Some Like It Hotter (Sweet Life in Seattle #3) (32 page)

It’s a short flight back to Seattle the next morning, and Anthony picks them up from the airport with baby Luca in his arms. Lindsay already knows Natalie has to work half days at the bakery on Saturday but is delighted to see Luca, who has grown quite a bit in the last three months. He’s chubby and bubbly, with a head of curly dark hair and big brown eyes.

“My God, he looks just like
you
,” she exclaims, taking Luca from Anthony’s arms. Luca studies her with an alarmed expression, but doesn’t cry—his curiosity apparently stronger than his fear. “Who’s your favorite auntie?” she coos to him.

On the way back to Seattle, she sits in back with the baby, while Giovanni takes the passenger seat up front. Anthony has a lot of questions about their marriage, but Giovanni tells him it would be easiest to explain the whole thing with Natalie present as well.

“Mom phoned me twice yesterday,” Anthony tells him. “You need to call her like immediately. The last I heard, she was thinking about flying up here.”

Giovanni finally listened to those voice messages last night—three in all. Apparently, Francesca learned about the wedding from Sophia, his cousin in Rome, the one who helped him pick out that suit he wore.

“Yeah,” he mutters. “I’ll call her when we get to the house.”

Lindsay doesn’t add anything to the conversation but instead, looks out the window at the city she’s come to call home for more than ten years. It looks the same, but different too. There’s a sense of comfort being back here again, to a place she knows so well.

Oddly, it was cathartic going to Las Vegas, and she doesn’t have the same dread of the city she had before. It helped her to see how the places she has bad memories of have changed. Not that she plans to go back. Although, before leaving, she saw a sign advertising next year’s World Series of Poker and it keeps sticking in her mind.

When they arrive at the house, her sister comes out of the front door dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, her hair pulled back into the ponytail she usually wears to work. Natalie is shorter than her and quite curvaceous, with a stubborn streak a mile wide. She’s also solid and dependable, the kind of person you want on your side when the chips are down. Natalie went through a rough time a few years ago when her husband left her for another woman, but in the end, it wound up being the best thing that could have happened.

“Hey, stranger!” Natalie grins, pulling Lindsay in for a hug when she gets out of the car. “I’m so glad you’re back. I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” she says, immediately surrounded by her sister’s familiar vanilla scent.

When they pull apart, she can see the way Natalie is looking her over, a million questions on the tip of her tongue.

“Before you ask, I’m fine.”

“You look great, but you always do. Is everything really okay?” Natalie glances over at Giovanni, who’s holding Luca and speaking Italian to him in a sing-song voice. Unlike most guys still single in their thirties, who are awkward with babies, he’s completely at ease.

Of course he would be
.

It occurs to her how he must not only love children but probably wants a large family of his own someday.

Not that I could ever give him that
.

“I’m fine,” she tells Natalie, feeling a familiar hollowness. “Let’s go in the house and Giovanni and I can explain the whole thing to you guys.”

They head inside, the men following.

“Where are Chloe and Serena?” Lindsay asks Natalie, referring to her two nieces. Chloe is Natalie’s daughter from her first marriage, and Serena belongs to Anthony.

“Serena is at a friend’s house and Chloe is at her dad’s, but she should be home soon. Both girls wanted to be here today when they heard you were flying back.”

Lindsay smiles. She loves Chloe as much as if she were her own daughter, and she’s grown to love Serena as well.

After asking Giovanni and Lindsay if they’d like anything to eat or drink, the four of them—along with Luca, who’s being held by Anthony again—have a seat in the living room.

“All right,” Anthony says, taking the bottle Natalie hands him to give to the baby. “What the hell is going on?”

Giovanni and Lindsay glance at each other. They’re sitting on the couch together, though they aren’t touching.

“It’s complicated,” Lindsay says, watching Luca’s eyes drift shut as he drinks.

“It concerns what happened to Paul a few months ago,” Giovanni tells Anthony, who’s apparently already familiar with the situation, judging by the solemn expression on his face.

Giovanni leans forward on the couch, his forearms resting on his knees as he explains everything, filling in some of the details about Paul’s death for Natalie.

Lindsay is silent, listening, but speaks up when he’s finished. “I met the kids online,” she tells her sister. “I couldn’t
not
help them after that.”

“Have you heard anything yet?” Anthony asks. “About the adoption?”

Giovanni shakes his head. “No, it’s too soon. I just faxed the paperwork to the lawyer a couple days ago. I talk to Phillip regularly, and we’re all hoping it works. They’ve been trying some other things through the embassy, but so far there’s been no movement.”

Anthony’s face is grim, nodding as he glances down at Luca. “All I can say is I hope you get them out. How long do you think you’ll have to stay married?”

Giovanni glances over at Lindsay. “I don’t know. Six months, maybe?”

The four of them talk a little more about the situation and about their Elvis wedding in Las Vegas, which both Natalie and Anthony find quite amusing.

Eventually, Giovanni stands and tells everyone he should call his mom. Natalie points him in the direction of the family room for some privacy. Lindsay can’t help laughing to herself at the dread on his face.

After he’s gone, and Anthony has taken the baby upstairs for his nap, Natalie tells Lindsay she’s set up the guest bedroom for her to sleep in. “Is that all right?”

“That sounds great. I appreciate it.”

“Should we put Giovanni on the couch downstairs?”

“No, he can sleep with me.”

Natalie nods, her expression searching. “So, it’s like that, is it?”

“Yeah, it’s like that.”

“I appreciate what you two are doing here, and I’m all for helping those kids, but I have to admit I’m surprised you agreed to marry him so easily.”

Lindsay doesn’t say anything. She knows she needs to tell Natalie about the poker, but this doesn’t seem like the right time.

“Did he talk you into it somehow?” Natalie asks. “I’m having trouble picturing this.”

