Her Best Friend's Brother (15 page)

Whatever else, he wanted a baby girl with dark curly hair.

“Libby McKay!” Frankie jogged up to them.

“How the hel are you? Hey, Tony. You aren’t gonna deck me if I shake your hand are you?” Tony glared at his cousin, but he shook his hand any way.

“Come on Lib. I think I see Mom and Dad.” Tony towed Libby away, and behind them she could hear Frankie hooting loudly.

“What was that al about?”

“I hit him once a few years ago, and he likes to bring it up.” Tony slung an arm around her shoulders a little possessively.

“Oh.” Libby had a sneaking suspicion that she knew exactly when Tony had punched Frankie.

Pie eating wasn’t the only game on the docket for the day. The Marchetti’s were very competitive. A large official looking white board was standing in a corner of the pavilion; it served as a schedule of activities as wel as the signup sheet. Libby had loved the games as a kid. It was just her and her mom, and now Stuart. That wasn’t nearly enough people for egg tosses, relay races, and scavenger hunts. Libby remembered Tony as being less than enthusiastic about the games, wel except for the softbal game that brought the party to a close each year. But when Libby reached for the marker at the signup sheet he gamely added his name next to hers for the three-legged race, water baloon toss, and of course for tug of war.

The three-legged race was the big Marchetti opener. A chalk dust sprayer had been used to mark off a 50 yard race.

“I’m planning on winning McKay. Don’t let me down.” Tony was grinning her favorite grin as he tied the scarves around their ankles and thighs. If she didn’t know better she would think that he lingered down there a little longer than was necessary.

longer than was necessary.

“Oh we are so going to own this.” Libby pretended to polish her fingernails on her sleeves.

The thing about three legged races is they don’t realy rely on speed as much as teamwork and balance.

Libby and Tony got off to a pretty good start. His arm held her tightly around her waist, and she put her hand on his shoulder. This would have been perfect to keep them balanced if Libby could have disregarded the tiny jolts of electricity bouncing around in her stomach brought on by his closeness. They kept pace until about halfway down the track. When Tony’s fingers slipped between the waist of her shorts and the hem of her tee shirt, digging momentarily into the bare skin at her waist, Libby lurched in reaction.

Tumbling forward Libby inevitably took Tony down with her.

His arms wrapped around her in an effort to absorb most of their fal, but realy only served to lock them together when they hit the ground. Tony’s face fel into the curve of her shoulder; his body aligned perfectly with hers.

Lavender assaulted his senses, and for just a moment, or maybe two moments, Tony wished they weren’t in a public park surrounded by his family. “Are you okay?” He asked staring down into her eyes.

“Nothing wounded but my pride.” Libby was blushing scarlet. Tony roled quickly away before the sight of her flushed beneath him could cause a problem.

By the time they untangled themselves the winners (An aunt and uncle Libby didn’t recognize) were doing a mildly obnoxious victory dance. The Marchetti’s realy were very competitive.

“Gee I hope you guys do better in the water baloon toss!” Mel was waving from the sidelines with John standing behind her both hands wrapped around her waist.

As Tony had predicted they had shown up wel over an hour late. Libby was glad Tony had offered to bring her or she would have missed a big chunk of the party.

“Hey sis, John.” Tony walked over to hug his sister, and shake his future brother-in-law’s hand. “Are you going to join us in the water baloon toss?”

“No. Way.” Mel exclaimed. “I wore white.” She explained in a loud whisper.

“Where do we sign up?” John waggled his eyebrows in a way that Libby supposed he thought was sexy—it was actualy a little gross.

“John!” Mel swatted at him playfuly, and in return he swung her over his shoulder fireman style.

“Those two should come with an adult content warning.” Libby shook her head at them.

“Singing to choir Lib. Remember she’s my
sister
!” Tony made a retching motion with a finger down his throat.

The four of them watched the rest of the games for a while. Cheering for Nick when he came in first place in horse shoes, and for John in the relay race (even though John didn’t do particularly wel).

