Chapter 36
36
J oey called that afternoon around four. “Hello,” I said, my insides warming at the sound of his voice.
“How’s my girl?”
“Good. Busy.”
“Oh?”
“Monday is laundry day,” I explained. “The girls are helping me get it all done.”
“Good. Make sure they know how to do it because pretty soon you won’t be there to show them.”
“You sound awfully confident about that, Mr. Lupo.”
“That’s because I know something you don’t, Mrs. Lupo.”
My belly turned completely inside out and the floor seemed to rumble beneath my feet. “I’m not Mrs. Lupo yet, you know,” I said with the widest grin imaginable. “You shouldn’t count your chickens and all that.”
He laughed. “These particular chickens, I’m gonna count.”
“Tell me what you know that I don’t.”
“Uh uh, that’s no fun at all. You’ll just have to wait.”
“Joey!” I stamped my foot on the hallway rug. “Tell me, please! ”
“And what will I get in exchange for this information?”
I blushed, peeking out the kitchen window to make sure the girls were still outside hanging things on the line. “I’ll do that thing,” I whispered into the phone.
“What thing?” He whispered too, although he was probably alone.
“You know...” I wobbled one leg. “The thing I did in the restaurant pantry.”
“Oh, that thing! In that case, I’ll tell you—I went down to the garage and spoke to your father.”
I stopped fidgeting. “What? You did?”
“Yes. I know you’re not the old-fashioned type, but I know my pop would’ve wanted me to ask your dad for his blessing.”
“And did he give it?”
Joey paused, and I closed my eyes, imagining the difficulties we’d face if my father put up impediments to the marriage. I wouldn’t care—I was going to marry Joey whether Daddy said it was OK or not.
“He gave it.”
“Oh, thank heavens,” I breathed. “One less thing to worry about.”
“He was surprised but not entirely shocked. And he grumbled about you leaving home a little, but in the end he shook my hand and wished me luck putting up with your sharp tongue and foul temper.”
“He did not say that!”
Joey laughed again. He’d probably never stop teasing me, but I could live with it—in fact, I’d learned I couldn’t live without it. “So should I come over now?” he asked.
“Now?”
“Yeah. You know. So you can do that thing.”
I clucked my tongue. “Good-bye, Joey Lupo. I’m going now and I don’t care if you ever call back.” He was still laughing when I hung up.
Within the hour, the doorbell rang. Joey, you fiend. I was upstairs putting some clean clothing away and raced down the stairs to answer it, smoothing my hair and my blouse. Just before reaching the door, I slowed down as if I’d walked leisurely and put my fingers on the handle. Relax. He doesn’t need to know you’re out of your mind with need for him.
I pulled it open and blinked in surprise—it wasn’t Joey. It was a delivery man from a Gianni’s Flowers, and he was carrying a long white box. Over his shoulder I spotted his truck, painted dark green with white letting on the side.
My heart tripped with excitement. My first flowers from Joey!
“Miss O’Mara?” the man asked. When I nodded, he held the box forth. “These are for you.”
“Thank you.” The box was thick and heavy, and I didn’t bother trying to hide my grin. “Have a good day.”
He tipped his cap at me. “You too, miss.”
He jogged back to his truck, and I shut the door, squealing inwardly. Rushing into the living room, I set the box on the coffee table. When I pulled off the lid, I gasped.
Joey had send me a dozen gorgeous red roses. My hands rose to my heart and then reached to finger the thick, velvety crimson petals, the emerald stems dotted with thorns, even the crinkly white paper. They were the most beautiful flowers I’d ever seen—so pretty they didn’t even look real!
Peering closer, I noticed an envelope nestled among the blooms. When I reached for it, I saw that something else was in there too. Lying at the bottom of the box was a smaller parcel wrapped in white paper. I gasped again—had Joey gotten me a wedding gift already? The box looked too big to be a ring, but with Joey, you never knew...he might be teasing me somehow. Maybe he’d placed the ring in a bigger box just to fool me. But wouldn’t he want to offer something like that to me himself?
Immediately I glanced out the front window. Was he lurking in the bushes, ready to pop out and surprise me?
Grinning like mad, I pulled the envelope from the box and tore it open. Inside was a plain white card, upon which words were written in spidery black script. As I read, the smile faded from my face, my lips going slack.
The flowers weren’t from Joey.
