige was already mine. She was the first woman I’d wanted to even spend more than a few hours with. I wasn’t about to let her slip away.

“So?” Dominic asked, peering at me.

“What?”

“When are you going to do something about it?”

“You’re going to have to stop speaking in riddles. I don’t get what you’re saying.”

Dominic sipped his drink. “Women aren’t that more complicated than men, Angelo. Not once you figure out their basic wants and needs. Paige is waiting for you to step up.”

“I have to say, that still sounds like a riddle to me.”

Pops cleared his throat. “What Dominic is saying is that women like it when men make a decision and go for it. Paige isn’t going to move herself into your penthouse. She needs something big from you, something that will show her how serious you are.”

I tapped my fingers against the chair and looked away from them. The conversation had turned from one about the twins’ emotional health to my inability to show Paige I was serious about her.

“I love her,” I said firmly. “I tell her all the time.”

Dominic chuckled. “Aw, that’s so damn cute.”

I furiously rubbed my palms together, trying to keep my calm. “What are you suggesting I do?”

“Fuck, you have to ask?”

That one stopped me. Clearly, I did.

“Lock her down,” Dominic added.

“Christ, you son of a—”

“Angelo,” Pops cut us off. “He’s right. What were you planning to do with Paige?”

“You two need to stop talking about her like she’s a piece of property.”

“You’d better get her on lockdown before someone else does, little brother,” Dominic said with a chuckle.

I shot him a glare.

“Congrats, kid,” he added, raising his glass in a toast.