“Does Mom know about this?” Ezio asked.
“Yeah.”
“Is that the real reason she has qualms about you going to Northwestern, and don’t bullshit me.”
Anthony sighed. “Yeah, that’s definitely part of it, but I think it’s mostly because I’m going to be away from home and I’m the baby.”
“Okay, the next time I’m talking to her, I’ll bring it up. I’m not promising anything.” He threw the cut squash in the pan, and then mouthed the word beef to Sam. She grabbed the steak out of the fridge and handed it to him.
“I knew you’d help!”
“Hey! What did I just say?” Ezio asked sharply.
“I know, you said you weren’t promising anything. But Mom always listens to you. You’re the greatest.”
“I gotta go. But one last question—you using protection?”
“Hey, it’s not like that, we want to wait. Anyway, Mom already bought me condoms.”
Sam clapped a hand over her mouth.
Ezio laughed.
“Yeah, it might be funny to you, but it was pretty damned embarrassing to me. Then I had to explain to her that Greta and I were going to wait. Talking about your sex life, or lack thereof, to your mother is hell.”
“That’s a great decision. I’m proud of you,” Ezio said. “But it never hurts to have some on hand if things get out of hand.” He started to slice up the beef for the stir-fry.
“They won’t. I love her, I won’t let it. We’re going to wait. It’s too important.”
“Okay, man. I understand. I’ll talk to Mom about Northwestern.”
“Love you, Ezio.”
“Love you too, Anthony.”
Ezio nodded to Samantha to touch the off button, since his hands were full of cut beef to add to the wok. She did.
“The Mexican rice is beginning to smell wonderful, Samantha.”
“Thanks.” She watched as he turned on the gas burner and the meal began to sizzle. She’d already turned the rice she’d made down to a simmer. “How often do you run interference between your mom and your siblings?”
“Not often. At least I don’t think all that often.” He gave her a sideways grin. “But it’s in the oldest-son job description. Especially with Anthony since he’s the youngest.”
“And the condom conversation? Did you have that with all of your other brothers?”
“Nah. Dad was alive then, he passed five years ago. I wasn’t sure who’d talked to Anthony, but I wanted to make sure that someone had. Apparently, I didn’t need to worry on that score.”
“I almost lost it and gave away the game that I was listening in. That was pretty funny. Your mother is great.”
“Yes, she is. Six kids and nothing gets her down. Even after Dad died, she just dug in and kept being Mom. I hated not being there for her. I took leave, but it wasn’t the same thing as living nearby. My sisters were great, though.”
He turned down the heat of the stir-fry and plated the food.
“Perfect timing.” Samantha smiled. She took the lid off the rice and added a serving spoon. They both scooped up some rice and took their plates to the dining room table where a jug of lemonade was waiting for them.
“So how was your third day of telecommuting?” Ezio asked.
“Hard. Designing is a tactile business. Not being able to touch or feel the products makes it really tough to decide if they’re specifying the right stuff for the hotel. Toni is bringing over a lot of samples this weekend. I didn’t want to have them send samples to a different address than mine; then I would have a lot more explaining to do.”
“What’s your excuse for not going in?”
“I sprained my ankle and the doctor said to stay off of it. I didn’t want to lie, but Toni had already sent an e-mail to my boss and my team telling them that on Monday, so I just had to go along with it. She’s still feeling pretty bad. Are you still mad at her? Please say no.”
Ezio gave a slow smile as he set down his fork and topped off her lemonade. “I’m not mad at either of you anymore. I’m too happy about this set-up right now. I figure that four days’ time we’ve had the equivalent of a month’s worth of dates.”
Samantha tilted her head. “How do you figure that?”
“We had an actual date at a restaurant. We’ve had breakfast and dinner together—that’s nine dates. Add in two times we’ve met in the middle of the night for midnight snacks, that’s eleven. I would say eleven is about right for a month.”
“Yeah, but you’d be sleeping with her by now.”
“Except in our case, it’s only been a few days,” he argued.
She picked up her glass while she was laughing. “You know you have a habit of liking things to go your way. This is definitely some convoluted logic to prop up the way you want to believe.” She took a long sip of lemonade.
“You were the one who said you had to choose your mood. I’m just choosing my reality. What’s wrong with that?”
“You must have made your mom go gray before her time.”
“Nah, I only started doing this with you. It’s the only way I can survive is to fight fire with fire. If I tried to argue in such an illogical fashion with my mother, she’d snatch me bald-headed.”
Samantha looked at his pretty hair. “That would be a shame.”
“So, are you caught up with work?”
“I will be until the samples get here. Why?”
“I want to take you someplace pretty special tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“It’s a surprise.”
17
“Do I get to play with them?” Samantha’s eyes were