Dear Miss O’Mara, I’m delighted to find that you are excellent at keeping a secret. I hope you have had time to consider my offer, as I am anxiously awaiting your acceptance, and I hope the flowers will help persuade you to give it sooner rather than later. I am also returning something that belongs to you, as you mistakenly left it in my motorcar the other night. Wear it tonight when you visit me at the Statler, just the way you wore it in your bedroom. Telephone the number below to reach me so we can arrange a time...although I believe you still have the key.
Until then, E.D.
Enzo DiFiore. I didn’t even have to open the smaller box inside the flowers—I knew it contained the diamond choker. The one he’d bought for Gina as an engagement gift. The one Raymond had stolen from his brother’s room and sent to me as a misguided attempt at affection. The one I’d worn in my bedroom, naked everywhere else, when Enzo had snuck in and surprised me. My face burned.
You can’t think that way. What’s past is past, and the escapades with Enzo are part of your history. It was just a bit of fun, just a girl reacting to being responsible her whole life, and finally getting a taste of freedom.
A taste?
OK, more like a meal.
A really attractive five-course meal, served searing hot.
But I wasn’t the type to wallow about my mistakes, even if Enzo was the biggest one I’d ever made. No sense in it. What made sense was that I needed to tell him right away that I wouldn’t be accepting his offer, that what was between us was done, and he should focus on Gina or switch his attentions to some other girl he could control easier than me. But not tonight. Not when we were alone in that apartment with darkness pressing at the windows. I was in love in Joey and trusted myself not to give in to Enzo, but I didn’t trust that Enzo would be a gentleman. I’d barely managed to put him off last time we were there together, and he was not a man who liked being told no.
I needed to phone him right away. But I felt that I’d have more success in person than on the telephone convincing him not to be angry, and I had to return the key and choker. A daytime meeting would be best, or one in a crowded location. Would he agree to see me on my terms?
Chewing my lip, I went to the telephone and dialed the number. I wondered if it was the number to the apartment at the Statler and got my answer when the hotel switchboard operator came on the line.
“Mr. Enzo DiFiore, please,” I requested.
“One moment, thank you.”
While she made the connection, I wondered briefly what a switchboard operator made. If I didn’t return to school right away, I’d have to get some sort of job. I didn’t much relish the thought of sitting in a small room plugging wires all day long, but maybe as something temporary, it would do.
“Hello, darling.” Enzo’s deep, smooth voice sent a chill down my arms. This wouldn’t be easy.
“Hello. Thank you for the flowers.”
“You got them.”
“Yes, they’re beautiful.”
“They’d better be. And the necklace was inside?”
I glanced nervously at the box on the coffee table.
“Yes. It’s there.”
“Good. Otherwise I’d have to have a word with the florist.”
I laughed uneasily.
“Will you come tonight?”
“Actually, I can’t tonight. I have to...stay with my sisters.”
Enzo clucked his tongue. “You see, darling, this is why you need to accept my offer. No girl as tempting as you should be alone in her bed at night.”
“I—I can’t tonight. I’ll be with my family.”
He sighed. “Tomorrow, then?”
“All right. Tomorrow.”
“I’ll be at the club.”
“I’ll come there.” The club—perfect.
“Wear the necklace, Tiny. And plan on staying.” The connection went dead.
That night we ate together as a family for the first time since the day Bridget and the girls returned from vacation. She came over a bit early to give me a hand in the kitchen, while Molly and Mary Grace took the boys outside to play in the yard.
Actually, Bridget did most of the work in the kitchen. I sat at the table doodling my name and Joey’s on a piece of scrap paper when I was supposed to be writing down Bridget’s method for frying pork chops.
Tiny Lupo.
Frances Kathleen Lupo .
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Lupo.
Huh, what was his middle name?
“Are you writing this down?” she barked at me for the tenth time when she caught me staring into space.
“What? Oh, yes. Egg. Bread crumbs.” I scribbled it down. Bread crumbs... Of course, my mind wandered to the pantry and nothing Bridget said got through after that. Eventually, she gave up.
“You’re not listening to a word I say,” she complained over the hiss of frying meat.
“I’m sorry, I’m too distracted. And besides, I think Joey will be doing the cooking for us.”
“I hope so, otherwise you’re going to starve.” She shook her head. “Just set the table, will you?”
Happy to oblige, I set eight places around the table and even hummed a tune while I worked.
Bridget laughed. “My, my. Such a difference in you, Tiny O’Mara! Just look what love does!”
