A Very Bossy Christmas - Kayley Loring Page 0,43
but you snagged yourself the worst brother.”
Hannah smacks him, somewhat playfully.
“Hey, I’ll take what I can get.”
“It’s really nice to meet you,” Hannah says, giving my arm a friendly little squeeze.
“All right! Everyone sit down!” Tony orders as Nonna carries a tureen out to the table. “This is not a drill! Kids—you’re eating in the family room. Stay out of trouble.”
“Come and get your dinner, love,” I sing into Declan’s ear as I take the seat beside him.
“Smartass,” he whispers into mine. He’s not happy, but at least he doesn’t look miserable anymore.
Casey makes a joke about Hannah’s wedding dress, and Hannah tells her she scheduled the final fitting for after Christmas for a reason. And then everyone looks at Declan, who’s frowning at the empty plate in front of him, and it’s really, really awkward. I want to give him a verbal spanking, but I also want to give him a hug. And I also want him to give me an actual spanking later, maybe.
Tony Cannavale rushes through grace. “Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive Thy bounty, through Christ, our Lord, Amen.” He barely waits for everyone else to say “Amen” before continuing, “And I just wanna say…” He smacks one hand down on the table, shaking the whole thing. “I’m just gonna say this once… This tension here, between certain someones, and the taking sides and the bickering and the angry awkward silence and the what have you. I will have none of it. Not tonight. No more. We’re all family here. All right? All of us. We celebrate love in this house. For everyone. That’s all I’m saying about it—everybody eat.”
“Mangia, mangia,” Nonna grumbles.
I place my hand on Declan’s thigh under the table, and his hand is immediately covering mine. He doesn’t look at anyone, but he’s touching me, and that’s enough.
Tony explains the menu to me, since I’m the only one who’s never been to Christmas Eve dinner here before. “Traditionally, Italians don’t eat meat on Christmas Eve, which is why all the fish—seven kinds of fish. But my mama makes her own rules, and she also makes three different kinds of meatballs in honor of my pops, who loved meatballs.” Tony and Nonna cross themselves without pausing their eating. “The meatballs are secondi. So leave room for them.”
“Hey, do we know how you and asshat met?” Casey asks me.
I swallow a calamari and then tell her, “Asshat convention.” Declan rubs my thigh, reminding me that it’s okay to tell them that I work for him. “Actually, we met at work. We started working together two months ago.”
“Oh, are you a real estate agent?”
“She’s my executive assistant,” Declan says, slurping his clam and mussel posillopo. He turns to me and says, “Best I’ve ever had. On every level. Don’t know what I’d do without her.”
“Nonna, can I have the recipe for this soup? Whatever you put in it, I need to feed it to him every day.”
“No,” she snarls.
“It’s not the soup, it’s the Guinness,” Mamie stage whispers. “Every nice word out of that boy’s mouth is from the Irish side. Everything good my boys got to give a woman is from the Irish side.”
I share a look and a sly grin with Hannah and Aiden’s wife.
I don’t know about that, Mrs. C, but what your boy’s got is awfully good.
Twenty-Three
Declan
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE UNFINISHED BUSINESS
While everyone else is crowding into the family room to play Christmas Carol Pictionary with the kids, I pull Maddie into the guest bathroom with me and shut the door. I had wine with dinner. I’m feeling really full and warm. And I caught her unbuttoning and unzipping her jeans about an hour ago, and I just can’t wait to get my hands on that warm, round belly.
“Declan,” she whispers. “What are you doing?”
I lift her sweater up, drop to my knees, and kiss the flesh that’s bulging out of her tight jeans.
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Yes, and I need to get you out of these pants.”
“Seriously? You’re horny right now? I can’t even think about sex—I can barely even breathe.”
I try to get her pants down, but they won’t budge, not even an inch.
“Declan.” She puts her hands on either side of my face and pulls me up. I fucking love it when she puts her hands on my face. I try to kiss her mouth, but she dodges out of the way.
“Hey. What’s wrong?”
She frowns at me.