Gianni - The Santinis (10 page)

Checking on him.
Dammit. He expected this. It’d been a few months, but Leo had
been the worst of them checking on him. Vince had classes and Marco
was in Hawaii. Leo apparently was the only one of them with time off.
And he didn’t mind. It was just the wrong day for that to
happen.

“
You know how
to get here?”

“
About ten
minutes away.”

He hung up and tried
to calm his anger. He knew he was wrong. Knew that part of it was his
fault. She had been embarrassed by him and it had stuck in his craw.
How many damned times did he get asked by women if he was an officer?
Too many to count. He didn’t realize until now how much that
irritated him.

Gee was lucky that
his family didn’t care. Joey Santini always said she wanted her
men happy and healthy. Everyone had accepted he would go into the Air
Force to be a PJ. He would work on his degree now, but he wanted to
be enlisted. But at bases with women looking for a date, there were
some that just wanted nothing to do with enlisted guys. Tonight, when
she had tried to rush him out of the room, he had felt used. For the
first time since knowing her, he had been pissed with her actions.

And that had hurt.
He struck out to hurt her the way she hurt him. He knew she wasn’t
racist and it had nothing to do with that. He felt like an ass for
doing it, but saying she was embarrassed because she thought she was
too smart for him hurt too much. Considering what the ring he had in
his pocket set him back…and he had been ready to propose
tonight. Okay, that might have been rushing it, but he had made the
decision.

He was going to have
to figure out how to put it all back together, but he wasn’t
going to be given a chance. He’d splash some water on his face
and get ready for his brother. Gianni would make sure he would at
least not make an ass out of himself in front of his sister-in-law.

* * * *

“
Are you going
to tell me why you’re being such an ass, Gee?” Leo asked
conversationally. They were sitting at his dinner table. “I
would think with your new lady friend you would be all happy.”

“
How do you
know I’m still seeing her?”

Leo rolled his eyes
and swallowed a quick sip of beer. “Of course you are.”

“
Damn, there
are no fucking secrets in this family.”

MJ smiled. “You
know better than that, Gee. Your brothers are meddling old women.”

“
You have the
old part right. Why don’t you run off with me, leave the old
guy to die alone?”

She smiled. “I
thought about it, but he’s grown on me like a fungus really.”

Gee laughed. Of all
the women his brother could have fallen for, his Marine brat, tough
nosed physical therapist was probably the only one of them who
wouldn’t put up with crap. She was cute as a button, with huge
blue eyes and her long dark hair. As usual, it was up in a tail. So
tiny and now glowing with her pregnancy.

“
He’s
avoiding the conversation he needs to have,” Leo said.

MJ rolled her eyes.
“Good lord, you are as about as subtle as a soldier at a tea
party.”

“
Leave it
alone, Leo,” Gee warned.

Leo opened his
mouth, but thankfully MJ stepped in. “Listen, babe, do you
think you can run to the store and get me a snickers?”

He looked from Gee
to MJ then back to Gee. Gianni sensed his brother wanted to argue,
but MJ gave him one of those brilliant smiles of hers. Leo melted
like he always did for her.

“
Sure.”

Once Leo was gone,
MJ rose to clear the dishes.

Gee shook his head.
“No you will not clean up the dishes. You’re pregnant.”

She chuckled and
settled back in the chair. “We need to have you talk to Leo. He
seems to think I can do anything.”

“
It’s
because he loves you.”

Her eyes softened.
“Oh, Gee, what’s wrong? Was she mean to you?”

“
She told me
to leave her.”

She reached out and
patted his hand. “Why?”

“
Well, she
didn’t tell me she had been married and I got pissed. I mean I
love her and she didn’t tell me. Plus, she won’t
introduce me to people she works with. She did, but well…it
was implied I was just her boy toy.”

MJ choked. “Her
what?”

Now that he said it
out loud, it sounded silly. “One of her friends at work called
me that and Kianna said nothing. Then when I asked her about it, she
backed off.”

MJ studied him for a
few moments. “And she knows you love her. You told her?”

He shook his head.
“Not really.” He had wanted to, had wanted to start
talking of more serious things, but that stupid little fight had
pushed him away.

“
Okay. But she
should know, right?”

He smiled. “See,
that’s why we should be together.”

“
I love you,
Gee, just like one of my brothers.”

“
I love you
too, MJ.”

“
So, I am
going to do this out of love.”

“
What?”

She leaned forward
and smacked him upside the back of his head.

“
Damn, MJ.”

She sat back and
shrugged. “If you would get your head out of your butt, I
wouldn’t have to do that.”

“
Why did you
do that?”

“
Because
you’re being an idiot. That woman you say you love tells you to
leave. Why?”

“
I wanted to
know why she hid it from me.” He hadn’t wanted to voice
his real concerns. He thought she might have not wanted him there
because of his education. That would have been worse than anything,
in his mind.

“
Granted, I
know that she should have told you, but there might be a part of you
that makes her scared to tell you.”

