Feliz Naughty Dog - Roxanne St. Claire Page 0,10

came to spy on a mobster who Yiayia is considering dating. “He’s…a friend of theirs.”

Another look from Yiayia. Pru flashed one right back. Did she really want to be that honest with a complete stranger?

“I think he mentioned that he may only do the morning shift,” Yiayia said, stress tightening her voice.

“Then he has to go put a hit on his bookie,” Gramma added softly.

Lucas’s eyes widened. “What?”

Pru waved off the question with a nervous laugh. “Inside joke.”

“This is going to take hours.” Yiayia tapped the steering wheel with impatience. “I’m going to miss him.”

Lucas shifted in his seat, no doubt starting to get the idea these ladies were cray-cray. “Take this right,” he said.

“That’s the wrong direction,” Pru told him. “The mall’s over there.”

“Take the right,” he repeated.

“Says the guy from California.”

He just smiled. “The same guy who was here a week ago with his aunt who knows a back way into the Macy’s parking lot.”

Yiayia whipped out of the traffic. “I’m game,” she said.

In a moment, they found a side street, Lucas gave more directions, and before long, Yiayia parked the Buick within sight of the Macy’s entrance.

“You, my son, are a genius!” she exclaimed as she threw the car into park. “I’m so glad we brought you.”

“At least someone is,” he murmured, the soft-spoken zinger hitting Pru right in the gut.

She looked up from her phone, expecting that dark gaze to be nothing less than disgusted with her. But there was just enough of a tease and a challenge in his eyes that her heart flipped around and went tumbling down into the butterfly pit.

Then he winked…and she was toast.

Chapter Four

Agnes checked her reflection in the glass doors as the crew marched into Macy’s at the massive two-story Vestal Village Mall. She smoothed a stray black hair and checked her lipstick, feeling confident and attractive enough to catch the eye of Aldo Fiore.

“Don’t worry, Agnes, you look gorgeous,” Finnie whispered as they stepped into the warm air of the department store.

“Hardly.”

Finnie smiled. “I like when you are humble,” she said. “It’s one of your best looks.”

Agnes smiled, always appreciating Finnie’s unending attempts to help Agnes’s self-improvement efforts. Finnie was one of the few people who knew that a little more than two years ago, a heart attack had had Agnes literally knocking on heaven’s door, only to be sent back with some vague instructions to “do better.” From that day on, Agnes Santorini had set about to change herself, inside and out.

It had been relatively easy to lose weight, have a few injections, dye her hair, and shave a few years off of Agnes Santorini. She’d never felt healthier or stronger. But, oh, the inner changes had been a little more challenging.

It hadn’t been easy to soften a sharp tongue or dial back her natural sarcasm or even reserve judgment after a lifetime of passing it on everyone and everything. But each year, especially since she’d forged a friendship and family connection with sweet Finnie and her loving clan, Agnes had gotten closer to what she thought was a changed life.

And now, for the first time in years, she longed for another change, this one with a man. She had no desire to get married again, or even fall in love, nothing so permanent or serious. But all the family matchmaking she and Finnie had been doing had awakened something Agnes had thought had gone to sleep for good.

Now, she sometimes opened her eyes in the middle of the night and ached for the feel of her dear Nik by her side. She remembered the thrill of having his warm lips on hers and the deep comfort of threading her fingers through his. She liked the smell of a freshly showered man, the power of a deep voice, and the sense of balance in her life when it included a loving man.

She’d had fun this past fall with old Max Hewitt, plotting the romance between Finnie’s grandson Declan and Max’s granddaughter Evie. She liked Max, as a friend and card player. And he certainly held his own in the matchmaking game. But she didn’t feel a zing with Max, and for all his flirting, he was truly a one-woman man, biding his time until he could join his beloved Penny in heaven.

But the mild flirtation had driven Agnes to try something all new—a dating website exclusively for older people.

Her very first “match” had been a silver fox named Aldo. From his first text, he’d made her smile