I stuck my tongue out at her, but even my tongue reminded me of Joey and I got lost in dreamy thoughts again. Would he come over tonight? I’d gone almost twenty-one years without seeing him every night, but now the prospect of a single night without him seemed unthinkable.
When Daddy came in I held my breath. But he said nothing unusual, just poured his customary evening whisky and poked his head out the back door to wave at the boys. Bridget and I exchanged a glance. I’d told her what Joey told me, and she was thrilled that Daddy wasn’t giving me trouble like he’d given her. But he wasn’t exactly jumping for joy either. I couldn’t help being a little disappointed—it wasn’t that Daddy was the type of father to be effusive with praise or affection. But when he felt strongly about something, he got worked up, and it seemed to me this was something he should feel strongly about, one way or another. I’d almost rather have an argument than silence.
Bridget called everybody inside and they took turns washing up at the sink. We sat down and Daddy started to say grace. With my eyes closed and head lowered, my mind began to drift again, but it snapped to attention when Daddy said, “And now, Lord, a word about my Frances Kathleen.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Bridget peeking at me from the corner of hers.
“She’s borne the load around here for a while since her dear mother departed, and today I gave my blessing for her marriage, even though it will be a struggle without her. Please be with her and Joseph in their marriage and help us get along without her here. And, Lord, let her know that I’m proud of her and if her mother were here, she’d want nothing more for Tiny than the good man she’s chosen. Amen.”
“Amen,” everyone echoed. Everyone but me—I couldn’t speak quite yet.
“Tiny,” breathed Molly, staring at me from across the table. “Are you and Joey getting married?”
I looked at Daddy but he was already reaching for a pork chop. Evidently that was all the fanfare my news was going to get, but it was enough for me. I’d take quiet approval and a reluctant admission of pride over his blustering any day. Flashing Molly a smile, I nodded.
“But—but...” she stammered. “It’s so soon.”
“Sometimes, Molly,” I said, reaching for the potatoes, “you don’t realize a thing is staring you in the face until you’re hit over the head with it.”
“Joey hit you?” Mary Grace asked, her eyes wide. “That doesn’t seem like him.”
The three older sisters at the table burst out laughing. “Not really, poppet. It’s just a way to say Joey had been there all along but I didn’t realize how we felt about each other until now.”
“Oh.” She gave me a smug face. “Well, I could have told you how you felt about each other. It was positively obvious to me all along.”
I grinned and reached for a pork chop. It was the nicest supper we’d had as a family in a long time. We talked a little about the wedding, although I didn’t have any details the girls cared about yet but for the dress I’d wear. Daddy said business was going well at his new location, and I tried to read his face, wondering if the gambling arrangement was working out, but he kept his eyes on his plate. When he was finished, he retired to the front room with his whisky to read the paper, and I left him alone. If he was satisfied with his life working for a man like Angel DiFiore, so be it. I wanted nothing to do with it. My only hope was that he’d bring home enough money to take care of the girls, and when they were ready, pay for their schooling. I might have to enlist Bridget’s help to convince him to do it, but I’d worry about that later.
Molly and I did the dishes after supper, and I was still drying when there was a knock on the front door. Mary Grace pulled it open, and a moment later I heard Joey’s voice.
“Hi.” I rushed into the front hall. He looked even more handsome than I remembered, if that were possible, even though he only wore work clothes and the old floppy cap.
“Hi.” He removed the cap and came forward to kiss my cheek. Mary Grace elbowed Molly and the two of them stood there beaming like idiots.
“Scram,” I told them. “Go finish the dishes.”
“Oh, just a minute,” Molly scoffed, stepping toward Joey and offering a hug. “We heard the news, Joey, and we’re really happy. Congratulations.”
Joey hugged her, giving me a surprised look over her shoulder. Mary Grace, not to be outdone, threw her arms around Joey and Molly’s waists.
“Well, thank you.” Joey laughed as he embraced both girls. “Just what I always wanted—more sisters.”
“OK, you said your congratulations, now away with you. Finish the dishes.” I pointed a finger toward the kitchen.
“Sure will be nice not to hear that anymore, won’t it?” Molly said to Mary Grace as they headed down the hall.
Rolling my eyes, I turned back to Joey. The way he looked at me—like he was barely able to keep his hands to himself—sent my heart pounding. Before supper I’d changed into a peasant blouse and an old blue skirt, but he looked at me as if I wore diamonds and silk. Or maybe nothing at all. Simultaneously, we glanced to our left, where my father sat reading the paper only ten feet away.
