On our sixth day at the rental, we floated serenely on our inflatable loungers, our joined hands keeping us side-by-side while Dean Martin sang in the background. The sun was setting, bathing the yard and the water and both of us in a warm glow. He was always beautiful, but in that moment with the light turning his skin to gold, he was ethereal.
He wore mirrored, aviator-style sunglasses—actually, the pair we’d taken from Greco’s convertible—and in them, I could see the sky’s reflection. After a while, his sexy full lips curled into a lopsided grin, and he murmured, “You’re staring at me.”
“Of course I am. You’re the most beautiful man in the world. Why wouldn’t I stare?”
He sighed and shook his head, and then he fell silent for a while. Something was on his mind, I could tell.
Finally, he said, “We’ve been in Vegas for a while now. I was planning to get your watch back as soon as we returned to San Francisco, but now I hope it’s not too late. What if the person who has it moved out of my building? Or—”
“No pressure. Once we get back to California, we’ll try to retrieve it. But if it’s gone, it’s gone.”
He frowned at that and reminded me, “It’s your most prized possession.”
“It was. But it’s just a thing, Jack.”
“I don’t understand,” he said. “I thought that watch meant everything to you.”
“It used to be really important, because it was the only thing my dad gave me. But that’s not true anymore. It turns out, he gave me an entire second family, and four more brothers. In a lot of ways, he also gave me you.”
Jack raised a brow and said, “The family I get. But how do I fit in?”
“The watch, and by extension my dad, gave us all this time together to really get to know each other, and to build something that’s going to last.”
He grinned and nodded. “Okay. I can see the logic there.”
“For the record, I was planning to ask you out the night we met, after you came back downstairs from taking a shower. Would you have said yes?”
His smile faded. “I would have wanted to. I was wildly attracted to you from the moment we met, but…I don’t know what I would have said. I never dated. Literally never. I was afraid of getting close to people, so I might have denied myself the chance to get to know you. That seems so awful now, the thought that I could have missed out on this, and on you—”
“Don’t feel bad,” I said. “This all worked out exactly like it was supposed to, and here we are.” I was glad to see his smile return.
We were still floating and holding hands a few minutes later, when Charlie opened the patio door and called, “Dante wanted me to remind you that we have dinner reservations at eight, and you mentioned grabbing some cocktails beforehand.” He was grinning as he said that. I wasn’t sure what the Dombrusos were up to, but there was definitely some sort of surprise in the works for this evening.
After we climbed out of the pool, I wrapped Jack in a beach towel before picking up mine and drying myself off. As he scrubbed his hair with a corner of the towel, he asked, “What do you think the Dombrusos are up to? It really feels like they’re hatching some sort of surprise for tonight.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
When we went inside, we found Charlie sitting in the living room with his phone, and I asked him, “Where is everyone?”
He told us, “Nana and Ollie wanted to do some gambling, so they headed to the Strip and will meet us at the restaurant. As for Dante, he had an errand to run.” There was that grin again.
“So, when do we find out about whatever you and your husband are planning for tonight?”
Charlie’s eyes went wide, in an attempt to look innocent. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. If something was in the works though, it would be a fun surprise. Nothing to do with Greco, who’s still in the wind.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think it had anything to do with him.” As Jack and I headed for the stairs, I said, “We’re going to go get cleaned up, and we’ll be ready in about half an hour. How are we getting to the restaurant?”
“Nana arranged transportation,” Charlie said, with an amused expression. “I’m sure it’ll be super understated and tasteful.”
* * *
Nope.
Nana had, in fact, booked the longest, gaudiest stretch limo she could find. Since this was Vegas, that meant it was the longest, gaudiest stretch limo in existence. The thing was Barbie pink, glittery, and about a block long, with gold rims and pink running lights. In the very back was a hot tub, which was running at full bubble and lit up in bright turquoise.
The driver holding the door for us was a tall, slender guy with bleached white-blond hair. He was dressed in a hot pink chauffeur’s uniform, which was form-fitting and included shorts instead of pants, along with matching high heels. He looked familiar, so I paused in front of him and asked, “Pete?”
Color rose in his cheeks as he said, “Hiya, Reno. How’s your brother?” He and Romy had been friends in high school, but they’d drifted apart over the years.