by Marina Adair
She nodded.
“But I’ve never brought a girl home.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.” She let that sink in. He was trying to tell her something, something important, but Lexi was too afraid to listen. “My brothers are going to say shit, try to be funny and embarrass me. It’s what we do.”
Having brothers didn’t seem all that fun. She remembered back in high school how the DeLuca boys had gotten into it with each other, laughing it off in the end. But she had always wondered if Marc, who was usually the focus, really found their games fun.
“I am afraid that they will embarrass you in the process. And I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”
And just like that her heart went mushy. For Marc freaking DeLuca.
Afraid she’d do something stupid, like cry or blurt out that she might be falling for him, Lexi gave him a quick peck on the lips and opened his door. She hopped out and offered him her hand. When he took it, they walked up to the front door.
Like she had told Marc, she had been to this house a thousand times over the years, but it never failed to steal her breath. Built in the late nineteenth century, the stone-faced Italian villa, with its ornate corbel-supported eaves and low-pitched roof, stood two stories tall with cornice towers identifying the entry of the house. Surrounded by massive oak trees and vines, it also sat in the middle of one of the most elaborate gardens in the Napa Valley—ChiChi’s award-winning flower garden, to be exact.
“It’s still not too late to go back to your place,” Marc said when they got to the front door. The way his hand fit into the curve of her waist and his lips brushed hers, sending a yummy heat rushing throughout her body, made her want to take him up on the offer.
Then the front door flew open. And the only heat rushing was straight to her face.
Abby looked frazzled and slightly harassed. She also looked from Lexi to Marc and back to Lexi. Her eyes were wide, and sweat beaded her upper lip. Abby tended to sweat when she got mad. So Lexi took a step back, away from Abby and out of Marc’s arms.
“You’re here.”
“Don’t look so horrified,” Lexi joked—kind of—and then, after studying the way Abby’s left hand plucked at the hem of her shirt, practically strangling the silk, she realized that Abby wasn’t mad, she was pissed.
Lexi smiled.
Abby didn’t smile back. She didn’t move, didn’t open the door wider, didn’t say, “Please come in.” She just stood there, blocking the entry—sweating, her hands fisted in her shirt.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Abby announced as though it was the most natural greeting in the world. Then, to make an already awkward moment even more awkward, she grabbed Lexi by the elbow and pulled.
Marc grabbed her other elbow. “And you need her to do that?”
Abby looked behind her, uncharacteristically worrying her lower lip.
“You okay?” Lexi asked, feeling a wee bit guilty. Abby had called her a total of seven times today, every one sent to voice mail. The week was up, Abby would demand answers, and Lexi still didn’t know how to explain her and Marc. It wasn’t fake, but it couldn’t be real, and she wasn’t sure exactly where that left them.
“I’d like to bring my girlfriend inside, so would you mind moving?”
That he didn’t even stumble on the word made Lexi smile.
“Yes. No. I mean, I need her.” Loud male laughter erupted from somewhere in the house. “Now.”
“Yeah, well, I need you to stop advertising your ex’s goods, or lack thereof, until after the Showdown. Just like you can talk to Lexi after we’ve come inside and said hi to Nonna.” Marc’s hand tightened on Lexi’s, telling her he wasn’t letting her go. It felt nice. It also made her realize that she wanted Marc to escort her inside. She wanted to walk into this house holding hands and greet their families as a couple.
Abby eyed Marc. “Five minutes with her or I tell Nonna how you sold bootleg porn in high school to buy your truck. Is that really the way you want to introduce your girlfriend?”
Marc choked and let go.
Lexi looked at Marc and raised a brow. “Really?”
He shrugged. “It was a nice truck.”
“But porn?”
“I’m an entrepreneur.” Then he leaned in and his warm breath tickled her ear as he whispered, “Don’t worry, cream puff. Even back then I was all about quality. I think I still have a few DVDs left if you want to check them out later.”
Marc pulled back, and except for her nipples, which were standing up and cheering their support, Lexi didn’t move. She thought of herself and Marc lying naked in bed, watching someone else naked in bed, and by the time she got to the part where she should have been turned off, her whole body was reaching DEFCON 1.