Then we grinned at each other. “Can you come for a ride?” he whispered.
“Maybe.” I raised my voice and called to Daddy. “Is it OK if I go for a ride with Joey?” Daddy nodded without lifting his eyes from the paper, and my excitement ratcheted up ten notches. “Thanks.”
I grabbed my purse off the hall table and followed Joey to his car. It wasn’t quite full dark yet, and the warm air was filled with all the sounds of a summer night. Soft breeze, noisy cicadas, tinny music from a phonograph drifting through an open window. Joey opened and closed the door for me before getting in on the driver’s side. The moment his door was shut he grabbed my face and pressed his lips to mine, his tongue sliding into my mouth in a way that told me exactly what he was thinking. Blood rushed to my center.
“God, I’ve been thinking about you all day,” he whispered, putting our foreheads together. “And I can’t go another hour without your body next to mine.”
I put my hands to the back of his head and pulled him to me, my pulse racing faster and faster as the kiss grew more frenzied. I lavished the attention on his lips and tongue I wanted to lavish on other parts of his body.
After a moment, he groaned. “We can’t do this here.”
“Let’s go to your house,” I said breathlessly.
He grimaced. “Can’t go there either. My Ma and Marie are there packing up come things she forgot in the attic. She keeps coming back,” he whined.
I thought fast. Where could we be alone? “The boathouse. You still have a key?”
Without a word, he started the motor and tore down the street. My head was thrown back against the seat and the wind rushed to meet me, and I laughed, the air around me crackling with energy.
On the short drive to the boathouse, I didn’t bother to keep my hands off him. Unbuttoning his pants, I freed his hot, hard erection and tantalized him with my fingers and palms, the backs of my hands and the inside of my wrists.
“Jesus, Tiny. I can barely drive.” Joey gripped the steering wheel hard.
With a wicked grin, I lowered my head and licked him like a lollipop.
“Oh, fuck, now I really can’t drive. Oh my God. Oh Christ. Where the fuck is that boathouse, I can’t even remember the way right now.”
I laughed with him inside my mouth, the hum from my lips making him even harder. Tasting the salty sweetness of his imminent release, I took him deeper, relishing the feel of him at the back of my throat.
He must have remembered where the driveway was, because my head thumped the steering wheel as the Ford traversed the pocked dirt road that led down to the dock. Giggling again, I sat up. “Ouch. Guess I better stop for a minute.”
He parked under the willow tree and grabbed my hand, hauling me out of the driver’s side and racing for the boathouse without even shutting the car door. At the boathouse entrance, he fumbled with the key.
“Hurry,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his torso and kissing his back.
Finally the lock gave. The moment we were inside we tore frantically at each other’s clothing, our lips and tongues and teeth colliding hungrily. The short amount of time that had elapsed since we’d last had our hands and mouths on each other was completely out of proportion with the appetites we’d built up. With impatient fingers I pushed the braces from Joey’s shoulders and shoved the buttons of his shirt through their holes. He managed to get my skirt off before shrugging off his shirt and pulling his undershirt over his head. Giving up on the tiny buttons on my blouse, he bent and yanked my underwear to my ankles. I kicked it off and jumped up, twining my stocking-clad legs around his waist.
When he licked his fingers and reached low, I opened my mouth to tell him he needn’t bother, I was already wet, but then his fingers were rubbing me, inside and out, and all I could do was sigh with pleasure.
Satisfied he wouldn’t hurt me, he moved toward the door. I cried out as he shoved his cock inside me, slamming my body against the wood. My eyes rolled back in my head and I dug my nails into his skin. But he didn’t stop. Again and again, he drove me into the wall with powerful, deep thrusts, shocking me with his violent need to fill me so completely.
When I regained the capacity to respond, I covered his face with feverish kisses. Between gasps, I breathed his name, pulled his hair, licked and sucked his neck, his mouth, his tongue. And when he put his hands on my ass and altered his angle just enough so that I rode him tighter to his body, the rock hard base of his cock rubbed me just the right way. I clutched him hard with arms and legs. “Right there,” I whispered against his lips. “Fuck me right there. Yes, yes, yes.” Something deep inside me was tightening and coiling in a way I’d never experienced. It wasn’t only just the delicious friction between our bodies; it was some hidden place in my body he was able to reach this way, and I had no words, no thoughts, no voice for what he was doing to me.