In the water baloon toss teams of two stood across from each other tossing a water baloon back and forth. If the baloon broke you were out, and if it stayed intact you took a step back and tried again. Tony may not have been enthusiastic about the games, but he was just as competitive as the rest of his family. Right up until the start whistle blew he was muttering instructions to her. “Soft hands, don’t he was muttering instructions to her. “Soft hands, don’t squeeze, throw under hand…” It was extremely annoying, and Libby clapped along with the rest of the crowd when Tony burst their baloon in the third round.

“So much for
soft hands
! Libby yeled to him as he peeled off his now wet tee shirt. Libby had to remind herself that she was no longer in love with Tony. Because if she had stil been in love with him the sight of him elbowing his way out of that shirt, and the sunshine gleaming off his very wel defined chest would have been enough to make her swoon. In retaliation to her taunting Tony stole his neighbor’s water baloon and beamed Libby in the back with it. This of course resulted in water baloon anarchy, and soon there wasn’t a dry Marchetti in sight.

Tony produced a picnic blanket from somewhere and laid it out on the ground. Libby stretched out on her stomach, letting the sun dry her shirt. Good thing she hadn’t been wearing white. They lay there quietly for awhile. This was one of the things Libby loved about her friendship with Tony. They never felt a need to fil silence. When they did talk Tony asked her opinion on a few story ideas, and then Libby showed Tony how to make poppers out of dandelions. By the time the cal went out for tug-of-war they were both dry and dressed again.

Tug of war was always men against women. You would think that would be unfair. But the Marchetti’s were very heavy on the estrogen and the girls’ team easily doubled the number on the boys’ side. Park regulations kept them from digging a traditional mud pit in the middle of the rope. But they had instead filed an inflatable kiddie pool with what looked like whipped cream. Where would someone purchase that much whipped cream? Geez these people did take their games seriously. Libby made a mental note to remember to bring a change of clothes next year.

And then she made a mental note, to remember that she probably wouldn’t be there next year since Tony was not her date. The men did win, but Libby managed to stay clear of the whipped cream—so it was a personal victory in light of a team loss.

“Are you sure you want to skip the pie?” Tony asked her after they had finished lunch.

“Positive. A lady does not consume multiple pies in one sitting.”

Tony pictured her for a moment with fruit and whipped cream smeared across her mouth. It was a damn shame that Libby was a lady. “Okay, wel then let’s go watch at least. Nick’s pretty good. He’s my bet.”

“I would take that bet. You forget I have seen John eat. The year Mel burnt the turkey? John must have polished off three pies… and that was just for fun. Now his reputation is at stake!”

“You’re on.” Tony leaned against a post in the pavilion. There were no chairs left so he tugged Libby’s back into his chest and settled his hands at her hips. So much better than chairs. “What would you like to bet McKay?”

“Cookies?” Libby suggested wondering if her voice sounded normal.

“Nah. Mine stil suck; I would be too humiliated to pay up if I lost. I tel you what—we’l play for a movie.

You win and I wil watch some sappy musical with you, and if I win you have to watch the matrix with me.”

“High stakes. I don’t suppose I could steer you away from Keanu Reaves? Or perhaps persuade you to make a switch-- Bil and Ted’s excelent adventure?” Tony wondered if she had any idea the images she inspired with words like
persuade.
He was reasonable sure she could persuade him to do just about anything. “Not a chance.”

Nick and John both lost. Tony declared they would compromise with a Die Hard Marathon.

“Bal time!” Someone belowed from the basebal diamond.

“Let’s go.” Tony tugged Libby towards the softbal game.

“I’m just going to watch.”

“No way, you gotta play this is the best part!”

“I’m not playing. I don’t even think I know al the rules.”

“I forgot, you don’t like team sports. Do you remember when you tried out for cheerleading?” Tony shook his head at the memory. “Okay—let’s take a walk then.”

“No, you go play. I wil watch—and cheer.” Libby teased.

In the end Tony did not play bal. He wanted to, but today was about Libby. So they went for a walk instead. There was a path through a smal strip of woods.

And if Tony remembered correctly there was a creak with a pretty little bridge over it. Holding her hand, Tony stroled slowly down the path. The trees were thick enough that it was darker and quieter than the open area of the park. In fact it was downright romantic. Tony stopped thinking about the missed softbal game.