“I think my soul just died a little,” Abby said, yanking Lexi by the arm.
She yanked her through the foyer, past three smiling grannies, a group of stunned DeLucas, one Hard-Hammer Tanner—minus tool belt and steel-toed boots—and into the bathroom, not stopping until they were inside the shower with the curtain pulled.
Marc wondered how he’d gone from date to third wheel as he watched his sister disappear down the hallway with Lexi, and her swaying, beautiful backside, in tow. When the bathroom door slammed with a resounding no-boys-allowed thud, he accepted that he’d have to enter the first family dinner he’d ever brought a girl to girl-less.
“What’s that about?” Jack Tanner, his old buddy, asked the second Marc entered the family room. His brothers and Tanner were all seated around the coffee table, sharing a bottle of DeLuca cab. All except for Tanner, who held a longneck in his hand.
“Abby had to go to the bathroom, and apparently she needed Lexi to go with her,” Marc explained while he took a seat in one of the high-back chairs.
“No, I meant, since when did you start bringing dates to your family 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 expl
ain 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.
Regardless, he needed to talk to Jeff first, have him explain a few things so that Marc had the facts straight before he went to Lexi. Because the more time he spent with Lexi, the more he began to understand what had gone down in the divorce, the more Marc got just how instrumental a role he’d played in Lexi’s situation.
And if that was the case, he didn’t want to tell her. Ever. Didn’t want to be another guy to drop a load of BS in her life that she’d have to deal with alone, because once she knew, there was no doubt in his mind that she would send him packing.
“It’s all right,” Gabe said, and for a moment Marc feared that he had spoken aloud. Then Gabe sipped his tea and, after a grimace, continued. “Tanner needs to know what’s going on since he’s staking his company’s future on this.”
Yeah, well, Marc knew what the women of St. Helena said about Hard-Hammer Tanner. He also knew that the guy was not only financially set, decent enough looking for a dude, and kind of ripped, he was—Marc froze, reassessing his earlier assumption—one of Lexi’s intended bachelors. What if he’d been checking out Lexi instead of Abby?
Oh hell no. There was no way Marc wanted Tanner’s tool belt stinking up the air when Lexi was around.
“Well, if sitting in as a celebrity judge is too much for you, man, I can just find someone else,” Marc said, standing and ready to show him to the door.
When he’d asked Tanner to help him out and fill the empty tribunal position, he hadn’t thought of how much additional time the former football star with mammoth biceps and a fancy Super Bowl ring would be spending with Lexi. He’d not only be nailing her walls and fixing her pipes, he’d be tasting her damn food, something that Marc had started to consider his job.
“You lose him and we lose half the ticket holders,” Gabe said, his voice full of exasperation and a little humor.
After word got out that Hard-Hammer Tanner was the celebrity judge, ticket sales exploded, and as of yesterday the Showdown was officially sold out. Not that it surprised Marc. Back when Tanner was in the NFL, he couldn’t walk down the street without being mobbed by locals and tourists. Retirement might have softened the fanfare, but he was still a beloved town figure, and if word got out that he was off the tribunal, Marc might have to start refunding some of those thousand-dollar-a-plate tickets.
“So take a seat,” Gabe said, his expression making it clear he wouldn’t continue until Marc did as he said. So Marc sat. And stared down Tanner, who smiled back.
“Seems that Saul Sorrento is getting a divorce and moving to Florida,” Gabe began.
“Holy shit.” Nate sat up. “What’s he doing with his land?”
“His kids aren’t interested in running it, so he’s going to sell,” Tanner supplied.
Nate smacked his hands together and did some stupid happy dance in his chair, knocking over Nonna’s statue of St. Christopher and nearly taking out his glass of wine. He was so wound up he didn’t even notice.
Not much got their tight-ass brother excited, but everyone in the room understood. The Sorrento family owned the largest parcel of virgin soil in the St. Helena appellation region. Used as a pasture for Saul’s organic cow and alpaca farm, it had never been planted on, meaning it was the perfect soil for a new vineyard. It was also the land that Geno DeLuca had been in the middle of buying when he’d won the hand of Miss ChiChi Ryo. Since Charles Baudouin had lost the girl, he made sure that Geno never got the land. But what started out as a way to stick it to a former friend had ended up making Saul owner of one of the most exclusive parcels of land in the valley. And he was finally selling.
