Page 57 of Last First Kiss
“Annie, honey. How are you?” Her mother smiled from the kitchen table, her hands full of dye.
“Aunt Annie!” Her two little nieces, Eric’s daughters, yelped at once when they turned their heads and saw her walking in.
“No!” Ruby, Eric’s wife, yelled. “Be careful, Annie. That icing won’t get off your clothes.” She stood between Annie and the kids, who were dripping blue icing down the linoleum floor.
“Are they baking cookies?” she heard Rocco ask from behind. Another look of complete fascination on his face.
God, had he never seen this before, either?
“Yeah, it’s tradition to make sugar cookies with icing when they’re here.”
“Oh my!” her mother gushed, as she wiped her hands, now stained blue, clean. “You must be Mr. Monroe. I’m a huge fan.”
“Please, call me Rocco,” he said, extending his hand. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
“Rocco Monroe is in our house,” her mother squealed.
“Ma,” Joey warned from behind. “Relax. He’s a client.”
“It’s nice to meet you too.”
The next few hours were chaos. The guys all sat around the television watching baseball while Ruby and Annie helped in the kitchen. Rocco seemed to be getting along with everyone, and every now and then she’d catch him watching her. Her brothers took about an hour to warm up to him. Eric and Leo kept drilling him about his relationship with Annie, and Will, always the more reasonable one, asked him all about the latest movie project.
“He’s smitten,” her mother whispered as they finished cleaning the dishes.
“You’re crazy.”
“You can’t fake the way he looks at you, honey.”
“Yep. I totally agree,” Ruby added. “Look at how he keeps tabs on where you are in the room. He pulled the chair out for you.”
“And did you notice when we ran out of cornbread, he gave her his. Even though he loved it. My cornbread’s the best.”
“That’s because he doesn’t think I eat enough solid food.”
“He’s right. But he’s also thoughtful. I like him.”
Annie leaned on the kitchen counter and looked out to the family room where the men were yelling and arguing with the television. As if he sensed her eyes on him, he turned his head and their eyes met and he gave her one of his genuine and sincere dimpled smiles that made her completely gooey. She had been so hesitant for so long to get too close to anyone, but the way she was feeling toward him, it wasn’t scary. It was new and exciting and she welcomed it.
He didn’t look away. His smile, his eyes, all of him was zoned in on her and her entire body tingled. She couldn’t wait to get home and be alone with him.
People called him charismatic. He said what was on his mind without filter or regret. It could be said that she was the same way. Quick to flip someone the finger or tell them off. But really, she wasn’t open. Not really. The things that ate away at her, no one knew about them. As far as everyone was concerned, she’d survived an attack, and that had left her rough around the edges. No one knew the sorrow she felt sometimes or the loneliness that often choked her. Made her unable to catch her breath. But that was her secret.
Rocco’s life was lived in a fishbowl, everyone watching, analyzing, and judging. A week ago, she’d have said he lived for it. He loved it, hammed it up for the camera. And since meeting her, he’d been an open book. Or so she thought. Now, she wasn’t so sure.
He volunteered privately, he lived a rather subdued lifestyle considering the amount of money he made. He had a beautiful house and an awesome car but it didn’t add up with his wealth. But the biggest red flag that maybe he wasn’t all he seemed to be, was the breakdown he’d had at her parent’s house. Something had happened. Something big and real. And she wasn’t sure how to approach it.
“Did you have fun? They’re a loud bunch,” she asked while he drove back to his house, one hand on the steering wheel and the other changing the radio station.
“It was great. But God, I’m stuffed.” He rubbed his stomach, then extended his arm to the back of her seat.
“Yeah, my mom overdoes it sometimes.”
“It was nice to see you eat.”
She laughed and elbowed him and he turned slightly with a sexy grin and winked at her. The damn dimple and the wink set the butterflies in her stomach on overdrive.
“You’ve seen me eat, you liar. Maybe not that much, but you’ve seen it.” She looked out the window. “I really liked going to the Boys and Girls Club this morning. The kids love you.”
