Now that she was, he almost wished she’d stayed away, so he couldn’t see how much of her he’d lost because of who he was.
Tonight, with the house bright and warm, full of the chatter and laughter of family and dear friends, he’d hoped to see a glimmer of the little girl who’d so loved Christmas, but she’d been reserved and serious—around him, at least—since she’d come home, and she wasn’t a great deal brighter tonight. Nick saw her skirting away from people she knew well, people she loved, like her Uncle Donnie, offering polite smiles and nothing more.
Because he was looking at her, and because he was perceptive, Nick saw Elisa’s expression narrow as Lia and Alex came into the room and crossed to the fireplace, where Beverly was chatting with Nick’s cousin Carmen and her husband, Theo. Lia walked past her sister without apparent notice, but Elisa’s look was judgmental.
Despite all his years as the father of daughters, Nick didn’t fully understand the complicated political workings of female relationships, but he thought there was something up between Elisa and Lia now that hadn’t been before. They’d never gotten along especially well, despite the closeness of their ages; Elisa was a loner, who preferred solitary activities, and Lia, though also a quiet girl most of the time, had been a performer from the time she first put on a tutu. They hadn’t been truly combative since they were small, but they’d not been tightly bonded, either, beyond the bond that came from being close siblings in the same family, spending a lot of time together of necessity.
Still, there was a new tension between them, and if Nick were forced to make a determination based on nothing but instinct, he’d say it had to do with Alex Di Pietro, to whom Elisa had been only minimally polite. He wasn’t sure why—he couldn’t imagine Elisa envied her sister’s new relationship with one of his associates—but the tension was there.
Or maybe the judgment was directed at Alex, and she felt wary of Lia’s involvement with one of Nick’s men.
Beverly would probably know, but he hadn’t mentioned his observation to her. Those—increasingly frequent—times when she understood their children better than he did grated his nerves, and he was already tender on the topic of both Elisa and Lia these days. He’d lost Elisa, and Lia was slipping from him as well.
Unless he could discover the way to pull her back to him—something more than yanking her from college. Something that would make her want to stay close.
It might be that Alex was useful in that regard—which was the reason he’d invited the boy to this party.
Though this event had originally been intended for blood family only, over the years Nick had been don, the guest list had come to include his closest friends, and, occasionally, one or two of his men who had done something in his service that merited the honor of an invitation into the don’s home.
Donnie and his wife, Arianna, were here, of course. And Angie and his wife, Giada, don of the Sacco Family. Though he and Angie could no longer be confidants, Nick was glad he’d found a way he could still call him friend.
This year, as last, Tony Cioccolanti had been also been invited and attended with his wife, Billy. Tony had consistently proved his worth, had risen high in the organization, and deserved the honor. Billy, too, had become an important associate of Nick’s business.
Alex Di Pietro, however, hadn’t really earned his invitation. It was an honor far above his status. Though he had proved himself loyal and smart, and he showed real promise—and he’d saved Lia from a terrible fate—he wasn’t made yet, had taken no vow, and he was the first invitee for whom that was true. Moreover, Nick’s feelings about his involvement with Lia could most charitably be called ambivalent.
Except in that Alex might hold his daughter to the Cove in ways Nick could not.
In his heart, he would never have wanted Lia tied more tightly to his world, but in this boy she liked he saw a way to keep her home, so he made the devil’s bargain. When Lia had asked if Alex could be invited to their Christmas Eve dinner, Nick had made all the right noises of suspicion and resistance, but he’d agreed. He was, as the girls said, ‘Team Alex,’ so long as Alex kept his girl happy in the Cove, where she belonged.