Higher and higher I climbed as he moved with utter abandon, until my muscles clenched and pulsed around him. Starbursts of color exploded in front of my eyes and I moaned his name over and over through the shimmering waves of bliss.
“Fuck, I can feel you,” he whispered. “Oh my God, I’m gonna come so hard.”
“Do it,” I panted. “Now, Joey. I want to feel it, now.”
Slamming me back into the door again, he groaned long and hard as he poured into me. I felt his shuddering release as deeply as I’d felt my own and exploded once more, the delicious rippling at my center lingering even longer than before.
Joey dropped his forehead to my shoulder. I hadn’t even realized my eyes were closed until I opened them and the colors disappeared. One by one, my senses returned. Beyond Joey’s dark hair, I saw the glow of the moon through the high windows. I felt the damp heat of his shoulders under my hands. I heard our heavy breathing as our lungs recovered and smelled the musty wood of the boathouse walls. Lowering my lips to his neck, I slipped my tongue through them and tasted the salty warmth of his skin.
“You keep doing that, I’m gonna have to pound you into the wall again.” Joey’s voice was muffled in my shoulder.
“Promise?”
He turned his face into my neck and inhaled deeply. “Mmmmm. Yes.”
“Good, because I liked it.”
Joey chuckled before picking up his head. “I used to wonder what you’d be like. I had a feeling you’d be a firecracker.”
“And? Am I a firecracker?”
“Doll, TNT’s got nothing on you.”
I laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.”
“I used to wonder what you’d be like too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. And I used to touch myself all over, imagining my hands were yours,” I whispered.
I thought his eyes would pop from their sockets.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Maybe you’ll show me sometime.”
“I’ll show you right now.”
Joey staggered backward as if he’d been shot. “Oh my God, Tiny. You’re killing me.” Keeping me hoisted around his waist, he dropped to his knees on the cement floor, and then onto his bottom. My knees came to rest beside his hips and he leaned back on his elbows. “Show me,” he said.
I bit my lip. Was he serious? Down on the floor, the shadows were thick, and I could barely make out his expression.
But then I felt him stir inside me. “Show me,” he said again.
Oh, what the hell.
Slowly I unbuttoned my blouse while he watched. When it was undone completely, I did the same with the tiny row of buttons down the front of my chemise. With each new inch of my skin exposed, he grew harder. I let the blouse slip from my shoulders, but kept the chemise on, open at the chest. My thighs were pale above the tops of my black stockings. When I looked down, I saw the place where our bodies were joined, and a rush of arousal swept over me. My skin tingled. Involuntarily, I clenched around him.
He grew harder.
I brought my hands to my breasts, kneading them as I began to rock my hips a little. “First I’d do this,” I whispered, keeping my eyes on his. “And I’d pretend it was your hands on me.”
Joey’s mouth fell open and he made no effort to close it.
My breasts were small but responsive, and as I played with my nipples they tightened and peaked. I brushed my fingers over the taut pink skin, pinching and pulling them. His cock continued to swell, and I closed my eyes as I circled my hips.
“Oh my God,” Joey moaned.
“And then,” I said, sliding one hand down my body, “I’d do this.” When my fingers reached the warm, slick spot just above where our bodies were connected, I rubbed myself slowly.
By now Joey was fully hard and I could feel him moving his hips, trying to push up inside me. “Christ, you are so beautiful,” he said. “I’m dying to touch you but I don’t want you to stop.”
I laughed, luxuriating in not only the compliment, but the intimacy of the moment and the erotic pleasure of the act. “Remember the night you slept on the couch at my house?” I asked. “I could barely sleep that night, knowing you were downstairs.” Taking my other hand from my chest, I leaned back slightly, placing it on his leg behind me. The new angle increased the pressure to that place inside me that made me gasp and arch.
Joey groaned as if in agony. “Me either. God, I wanted you so badly that night.”
“And then the next morning, you stayed to cook breakfast and I went upstairs to take a bath.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes, and this is what I did while I thought about you. Your hands on me, your mouth on me, your cock inside me.”
