Lavished with Lavender - Valerie Comer Page 0,62

knew. I’m sorry. Look at me being all insensitive again.”

And that was another elephant in the room. She’d never told Tony. Obviously, she needed to pin the man down — possibly literally — and give him all the information. Then, when he turned away one last time, she’d know she really tried.

Starting with prayer. And more counsel from Juanita.

“It’s so beautiful,” Gina whispered as Peter and Sadie lit a unity candle at the close of their wedding ceremony. She sat between her husband and Tony, Ethan on his dad’s lap, trying to see, and three-year-old Emma curled against Tony.

Tony guessed it was a nice wedding. He’d been to a ton of them in the past couple of years. His friends and cousins were dropping like flies, and they all seemed mighty happy about it. For a few weeks, he’d experienced the stirrings of love himself, setting aside the fact that he was far too busy to invest in a relationship right now. He’d been swept away with late-night talks and kisses in the moonlight. Sure, he’d known Kenna was volatile. God only knew he’d had enough warnings on that front, but he’d brushed them aside as though he alone could see and understand the real woman beneath the crusty exterior.

He’d truly thought he was succeeding, but the past couple of weeks had brought his house of cards crashing down.

Tony glanced at his sister, her lips parted and her eyes shining as Pastor Tomas announced Mr. and Mrs. Peter and Sadie Santoro. He leaned closer. “Can we talk later?”

Gina looked up at him, eyebrows rising. “Sure? I mean, we’re staying at Fran and Tad’s, and Fran and I need a good girl chat, but you’re my baby brother, and I’m sure I can sneak five minutes for you. After the kids are in bed.”

“I might need more than five minutes.”

She grinned and nudged her shoulder against his. “I’ll see to it you get them.”

Tony nodded and bided his time through the receiving line and the reception. He noticed how the best man’s eyes stayed on his girlfriend rather than on the maid of honor at his side. If Tony didn’t miss his guess, Alex was going to pop the question to Marley any day now. He’d try to be happy for them.

Nonna looked mighty tired as she sat in her wheelchair over against the far wall during the dancing. The doctor had prescribed extra-strength painkillers to get her through this day — those re-injured ribs kept her very uncomfortable.

Maybe he should take her home, only he didn’t know how to be the one to put her to bed. Tony looked around for his mom. Maybe she could slip out long enough to help with Nonna, and then Tony could stay with her while Mom came back for the rest of the reception. He was kind of over being upbeat and happy for everyone.

Cheering, clapping, and whistling from over by the entrance caught his attention. He peered in that direction, too wrapped in his bubble of inertia to figure out what was happening.

His cousin Dafne settled into the vacant chair beside him. “Alex just proposed, and Marley said yes! Isn’t that exciting?”

Tony pushed out a smile. “That’s great!” Of course, she said yes. Alex would never have risked a public proposal if he hadn’t been completely certain of that. Santoro men were no fools.

Except maybe him.

He eyed his cousin. “How are you doing? I haven’t seen you lately. Who’s got Gavin tonight?” Dafne, a single mom to a two-year-old, had just turned nineteen.

“I hired a sitter. One of my friends from college.” She offered a soft smile as she sighed. “We’re good. Getting through one day at a time. One prayer at a time. You?”

That there was wisdom. “Same.”

“Did you hear Bren and Rob are expecting again?”

Daf had run away as a newly expectant teen and wound up with their cousin Rob’s then-girlfriend in Montana, so she knew Bren better than most of the rest of the clan. “Hadn’t heard. Good for them.”

And he mostly meant it. Rob was one of the few cousins who’d left Spokane, though both Basil and Dominic currently lived in Seattle. Dom was only there for med school, though, claiming he’d return when he finished his training. Only he’d brought his girlfriend home for the weekend to meet his mom, so who knew whether that rumor was true or not.

Everyone was moving on except him. But that wasn’t true. Wasn’t he the owner of an up-and-coming popular