dinner?” Tanner clarified, sharing a smart-ass grin with Trey and Nate. Gabe ignored them all, instead glaring at his glass of iced tea.
“Since Nonna would kick my ass if I missed a family dinner and Lexi invited me over tonight.” He took in Tanner and frowned. Marc knew his kind. A smooth-talking, womanizing panty whisperer, just like Marc—only supersized. And he’d seen the way Tanner had been checking out his sister the other day at the farmers’ market when he was sure Abby wasn’t looking. “And since when do you do the hands-on shit for small remodels like the bistro?”
Tanner had started tearing apart and flipping high-end homes for fun, something to keep him busy after he retired from his career in the NFL. His company sometimes took on smaller jobs for longtime locals as a favor, and Tanner always did the initial inspection, but his crew were usually the ones swinging the hammers. Tanner was more of the seven-figure-project kind of guy.
“Since this one was a special request.” Tanner leaned back, stretching out his legs and making himself right at home. “Plus my hands started getting itchy, wanted to see some action.”
Marc was about to inform him that the only action Tanner was going to get was his ass handed to him if he kept smiling like that when Trey said, “Don’t mind him, he isn’t getting any.”
“Fuck off,” Marc grumbled.
“So is that a no?” Trey’s grin spread across his face until Marc wanted to punch him.
Marc stood, not sure why he was so mad. Tanner was just giving him a hard time, and he and his brothers talked that way about women all the time. Well, all the brothers except for Gabe as of late. “What part of ‘fuck off’ did you miss? Do we need to go outside so I can make sure you get the point this time?”
“Take it easy,” Gabe said, chewing on a piece of ice.
“Like you did when you tried to take me out with the remote control?” Marc challenged, referring to the time several months ago when Gabe and Marc nearly came to blows over Gabe dating Regan.
Gabe froze, a small smile touching his lips. “Didn’t know we were there.”
Marc shrugged. He didn’t want to explain his relationship with Lexi. He couldn’t. Not when he didn’t understand what the hell their relationship was. Sure, he wanted to strip her naked, roll around until they were both sweaty and gasping for air, only to start over again when they finished. Problem was—and this was where it got confusing—for the first time in, well, ever, Marc found himself more attracted to the idea of snuggling than sex.
Then he conjured up the image of her in that dress she had on tonight and reconsidered his statement. Thought about the way she filled out the top to perfection and how the dress’s back was cut so low that there was no way she was wearing a bra under it, and thinking became damn near impossible. Because when she’d sat in his truck earlier and her dress had ridden up, baring those mile-long legs to midthigh, his palms twitched with the need to stroke her from her red-tipped toes all the way up and under to see if she had forgone the panties as well.
He tugged at his jeans, grumbling under his breath when it didn’t relieve one damn bit of pressure. All he had to do was think about her and his southern region stood to attention.
“Fair enough.” Gabe nodded, a knowing flicker lighting up his eyes, and that made Marc nervous. “Does she know about the Monte deal, then?”
Trey jerked his gaze at Tanner, as though asking what the hell Gabe was thinking, talking about Monte in mixed company. As far as Marc was concerned, Tanner was a stand-up guy, had stood by the DeLuca family at a time when he could have made their lives a living hell. But he wasn’t family. And family business was reserved for family. Period. So what the hell was Gabe thinking?
Plus, he didn’t want to admit to his brothers that he was waiting for Jeff to return just one of his damn calls. Because admitting that would also make him face the fact that maybe he’d been wrong all these years. Maybe Jeff wasn’t the stand-up guy he’d always thought. Maybe what Marc has seen as a good friend not judging him had really been someone who didn’t care enough one way or the other.