“I didn’t say yes right away. But then later, I changed my mind.”

“After you started sleeping with him?”

Lindsay lets out her breath. “No, some other things happened. There’s more to the story, but I don’t want go into it right now.”

“I had a feeling there was more.” Natalie eyes her steadily. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Normally, I’d say yes, but this whole thing is complicated by the fact that this is Anthony’s brother we’re talking about. He’s not just going to disappear when you’re done with him.”

They go into the kitchen where Natalie checks the food she has in the oven. She’s making a large dish of lasagna, along with fresh bread from the bakery. It smells divine. Lindsay realizes she’s hungry after all and pulls a banana from the bunch in a nearby wooden bowl.

“Giovanni’s not what you think,” she says, looking down at the banana in her hand, not peeling it yet. “There’s a lot more to him. He’s got depth. I think something happened to him in his past that’s messed him up.”

“Anthony’s never mentioned anything. Do you know what it is?” Natalie puts the bread on a wooden cutting board and gets out a knife.

“No, he won’t tell me.”

Natalie starts slicing the loaf into thick pieces to make garlic bread but doesn’t say anything.

“I told him about what happened to me in Vegas,” Lindsay says, her voice quiet.

“You
did?
” Natalie looks up at her with surprise. Lindsay doesn’t have to elaborate, as her sister already knows what she’s referring to. “How did he respond?”

Lindsay tells her the things Giovanni said about it not being her fault, how she was a victim.

Natalie nods. “I can’t believe you told him. But you should listen to him about this. He’s right.”

“Maybe.” Lindsay peels her banana, takes a bite, and chews for a while. “I don’t know if I agree with everything.” She takes a deep breath. “I’m starting to make peace with it though. I don’t think I ever really have before.”

The conversation between them stops because Anthony comes into the kitchen. He turns on the baby monitor they keep nearby then pours himself some coffee from a warming pot.

“Where’s Giovanni?” he asks, adding cream to his coffee. “Is he still talking to Mom?”

“He hasn’t come out from the family room yet.”

Anthony leans back against the counter, chuckling as he sips from his coffee. “I don’t envy him this conversation. Both our parents sounded freaked out.”

Lindsay tries not to be offended about the fuss being made, but it’s starting to get on her nerves a little. “All because he married
me?
”

“I don’t think it’s so much you, but the situation. They’re very conservative about stuff like this.” Anthony shrugs. “And let’s face it, this whole thing is unusual.”

She nods, remembering what his parents were like when she met them at Natalie and Anthony’s wedding. Conservative, wealthy, and living in their own affluence bubble—at least that’s how Lindsay saw them. To his parents’ credit though, they do love Natalie—especially now that’s she’s given them another grandchild—so Lindsay can’t be too harsh on them.

“Do you think you can fill in at the bakery this week?” Natalie asks her, smearing garlic butter onto the slices of bread. “I know you just got back, but as always we’re shorthanded on the register.”

“Sure.” Lindsay takes another bite of her banana. “I can watch Luca in the mornings too now that I’m back.”

“We’re okay for the moment,” Natalie says. “Anthony has him before work, and I’ve found a daycare during the day. I need to start interviewing nannies soon though so we’re covered when he leaves on his next observing run.”

“That reminds me.” Anthony puts his coffee down on the counter and gives Lindsay a look. “I understand you have some concerns about us hiring a nanny?”

Lindsay takes in his annoyed expression. She can hear her sister laughing a little as she finishes with the bread, wrapping it in foil.

He crosses his arms. “You’re worried I’m going to fall under something called the ‘nanny spell’?” He makes air quotes with his fingers. “Seriously?”

Lindsay shrugs and tosses her hair over her shoulder. “Hey, it’s nothing personal. I’m just trying to protect you both. Haven’t you ever seen
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
?”

He’s staring at her in amazement, and it looks like he wants to say more, but Giovanni comes into the kitchen with the phone at his ear, speaking Italian in a frustrated voice. It sounds like he’s still talking to his mother, and clearly the conversation isn’t going well.

He pulls the phone away for a moment and looks at her. “She wants to speak with you,” he says quietly. “You don’t have to.”

“I don’t mind.” She reaches for the phone.

His mother, Francesca, is a beautiful, wealthy Italian woman who knows her mind and typically gets whatever she wants. It’s clear she loves her family and would do anything for them, but it’s also clear she has high standards and expects a lot.

She puts the phone to her ear. “Yes.”

“Lindsay, you must talk sense into Giovanni,” Francesca says in her heavy accent. “It is not too late to get the annulment!”

“Hello, Francesca,” Lindsay says, in a dry voice. “It’s good to speak with you again too.”

“You must do this right away. Do not wait! I already have all the information for you and where to go.”

Lindsay thinks back to yesterday when she and Giovanni basically consummated their marriage all day long. “Um, I’m pretty sure it’s too late for any kind of annulment.”

“No, it is not too late.” Francesca sighs dramatically. “You must listen to me. Ever since he was a little boy, Giovanni wants to save the world, but there are better ways to handle these matters.”

Lindsay glances at Giovanni, who’s standing over by the fridge with Anthony. He’s watching her with a tense expression that says he’s ready to take the phone back at the first sign of trouble. She tries to imagine him as the little boy Francesca is describing and she sees it clearly. Serious and with a big heart, he would have definitely wanted to save the world as a kid. In fact, he still does.

“As a woman, you and I must have more common sense,” Francesca continues. “That is often our role with men because marriage is not so frivolous.”

“We’re trying to do some good here, and hopefully, we’ll succeed.”

“This is not the way. Are you listening? I do not want you to get into trouble!”

“I’m not worried about it. I want to help.”

There’s a string of Italian words and then, “You are behaving as stubborn as him!”