“What’s that?” Libby pointed into the trees above them.

“I believe that is the rare red-belied-long-tail-wood-swalow!” Tony deadpanned without looking up.

Libby snorted and nudged his chin up with the tips of her fingers.

“Oh tha-at.” Tony said as if only just then realizing his mistake. “That looks like a kite.” Perched just above them a plastic looking kite was lodged in the tree limbs.

“Give me a hand.” Libby was already scrambling up the trunk. Tony hoisted her higher and tried not to stare at her ass… much. It took a little while for Libby to reach the kite, and then another few moments to untangle what was left of the string. For a few horrifying seconds Tony was sure she was going to come crashing down. “Look out below!” The slightly battered kite floated to the ground and Libby began inching backwards on her branch. “Umm… I think this is going to be harder on the way down than on the way up.”

Tony stood beneath her caling instructions and warnings; soon she was shimmying back down the trunk. “I gotcha.” Tony reached out grasp her waist the moment she was within reach.

Twisting as she dropped the rest of the way to the ground Libby ended up in Tony’s arms with her back pressed to tree trunk. Oh this was so much better than softbal! Tony closed the remaining distance between them.

One of his knees pressed between hers; inhaling slowly Tony enjoyed the lavender smel of his Libby. Carefuly Tony enjoyed the lavender smel of his Libby. Carefuly Tony puled a twig from her hair, and cupping a hand along her cheek he leaned towards her—

“What’s that?” Libby was startled out of moment.

Sure enough they began hearing whispered voices--

“There’s a stream with a bridge just a little further down this path.” Tony’s cousin, Nick, was saying as he came into view around a bend. He had one arm wrapped tightly around a blond girl in a pink sundress, and he was nuzzling her neck as they walked.

Tony straightened up puling away from Libby. It almost kiled him, but a gentleman didn’t alow his date to be caught groping in the woods. He waved a little as Nick and his girlfriend passed but he wasn’t sure they even noticed.

“Sounds like Nick has big plans.” Libby joked as she smoothed her clothes and hair.

“Yeah, he’s real original.” Tony responded, edgily.

“Should we see if this thing stil flies?” Tony bent down and scooped up the kite before leading Libby back into the open park.

Chapter sixteen

It had been a month since the Marchetti Family Reunion. Mel and John’s wedding was a little more than two weeks away. Orders had begun flying into the bakery for Dolce-McKay, and Libby was on cloud nine. It seemed that everything in her life was just as she wanted it. Just about. After the family reunion Tony started coming around a lot. Not that that was realy a problem, because Libby loved being with him. They never seemed to run out of things to say to each other, or things to laugh about together. But being so close to him, and having him look at her the way he had in the woods at the park—it was confusing. She didn’t want to be in love with Tony—wel she was pretty sure she didn’t want to be in love with Tony.

As agreed on, Tony organized a Die Hard marathon. They ended up in Stuart’s Family room, because Tony didn’t have living room furniture yet. And somehow Libby found that endearing. Some days Tony would come by the bakery with lunch for two, and once she had renewed her membership at the Y Tony started joining her for morning runs a few days a week. Last week Tony had driven her to the beach, and they had built sand castles.

Being with Tony was becoming an awful lot like breathing—

absolutely necessary.

“Man do I have news for you!” Libby always enjoyed when Mel caled—she could almost hear the italics in her friend’s voice.

“What’s that?”

“Guess who I just spoke to on the phone—no you wil never guess—and he’s caling you next.”

“Then I guess you better spil”

“Gio” the name almost exploded through the telephone. “Libby? Helo?”

“Gio? My Gio?” Libby was speechless. Why on earth would Gio be caling Mel? They had written a few letters and emails since Libby had left Rome, but he hadn’t exactly inundated her with transatlantic phone cals. To be honest she had pretty much figured that Gio had forgotten or changed his mind about visiting America or about trying to pursue any type of relationship with her. What had she thought? That he would pack up his life and move just to be with her?

“How many Gio’s do we have in common?”

“To be honest I didn’t think any… why have you been talking to him”

“He’s coming to the wedding!”

Libby dropped her phone. “Sorry—what?”

“I sent him an invitation. It was just a lark realy—