Chapter Fifteen
Dominic
I was meeting up with two of my brothers when Maria’s text came in, so as much as I wanted to drop everything and go to her, help her, I couldn’t. Not yet, anyway. First, it seemed Vito needed help. Although, hell if I knew why, but I was about to find out.
“Why in the world did you want us to meet you here?” I asked Vito as I surveyed the parking lot of the luxury car dealership he had texted us the address for.
“Yeah, why? Especially when it’s hot as balls outside. What’s going on?” Carmine asked, closing his door and walking over to a red sedan with a white interior and black piping. Figured that would be the car that caught his attention. If it didn’t have all the bells and whistles, Carmine wasn’t interested. He had an only-the-best philosophy when it came to cars, women, and life in general. Not that most of us Delucas could argue that point with him. We were cut from the same cloth as they said.
Vito ran his hand over a new model that was on display. “I need to get a new ride for Lisa Marie,” he said as if that was explanation enough.
Not so much, big bro. That seemed like it had nothing to do with me or Carmine.
Carmine opened the door to get a better look at the interior. “Why isn’t your wife here with you then?” he questioned. “Aren’t married couples supposed to do shit like this together?”
Vito gave him a you’re-an-idiot look. “Yeah, but this time I couldn’t seem to squeeze it in between playing board games and rubbing each other’s backs,” he answered, every word dripping with sarcasm.
I stifled a laugh while I looked at the new model Vito was still checking out.
“Jesus, married couples are boring,” Carmine said, muttering something else under his breath I didn’t quite catch. “What kind of a fool gets married? Having sex with one woman for the rest of your days sounds like a life sentence.”
“It sort of is for life,” Vito replied, tapping his thumb to his ring finger. “Why am I even discussing marriage with you? It’s a lost cause. You’ll never settle down.”
I clapped Vito’s back as I walked past him. “Sure he will,” I remarked. “Only, because Carmine’s so hell-bent against it it’s going to be that much funnier when a woman comes along and his one-night rule flies right out the window.”
Carmine snickered. “Fuck you, Dom. That’s never going to happen.”
Vito groaned. “I don’t know why I thought bringing you two here would be a good idea.”
“We still don’t know why we’re here instead of Lisa Marie,” I pointed out.
“It’s going to be a surprise for her,” Vito explained.
Carmine and I glanced at each other, and then we both broke out into laughter. “What’d you do now?” I asked, holding a hand to my chest as I tried to stop laughing. “Because if you’re getting her a new car, then you must’ve screwed up big time.” It’d have been nothing new, honestly. It was rockier than the Alps where those two were concerned—and that was on a good day.
Coming around behind me, Vito wrapped his arm around my neck, putting me in a chokehold like we used to do when we were kids. “Funny. Just help me, okay? I know the manager here, and he said I could scope things out for a while. If I find something, all I have to do is let him know.”
“Hey, get over here and check this one out,” Carmine called to us from where he was sitting inside one of the cars.
“Nah, not that one,” Vito yelled back. “I like this one.” He pointed to another.
Carmine got out and had another snide remark to make. “You know, depending on how big of a fuckup you made, you might need to move from looking at cars to SUVs.”
“Good point,” I agreed, which rarely ever happened where Carmine was concerned. I tapped my knuckles on the window of an SUV. “This one’s nice.”
“He should know nice . He has been in a long-term relationship with Spitfire,” Carmine teased. “I swear, you’re in way too many relationships. How do you keep track of them all?”
I rolled my eyes because I already knew what he was getting at. It was the same thing everyone in this family was getting at—Maria.
We were not in a relationship. Besides friendship. Well, that was wrong because we were in a relationship of sorts, but not like they thought.
My phone buzzed, and I looked down at it.
Maria: Forget I said anything. I think I’m just going to stay in and work, try to forget about this whole Jade thing. Perla can bite me.
I huffed, slightly frustrated with Maria digging her feet in.
Dominic: Not happening. Be ready when I come to pick you up.
“Whatcha doing over there, Dommy boy?” Carmine asked, nudging his chin toward me as I slipped my phone back into my pocket.
“Just texting Maria.” As I looked at my brothers, an alarm sounded in my head— revert, revert, revert . Too bad I couldn’t take the words back. Why did I have to say anything? “Anyway, which car you going with, Vito?” I asked, trying to get their attention off me.