“Wait.” Marc paused, taking in the way Tanner and Gabe were sharing a knowing smile—a smile that was usually reserved for him and his brothers. “What does that have to do with Tanner?”
“Saul and my grandpa play poker. The other night he asked if I wanted to take it off his hands.” Tanner’s lips twitched. “Even though he’s moving, he still has kids in the area and doesn’t want them to get caught in the middle of the great feud of St. Helena.”
“My thought was, we partner with Tanner and let him work as the go-between to secure us the land,” Gabe said, and when all three brothers looked at him like he’d just committed a mortal sin by including an outsider in family business, he added, “Or we go it alone, he lists the property, and the DeLucas and Baudouins continue to outbid each other until neither of us can afford it.”
Made sense. Between Abby’s missing dick and the millions he’d stolen, Marc’s money pit of a hotel, and the Pairing project, the DeLucas were low on liquid assets. Plus, Tanner had helped them out before when he didn’t have to, and saved the DeLucas from a major lawsuit. That still didn’t mean Marc felt comfortable bringing an outsider into the family business. Especially when that outsider knew nothing about wine.
“Let’s say we all agree,” Marc said, reminding everyone in the room that even though Gabe ran the company, their parents had set up the trust so that there had to be a majority vote from the siblings in order to go forward with a major decision like this. “What’s in it for you? I didn’t even know you liked wine.”
“I don’t.” He saluted Marc with his beer and a smart-ass grin. “Allergic to tannins.”
“Tanner isn’t interested in the land or the grapes. He wants to be the exclusive builder for DeLuca Wines,” Gabe clarified.
“If I attach myself to your family, it will mean I could lose a good chunk of the town’s business. And since most of the projects I want to take on revolve around wineries and wine caves, I need to know that I’ve got your chunk locked in, exclusively.”
Tanner was right; the second word got out that he’d assisted the DeLucas in swiping the land right out from under old man Charles’s nose, his alliance with their family would guarantee a complete and total blacklist for Tanner Construction from all future Baudouin projects.
Marc leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and said, “Then why help us? You could just sit back, watch our families fight it out, and maintain a healthy distance from the feud.�
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“I’ve got my reasons,” Tanner said, taking a pull on his beer. “One of them being I want my company to handle the construction on that new cave you guys are digging on the south property. I know it will be one of the biggest caves in the valley and that you’ve already received bids from two other companies. I help you get Saul’s land, and you help me move into the cave-building space.”
“And the other reason?”
Tanner leaned forward, mimicking Marc’s stance. “None of your damn business.”
“Fine. Let’s talk terms.” As long as it didn’t involve the exchange of a woman, Marc was willing to hear the guy out.
“Tanner’s here.” Abby’s eyes shot to the closed door, and she lowered her voice to a hiss. “In the front room. Drinking with my brothers.”
“I saw.”
“He wants to hire me to teach him piano.” Abby plopped down on the side of the tub as though she’d just imparted world-ending information.
“That bastard.” When Abby didn’t smile, Lexi joined her on the ledge.
Abby had never really dated all that much in high school. Her brothers made sure that any guy who looked interested learned how hard it was to look through a black eye. She had one heartbreak in high school, studied her way through design school, avoiding dating for the most part—until she met Richard. Which made Abby about as experienced with men as Lexi.
“Is that a bad thing?”
Abby blinked. “You have no idea who he is, do you?”
“Um, he’s the hot contractor wanted by every woman in town, and he’s hired you for a private one-on-one.”
“He’s the celebrity judge for the Showdown. His face has been plastered all over town. How can you not know this?”
“Gee, remodeling the bakery and trying to win that catering job has been a little distracting,” Lexi defended. She’d also been a lot distracted by her sexy neighbor.
“And there’s no way he’s getting a private lesson of any kind, because before Tanner tore his shoulder, he played for the Niners,” Abby explained, and when Lexi stared blankly at her she flapped her hands impatiently. “Before that, he played for USC and was one of the best running backs in college history.”