“I didn’t get her a present,” I point out, mentally jumping through gift ideas. What is an appropriate gift to get your… Virginia? I usually give her a big Christmas tip, but cash isn’t going to cut it if she’s going to be sitting around the tree in the morning. It’s Christmas Eve, for fuck’s sake. I don’t even have time to figure out what to get her—and the stores are probably so packed full of last minute shoppers and so picked over, I won’t be able to find a decent gift anyway
.
Motherfucker.
“How long do I have?” I ask.
“She’s coming to help us make dinner.”
I slide back the sleeve of my sweater and check my watch. That could feasibly put her here anytime between now and the next hour. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Sighing, I turn around and head back down the stairs to the front door.
“Where are you going?” Laurel calls after me.
“I’ve gotta go buy her a damn present.”
8
Virginia
When I get to Sin and Laurel’s house, I’m bursting with uncertainty. Rafe didn’t come to the restaurant last night, and he closes for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, so I haven’t seen or spoken to him since I left the club.
He still has my work clothes, since they were in a bag in his car and I left alone. I looked at my phone about eight times, but I couldn’t make myself text him. I own three work outfits, and he has one of them. Texting him to tell him I need my things back seems too awkward, though. I don’t know how he will respond to what happened the other night, but knowing him and his allergy to women who can actually handle his ass, I’m expecting him to push me away with both hands.
I’m not going to let him, naturally, but I’m prepared for him to be annoying until he realizes there is no threat and nothing to freak out about. After that, it will be smooth sailing back to normalcy.
My mind isn’t immediately put at ease by what I hope is my ability to duck and dodge his weirdness, though, because when I get to Sin’s house, Rafe isn’t there.
I didn’t see his car in the driveway, but as Laurel flashes me a big grin and leads me up the stairs, I look around and take inventory of the faces to make sure. Sure enough, none of them are the handsome visage of Rafe Morelli.
Laurel leads me right over to a different Morelli—Vince. I met her sister at the hospital, but Vince wasn’t there. He offers me a crooked smile and his hand to shake.
“Vince Morelli, Laurel’s brother-in-law.”
I nod my head and shake his hand. “Rafe’s cousin. I remember. I was your waitress the night Rafe brought you, Laurel, and Carly to dinner after your dad died.”
“Oh. Okay. Sorry, I didn’t realize—are you Rafe’s new girlfriend, or…?”
Shoving him in the arm, Laurel says, “I told you, we’re all friends. Don’t use that word around either one of them. God, Vince.”
Vince scowls at her. “Jeeze, relax, would you? I was just trying to get a feel for what the hell this is.”
“You can’t expect us to keep up with his revolving door of women. We have lives, jobs, hobbies,” Carly calls from the couch, where she is changing the baby’s diaper.
“Hey, he has not had a revolving door of women lately,” Laurel defends. “He’s been completely single for a while now
“Someone get the man a medal,” Vince says sarcastically.
Laurel sighs and looks back at me apologetically. “I’m trying to make everyone be nice, but it’s not going all that well.”
I shrug. “Eh, family holidays, you get what you get.” Lifting the bag of groceries I brought for breakfast tomorrow, I tell her, “I should probably put these away.”
Laurel leads me to the kitchen, then opens the refrigerator door for me. “I’m glad you could come. It’s nice for Nicky and Skylar to have so much family around for Christmas. Carly and I just had two-person Christmases until she got together with Vince.”
“And then there were three.”
Smiling faintly, Laurel nods. “When I met the Morelli family in Chicago, I thought it was just the coolest that they were so tightly knit, and they had these big family get-togethers. Never thought I’d be part of theirs, even the smaller branch, but the way they do family definitely appealed to me.”