“Oh my God.” Joey sat up fast and took a nipple between his teeth. Crying out at his bite and the uncontrollable urge raging through my body, I held on to his thick, muscular shoulders and rocked against him. Nothing had ever felt so good in my entire life, and as the frenzy inside me hit the tipping point, I flung myself forward, knocking Joey onto his back and pinning my hands on his chest. Bucking wildly on top of him, I thrilled at the sound of his rasps and strangled grunts and the sight of his gorgeous jaw dropping open as another climax hit him. He gripped my hips hard as we came together, our bodies pulsing in perfect synchronization.
When I could move again, I brushed the hair from his forehead. “You know, that was actually even better than it was in my fantasy.”
“Mine too,” he whispered, eyes closed.
“Now you’ll have to show me how you touched yourself when you thought about me. It’s only fair.”
He opened one eye and looked at me. “You’re killing me.”
“Not right now, silly. Maybe next time.”
“Deal.” He shut his eyes again and sighed. “God, I love you. And I don’t want to go, but I promised to meet Angelo at ten. I should get you home.”
I couldn’t bring myself to release him yet. “How much will you owe him?”
He grimaced. “Probably about ten grand. I’ll have to run booze from Chicago to keep Sam’s nose out of it. Or maybe New York. But don’t worry about it.”
“Ha.”
He squeezed my hips once more. “Come on, let’s go. Better pull yourself together, though. I don’t need your dad after me at this point.”
Reluctantly I got to my feet, my knees aching a bit from the cement. “At this point, what would it matter?” I checked for holes in my stockings. “We’re getting married, aren’t we?”
Still on his back, he lifted his hips and pulled his pants up, a masculine maneuver that somehow made my belly tighten even after I’d already come three times in the last half hour. “Yeah, the sooner the better. Because I want to do this all the time now.”
Smiling, I buttoned my blouse and pulled on my skirt. “Me too. Any idea where my underwear went?”
Joey squinted into the shadows. “I think I see something white over there.” He walked over and picked them up. “These belong to you?” he asked, swinging them around on one finger.
When I grabbed for them, he held them out of my reach. “Now, hold on just a second. I once made some pretty good dough charging the boys to peek at your knickers. I might be able to afford a ring if you let me keep these.”
“Joey Lupo! You give me back my underwear this instant!” I jumped for them.
“Last time you threatened to tell my mother.” He held them way over my head.
“Don’t think I won’t, mister. Or better yet, I’ll punish you myself.”
He stopped moving and considered that before handing them to me.
“That’s what I thought.”
On the way back to my house, I asked Joey if he’d told his family about us planning to marry.
“Not yet. I thought we could do it together.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “Maybe dinner one night this week over at my apartment?”
His apartment? “So you’re going to keep it?”
“For now.” He glanced at me. “We can live there after we’re married. But I’d like a house eventually. Once I save up the money.”
“I’d love that. All of it.”
“Good.” He kissed my hand. “When do you want to get married?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Me too. Let’s go see the priest tomorrow, OK?”
“OK.” God, there was so much to do—I hadn’t even told Evelyn yet! “Where will we do it?”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get married where my sisters did, at Holy Family.”
“That sounds nice.” Bridget had been married there too.
“And then maybe luncheon at the restaurant? We could close it for the day. Would you like that?”
“That’s perfect!” Inside my chest, my heart thumped a happy rhythm. “Hey, you know what? Drop me off at Evelyn’s—I want to tell her the good news if she’s home.”
“Sure.” He turned onto her street and chuckled a bit. “Hope Rosie doesn’t throw something at you. She was coming on pretty strong.”
“Yeah, I saw that. Looked like it was really tough on you.”
He grinned. “I liked that it made you jealous.”
“Of course you did. Well, not to worry, I’m sure she’s on to the next sap by now.”
“Swell. She can bring him to our wedding.”
“As long as she keeps her hands off the groom, it’s fine by me.”
“Could be tough. Especially if I wear my nice suit.”
I sighed in disgust as he pulled up in front of Evelyn’s house. “You know, just when I think you’re a nice guy...” I opened the door and started to get out, but he grabbed my arm.
“You know how much I love you, right? How happy we’re gonna be?”
“Beat it, Joey Lupo. You’re a troublemaker, that’s what you are.” I leaned closer and lowered my voice. “And if you didn’t have such perfect lips and hands, or such a nice big”—I glanced down at his crotch —“apartment, I wouldn’t even talk to you.”
He laughed out loud, and I pulled my arm away. “No kiss goodnight?” he asked.
“You’ve had enough kissing. Now go.” I slammed the door.
Grinning, he threw me a kiss and took off down the street.