LITMIR.BIZ

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muttering under his breath.

      Mike smiled as he tore into the cheese crackers. The Scarpettis sure were a boisterous bunch, especially Antonio. He’d left Italy thirty years ago but still clung to some of the old ways, personally and in business. Good thing the company was so well established and making a lot of money. But then again, there was a downside to their fairly easy success. No one seemed particularly interested in expanding or modernizing.

      Except Mike. Once he got the West Coast operation into action, he knew he could double the company’s profits. Wouldn’t that make him nice and cozy with the family?

      The blonde walked past his office again, this time slowing to smile at him. He nearly choked on the stale cracker. He had to admit, she did have great legs.

      Hell with it being a long time since his last date. It had been a century since he’d gotten laid.

      “JEEZ, POP, that damn cigar is stinking up your whole office. Put it out.” Robert waved a hand through the smoky air. “Disgusting.”

      “This is my office. I do what I like in here. Sit down.”

      Robert opened his father’s window, ignoring the humid August air that rushed in. Traffic noise from the street below the three-story Brooklyn office rose to compete with their conversation.

      “All right, all right,” he grumbled over the din. “I’ll put out the cigar. Now close the damn window.”

      Robert gladly shut out the warm air and noise. But that was the least of the problem. His father smoked too much, ate and drank to excess and stayed out late every night, a pattern that began after Robert’s mother died last year. It worried the hell out of him.

      “What did you want, Pop?” He took a chair across the old scarred desk that belonged in a junkyard.

      “Your cousin Gina is coming from Italy in three days.”

      “Gina?” Robert frowned. He hadn’t seen her in eight years. Not since his last trip to Tuscany. She’d happened to be home from Catholic boarding school in Milan, shy, quiet, the perfect convent-school student. “Why?” Robert couldn’t imagine his timid cousin flying across the Atlantic alone. “Not that it won’t be nice to see her, but…how old is she now?”

      “Twenty-three. She’s just finished all her schooling and your aunt says she’s been a little rebellious lately.” Antonio shrugged expansively and muttered something in Italian. Robert knew only a few choice words. “You know your aunt Sophia, the drama queen.”

      “Is she coming alone?”

      Antonio sighed and mopped his forehead. There seemed to be more and more of it each day, and Robert shuddered at the thought his hairline would one day recede like Pop’s.

      “Unfortunately, yes, and she’ll be here for a month.”

      Robert started to get a bad feeling. “I still don’t understand why Gina would come here.”

      “To cut loose.” Antonio waved a hand. “That’s how you say it, right? You know, get the wildness out of her system.”

      “Oh, brother.”

      “What’s this?” Antonio scowled. “You suddenly don’t have time for family?”

      “Me?”

      “Who else should I ask to escort her around the city?”

      “Oh, no.” Robert abruptly stood. “I’m on vacation starting this weekend, remember? I already paid for the cruise. Two weeks. Me, Melanie, lots of sun and piña coladas. I’m not baby-sitting anyone.”

      “I will reimburse you for the cruise.”

      “No way.” Robert backed toward the door. “Melanie pulled a lot of strings at work to get two weeks off.”

      “Roberto.” Antonio slammed his palm on the desk. “This is family. This is important.”

      “I understand.” But Melanie sure wouldn’t. “I’ll only be gone two weeks. Let Mike show her around in the meantime.”

      “Mike?”

      Robert mirrored his father’s expansive shrug. “He’s practically family, right?”

      Antonio frowned. “Practically isn’t good enough. He’s a male, and she’s a female. You do the arithmetic.”

      “Yeah, but we’re talking about Mike.”

      “I’m talking about hormones or testosterone, or whatever those things are.” He shook his head in that stubborn way Robert hated. It meant the subject was closed. “You will pick Gina up at the airport and stick to her like glue. End of discussion.”

      “Pop, don’t make me say something I’m gonna regret.”

      Antonio narrowed his dark eyes. “What?”

      Panic assailed Robert. He couldn’t cancel this trip. He and Melanie had been planning it for six months. What a damn mess! “It’s about Mike.”

      “Yeah?”

      “It’s confidential.”

      “Roberto, I remind you.” He picked up the cigar he’d put out. “You brought up the subject.”

      “You can’t tell anybody, Pop, including Mike. This is a very sensitive issue.”

      “All right, already.”

      Robert took a deep breath. He really hated involving Mike, but what else could he do? “It’s no problem if he accompanies Gina around the city.” He cleared his throat. For this lie, he would surely go straight to hell. Not to mention Mike was going to kill him. “Mike bats for the other team.”

      Antonio’s bushy brows drew together. “What are you talking about?”

      “You never heard that term before, Pop?”

      “I know what it means.” He looked uncertain. “It means he could be an interior decorator or something. Am I right?”

      Robert choked back a laugh. “I guess you could say that.”

      “But Mike? I’ve known him half his life. He’s not that way.”

      “When was the last time you saw him with a girl?”

      Antonio toyed with the cigar as he thought for a moment. “Last year, Thanksgiving, he brought that short redhead to dinner.”

      “That was three years ago, she was his neighbor’s daughter and she was fifteen.”

      Antonio frowned. “How come he doesn’t look like one of those kind?”

      “Pop, don’t be so old-fashioned. He doesn’t have to look any particular way. The important thing is, he can show Gina around the city without you worrying.”

      Antonio chomped on the cigar, his bushy brows drawn together as he thought. “Okay, tell him to get in here.”

      “OH, MAN.” Mike winced at the brass clock on his desk. She’d be here in less than an hour and he still had two reports to fill out for customs and a stack of invoices to approve. Of all the jobs the Scarpettis had asked of him, baby-sitting had to be the lowest. He’d almost told them to kiss off on this one, but then he had a staggering realization. The trust Antonio had placed in him was pretty damn remarkable.

      Most of the older Scarpetti men were still old-fashioned, especially about their women, and that included Antonio. They liked their women pretty, obedient and chaste. Trusting Mike with the care of his niece was the closest Mike had ever gotten to the inner circle. In a way he felt as if he’d finally been given the keys to the house.

      Too bad all his work wouldn’t resolve itself while he was playing nursemaid. He pushed the stack of invoices to the side to make room for his day planner. The way he figured it, he could still come to work early in the morning and late in

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