“
Why?”

“
Why did they
break it off?”

He sighed.
“Apparently, they didn’t. He was killed in the line of
duty. He was a cop.”

She nodded. “And,
telling you might have been too scary. And I have a feeling from what
you have told me about her tonight, she isn’t someone who likes
to show that side of herself. She’s tough.”

“
She’s
not. She’s soft and sweet.”

“
And
practically raised her sisters by herself and survived losing a
husband. She’s tough.”

“
I—”

“
What you need
to do is go apologize to her.”

He frowned. “Why
should I apologize?”

“
I will take a
page out of Joey Santini’s book on men. Go apologize because
it’s your fault because you are the man. If you didn’t
get this wrong, you will get something else wrong.”

He leaned forward
and gave her a kiss.

“
What was that
for?”

“
Making me
understand. I’m going to go see if I can find her. I’ll
be back.”

He hurried out the
door ready to make amends. Twenty minutes later, he was pissed. She
was gone. Sure it was Friday night, but she wasn’t anywhere to
be found. Dammit, she had left town without telling him. Well, her
next-door neighbor had been happy to tell her she had gone to see a
friend somewhere. Worse, after he called five times in five minutes,
he realized she was not going to answer the phone.

He parked his truck
and frowned. He had to go back in and make nice with his brother and
MJ. Thankfully they were staying at a hotel. His tiny apartment
couldn’t accommodate them and he wasn’t in the mood to be
around the happy couple.

And he needed time
alone. Time to figure out what the hell he was going to tell the
woman he loved.

That is, if she ever
talked to him again.

* * * *

Kianna was in one
bitch of a mood. Nothing, not even her favorite malasada was helping.

“
You know,
just because you hate sweets doesn’t mean you need to give that
malasada the stink eye.”

Kianna slanted a
look at Max Chandler. “If you aren’t nice, I’ll
tell Anna all the mean jokes you told behind her back about her not
being able to see her feet a few months ago.”

He shook his head.
“Mean woman. I am surrounded by so many of you. Tell me why
you’re mean today.”

She sighed. “Men,
you suck.”

“
Is this a
general feeling, or more of a one guy kind of thing?”

“
Both.”

He studied her for a
second and she looked at him.

“
What?”
she asked.

“
So, the PJ’s
been mean to you?”

She sniffed. “Yes.
I don’t ever want to see him again.”

“
I think you
might have to deal with him sooner rather than later.”

“
Why?”

“
Because he’s
walking in the shop.”

She turned on the
stool and realized that Max was telling the truth. Her heart leapt
into her throat and then splattered on the floor.

Damn the man. He had
two people with him, like he needed an audience or something. She
recognized them from pictures he had shown her. Great, now his
brother and sister-in-law could report back to the family. Just what
she needed.

Max tsked. “Oh,
and he doesn’t look happy with you.”

She gave him a dirty
look, but she wasn’t given the chance to respond. Gianni had
other plans.

“
Kianna
Mechelle Jones, just where the hell have you been?”

There was a stunned
silence. She could understand why. The few regulars in shop knew
Gianni and had never seen him mad. She hadn’t really seen him
mad either, before the other night.

Then, she realized
he was waiting for an answer. In fact, he looked like he was getting
madder by the moment. How dare he embarrass her?

She slipped off her
stool and settled her hands on her hips. “What right do you
have to know?”

“
I have every
right to know.”

She saw his brother
roll his eyes and his sister-in-law stepped around him. She gave
Kianna a smile. She was so small, she just couldn’t believe
this was the MJ that Gianni had told her about.

“
You must be
Kianna.”

She nodded but
Gianni’s brother took over.

“
I think
everyone knows who she is now, love,” Leo said. “I’m
Leo, the idiot’s brother and this is my wife, Maryanne.”

“
I haven’t
been able to find you,” Gianni said ignoring his brother and
Maryanne. “You didn’t answer my calls.”

Of course he hadn’t.
She had slipped out of town. More like ran out of town to Atlanta for
a weekend. It really hadn’t been because she was avoiding him.

“
I went to see
Etta.”

“
Ran away.”

She almost stepped
back and apologized, but something out of the corner of her eye
caught her attention. Maryanne was shaking her head and Kianna
realized that she shouldn’t back down.

“
I went to see
my sister. I figured she wanted to spend time with me and I wasn’t
in the mood to put up with a whiny little shell of a man.”

There was a whistle
and she didn’t know if it was Leo or Max but it told her she
might have taken a step too far. Gianni’s eyes narrowed.

“
You really
know how to push my buttons, woman.”

She didn’t
know what he meant by that until he stepped forward and bent at the
waist. The next moment, her world tilted as he lifted her up and over
his shoulder.

“
Gianni put me
down!”

“
No.”

“
Maryanne,”
she screeched but when she looked in her direction, Maryanne was
waving goodbye.

He set her down on
her feet and backed her back up against his truck.