Waving his finger in the air, Carmine clacked his tongue. Jackass that he was, he wasn’t going to let this go. “Uh-uh. You know as well as I do that Vito has yet to make a decision, so tell us what Maria wants.”
I shook my head. “Get a life.”
“Will she be at Mom’s birthday party?” Vito asked and looked at Carmine. “We could bust his balls then and ask her ourselves.”
“I don’t know,” Carmine responded, swiping his hand down his jaw, “there could be trouble in paradise. Dom looks upset.”
“Only because you’re pissing me off.” More like getting on my last nerve.
Vito laughed and slapped me on the back. “Relax, man. If you really want to talk, we can listen.”
“Not me. I don’t listen. Ask any of the women I’ve been out with this week alone,” Carmine said as he leaned against the hood of a black sedan.
“You’re a tool,” I noted.
“Hey, that’s what they say, too. Usually when I don’t call them back, actually. But they know the rules. One and done. A man needs variety. They say it’s the spice of life.”
Vito shook his head and pushed Carmine off the car. “Get up. This isn’t about you, so let Dom talk if he wants.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I don’t,” I clarified. I really, really didn’t. There was nothing to talk about, especially where Maria was concerned.
“Does this have to do with the fact that you love her?” Vito guessed. “Are you planning on finally telling her?”
I rolled my eyes. “What makes you think I love her?” I did love her, but that wasn’t the point. How damn obvious was I? Or was I only obvious to my family because they knew me so well? And if I was that obvious, then why did it seem like Maria had no fucking clue—unless she was faking it, and she did know but wanted to pretend otherwise. I shook my head. There was no way she’d do that. Not to me.
Carmine harrumphed, cocking a brow. “We have eyes,” he said in answer to my question.
“Nice,” I replied under my breath.
“You want to know what I think?” Carmine asked, kicking rocks on the ground.
“I really don’t.”
“I think you’ve put yourself in a shit position, and you have two options. You can either use what the good Lord gave you and fess up that you love her, or you can get over your feelings for her.” And apparently what I wanted mattered not at all because Carmine still told me what he thought.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Fine, I’d bite. “Let’s say I love her.”
“You do,” Vito spat back.
I growled. “Let’s say,” I repeated. “How exactly do you propose I do that? You act like I can sneeze and blow the feelings I have for her right out my nose.”
Vito nodded. “He makes a good point. Love knows no bounds.”
Carmine’s face scrunched up, and he pointed at Vito. “First of all, you’re like a walking poet. It’s fucking weird.” Then he pointed to me. “As for you, Dommy boy, it’s real simple. Get under as many women as you need to so your brain can be wiped clean of Maria and whatever attracts you to her.”
Everything. Everything attracted me to her, and Carmine gave some of the shittiest advice in the world. “Good thing you don’t give advice on the daily. You suck at it.”
Vito pointed ahead. “Let’s walk. I like that blue SUV up ahead.”
Meanwhile, Carmine cracked a joke about how Vito was now interested in an SUV (and not just any SUV, but the biggest SUV they had). Yeah, he screwed up big time. “I’m better off than the both of you, so maybe you should be taking advice from me.”
“How in the hell do you figure?” I asked, suddenly very interested to see his reasoning on this one.
Carmine shrugged a shoulder. “Simple. Vito’s marriage is doomed, and you’ve been in love with Maria so long you can hardly think straight. The two of you are so screwed up it isn’t even funny.”
“My marriage is not doomed,” Vito argued. “Marriage takes work. Something you know nothing about.”
Carmine held up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you say, man.”
“Let’s just get back to picking out a car for Lisa Marie, okay?” I asked, silently wishing time would fly by.
Vito looked in the windows of the blue SUV, whistling in appreciation. He snapped his fingers and continued checking it out. “Now, this I like. What do you guys think?” he asked, shifting the conversation.
“Yeah, it’s great,” Carmine and I said in unison, for what was probably very different reasons. For me, I was distracted, thinking about Maria. And all the ways my life could be different if I would just pull the trigger and tell her how I feel. For one, maybe I could stop being jealous of men who came around and had the balls enough to ask her out. Like Paolo.
The downside? These were not thoughts I needed to have right before going to pick Maria up. I almost wished I wasn’t going to see her. But she was struggling with Jade because she was struggling with Regina, so it didn’t matter what I wanted. A promise was a promise, and I’d promised that I would pick her up and take her somewhere.
She needed to find peace with this whole ordeal with her mother and Jade, and I was certain I knew just how to help.