“Asked you to live with him,” Maria spoke up. “I think this dinner is overdue.”
“No, Mama. He was just making conversation.” Sofia wasn’t sure what the hell Dylan had been doing when he suggested such a thing. Boy, he had them all riled up now.
Her parents sat down and looked directly into Dylan’s eyes. “You are Charlie’s brother, so we’re accepting you. But if you hurt our daughter, you won’t have any place to hide. Not even your money will protect you,” her mother stated.
Papa patted her hand and said, “Mama, boys talk out of line sometimes. You should know how often Salvatore and Charlie did the same. And look, they are fine men now. I’m sure Dylan wouldn’t dream of taking your daughter from you and bringing her to the city. Isn’t that right?” He turned to Dylan.
Please agree.She pleaded with him through her eyes. Dylan said, “Sofia is a very special woman and I’d never do anything to hurt her.” He never took his eyes off her as he spoke, and it sent chills down her spine.
That wasn’t an answer, but it also showed her parents that he wasn’t one who’d back down. He’d fight for her. Or at least he’s great at pretending to.
“Well that’s settled, so can we eat now before it gets cold?” Sal said to break the tension.
She knew it wasn’t over between the two men, but even Sal didn’t want his parents in the middle of it. Not yet, at least. But she was sure, Sal and Dylan were going to finish this conversation later. Hopefully not today. They were all too tired, and their fuses were short. The last thing she wanted was for this to end in physical blows. From the looks in their eyes, her fear was justified.
Thankfully, things seemed to quiet down after that. There was a lot of talking, but it was much more casual. That all had to do with Dylan. Somehow he’d been able to get them to talk more about Charlie than him. Sofia once again had been left impressed by his skills. This time it was managing a room, even one made up of strong personalities like her mother.
Now if only he could just as smoothly convince everyone they weren’t a couple, that would be great. Because by the time their little dinner was over, her parents were more convinced they were in love than before. All she had wanted was to be in a play, and now acting seemed to be all she was doing.Sofia knew somehow this was all going to bite her in the ass someday. And damn it, I’m not sure how I’m going to explain it, either.
Dylan knew he needed to maintain control of the conversation during dinner. There was one thing they were all waiting to hear: that he was in love with Sofia. Those were words he’d never spoken to a woman, and he sure as hell wasn’t about to do so because her family wanted it. They had no idea; he wasn’t the catch they thought he was. Well, Sal already might have come to that conclusion on his own.
Even Sofia didn’t seem like herself after dinner. The ride to her house wasn’t long by any means, walking distance on a nice day. Yet, the silence in the car made it seem long. He needed to find out what was bothering her, but his gut said it was him. He’d done his best not to fuck it up tonight, but right from the start, it was downhill. He wasn’t sure how he was going to fix it, but he had to try.
“Sofia, I’m sorry I was late,” he said.
She didn’t even look at him as she said, “That was the least of the issues.” Her voice was filled with frustration.
“Should I go through the list of things I’m sorry for, or can I just cover it in one shot? I know this was not how you saw tonight going.”
Sofia turned to him and snapped, “You implied that we were having sex to my brother.”
“No. I said that I could protect you. At no time did I mention sex,” he defended. Dylan didn’t want to think of his actions as being that crass, though they had been.
“What do you think Sal thought when you said you’d have me live with you? And worse than that, my parents heard it. I can only imagine what it’s going to be like tomorrow when I see them.”
“I explained that it was hypothetical,” Dylan stated.
He pulled up in front of her building and she got out of the car. Before slamming the door, she said, “What’s funny is you really think they bought that? Right now, my parents are probably home discussing our wedding thanks to you. I knew I shouldn’t have gone along with this.”
Dylan got out of the car and followed her inside. He wasn’t going to let tonight end on this note. “Sofia, we’re both tired and blowing this way out of proportion. You’ll see. When you go into work tomorrow, the only thing they will think is that we really like each other a lot.”
He saw her stomping up each stair. She didn’t send him away, which was a good sign. But what did it matter if she did? They weren’t really a couple having their first quarrel. Unfortunately, it felt like it.
As they made it to her door and she unlocked it, he added softly, “I’m sorry Sofia. Those words came out of my mouth, and I have no idea why. I’ve never asked a woman to live with me before. Hell, I’ve avoided such commitment. So if you think you were shocked, I surprised myself.” That was the truth. He definitely hadn’t planned on saying anything even close to what he had.
Sofia turned and looked at him, “Then why did you?”
Looking down at her, he answered as honestly as he could. “Living together? I don’t know where that came from, but I meant what I said about protecting you, Sofia. I won’t ever let anything happen to you.”
“Dylan, this isn’t a conversation for the hallway. Either come in, or we can talk about this another time.”
He should leave. Dylan told his feet to turn and walk away. Instead, he walked through her open door and closed it behind him. “Are you making me coffee?”
“Is this conversation going to take that long?” she asked.
He shrugged. “It might help clear my head. Somehow with you around, things aren’t always so…clear.” And that’s how I say shit I wish I hadn’t.
Sofia pursed her lips. “So you’re blaming this on me? I don’t think so. I knew exactly what the plan was. Well…kind of. You’re the one who took the detour.” She walked over to the kitchen and started the coffee. He followed and sat at the table as she continued. “Come to think of it, this entire thing was your idea. ‘Let people think we’re dating. It’ll be a great cover story.’ There’s a big leap from dating to, ‘She can live with me in the city.’ A simple breakup, we don’t see eye to eye, isn’t going to fly anymore. My parents still think I’m a virgin, for goodness’ sake.” She turned and added, “Well, they did until dinner, thank you so much.”