He put the plates down, saying, "Have a seat. Eat, eat. You're too thin, by far."
Her doctor wouldn't have agreed with him, but Ally knew that Enzo wouldn't care in the least what the medical community thought she should weigh.
Ally stared at the chair he was pulling back for her as if it was going to bite her—and it probably was. "Uh, no, thank you. I prefer to stand."
She wanted to try to slap him again—maybe this time she'd catch him off guard and actually succeed—for his knowing grin, but he disappeared too quickly for her to do that, returning with a big decorative pillow that he applied to the unforgiving hardwood seat, then offered her his hand to guide her to the seat.
How could she refuse such a gallant offer, despite the fact that she knew she ought to? She put her hand in his and let him seat her. Surprisingly, as soon as she sat down and her backside objected a lot less than she had anticipated that it would, she found her appetite and ate everything he'd given her, even the generous bowl of baby carrots, which she hadn't had in years.
Finally sated, she leaned back in her chair and sighed, crumpling the fine white linen napkin onto the counter. "My word, I haven't had a meal like that in ages. I ate way too much!"
"Nah. Like I said, you need some meat on your bones if you're going to take me on."
The blush was back, of course. It always surfaced at the most inconvenient of times—like when her dirty little mind turned everything into a double entendre. "You do Mom proud, Enzo."
It was his turn to blush, to her amazement. She didn't think she could recall a time she'd ever seen him do that.
"Thank you," he said, catching her eye. "That means a lot to me. Your mom was as close to a mother as I could ever hope to get in this world. She was a special lady."
Her eyes filling with tears that she didn't want him to see, Ally reached for her wine glass, which was nearly empty. "That, she was."
He refilled hers and his, then raised his towards her. "To your mom. I'm sure she's got Heaven shipshape several times over by now."
No matter how hard she fought against it, two tears escaped down her cheeks, even though he'd made her laugh. "Heck yes, and now she's down with Daddy, running him and the Devil ragged."
When Enzo saw her tears, he set his own glass down, took hers away, and reached out to cup her cheek, wiping away a tear with the side of his thumb. "Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry."
His voice was so soft that, to her horror, she began to cry even harder. It seemed the more she tried to stop it, the worse it got, until he enveloped her in his arms and cradled her against him. He didn't try to cop a feel; he didn't try to kiss her. He just held her and rocked the slightest bit back and forth. "You were very lucky to have two such wonderful parents."
"I know. I'm sorry you didn't." She knew she should have been pulling away from him, out of his much too close embrace, but it was just too damned wonderful to be held like this, in strong, sure arms—in his strong, sure arms! She was liking it much too much, and Ally was wary of getting used to it. What had happened between them in the past few hours, was an aberration, and she couldn't afford to rekindle the crush she'd barely succeeded in tamping down the first time. That was rapidly becoming impossible to do within the confines of his embrace.
"Oh, but I did. Your dad practically adopted me without knowing me from Adam, really, and you all took me in and treated me like a part of the family, even though I didn't appreciate what you were offering like I should have, at the time. You were very generous to share your parents with me—the interloper—like you did."
"Well." Ally smiled unrepentantly. "As long as I continued to get everything I ever wanted, why not?"
Enzo laughed and squeezed her a bit harder, one hand roaming down to cup her bottom. "I know. You were terribly spoiled—cars, and horses and more horses. As I said before, your father should have been putting you over his knee at least once a week, as far as I could tell, and considering what a tight ship he ran, I'm surprised he let you get away with everything you did."
Chapter 3
Ally tried to pull away from him, experimentally, and found she simply couldn't unless he allowed it. "I didn't get away with that much!"
"Like hell! You should have been paddled every night for a week and had your car taken away from you for six months for driving home from Cassie Beauchamp's sweet sixteen party drunk—and high."
She'd been taking a sip of her wine and nearly choked on it at that last bit. Her parents hadn't noticed either the smell or her bloodshot eyes from the pot she and everyone else at the party had been smoking. They were more concerned with the alcohol on her breath and the fact that she parked on the lawn rather than in the driveway and bobbed and weaved her way to the house.
Leave it to Enzo not to have missed a trick, although she couldn't even remember seeing him there at the time.
"Did they give you any consequences for that at all?" Enzo asked incredulously.
"They took away my keys for a week," she crowed almost proudly, then added sotto voce, "But I got them back in three days because I had to work."
One expressive eyebrow rose. "Case in point. Then there was the shoplifting incident."
"I didn't shoplift!" she informed him heatedly, feeling
