Page 28 of Come Away With Me (The Andrades 1)
I don’t want this.
Any of this.
Not her.
Not a weekend with relatives.
None of this.
Life is better when it’s uncomplicated.
In control.
The exact opposite of how it had been for him since he’d met Julia.
He turned his head and looked down at her sleeping profile. His breath caught in his throat. I shouldn’t have brought her. I need a clear head to navigate the weekend.
His three brothers returned to their seats across from him. Luke handed him a cup of steaming black coffee. He accepted it with a nod.
With Julia asleep at his side, he sipped his coffee and studied his brothers. Neither Nick nor Max would meet his eyes. Luke gave him a sympathetic smile.
What did Julia say about family? It’s messy?
What are they waiting for me to say?
Whatever I say will be wrong.
It always is.
He glanced down at Julia again. What would she do if our situations were reversed? She’d blurt out an apology. She wouldn’t dress it up with excuses or worry about the possible backlash. She’d dive right in.
Gio looked across at Nick and said, “I went too far earlier. What you do is your business.”
Nick propped an ankle on top of his knee, leaned back, and asked nonchalantly, “Are you actually apologizing?”
Gio straightened, inadvertently waking Julia. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and looked back and forth between them as if trying to remember where she was. She smiled up at Gio and—he couldn’t help it—he smiled back.
Luke raised a hand to catch the attention of the flight attendant. “Julia, would you like a coffee?”
She shook her head. “Maybe a snack, though?”
Luke called the attendant over. Julia and all four brothers put in a request for a light fare of sandwiches and finger foods.
In the quiet after the attendant’s departure, Julia asked, “How much longer until we arrive?”
Gio checked his watch. “Two hours at the most.”
“Do you want to watch a movie?” Julia asked.
There was a unanimous shake of heads.
“Play a game?” she asked cheerfully.
Although Gio shook his head, Max leaned forward in his seat. “What kind of game?”
Luke pointed a thumb at his younger brother with a knowing smile. “Max is a professional gambler, so don’t make it poker. We gave up trying to beat him back when all we had to lose was our allowance.”
Julia’s eyes rounded. “A professional gambler? What an interesting job.”
Max shrugged. “It is. Everything in life is a gamble. For a while I lived solely off my poker winnings. However, now I build casinos around the world. So, Gio can finally admit to knowing me again.”
Gio tensed at Max’s comment. “Your profession never bothered me.”
“Really?” Max asked, unconvinced.
Nick said in mock sympathy, “Don’t feel bad, Max. He’s ashamed of all of us.”
Luke interjected, “Nick, can we make it to the island without another scene?”
Normally, Gio would have ended the conversation before it went further. He regularly told himself he didn’t care what others thought, but this time he didn’t lie to himself. “I’m proud of all of my brothers,” Gio said, more harshly than he’d intended.
“Even me?” Nick pushed.
Gio answered without hesitation. “I may not agree with the choices you’ve made lately, Nick, but I understand why you make them.”
Nothing in his life matched the rush of emotion he felt in response to Julia’s light squeeze of his arm in approval.
Nick opened his mouth to say something, then closed it with a snap. Max looked like he wanted to say something more but decided against it.
Luke clapped his hands and said, “So, how about that game, Julia?”
She turned shyly to Gio. “It was a silly idea. We don’t have to.”
Although he usually viewed games as a waste of time, time was exactly what they had to fill, and he’d take anything that would distract from more excruciatingly awkward conversations. “We could use a game about now. What did you have in mind?”
Julia reached down into her bag and took out a small pile of index cards. “Rena thought I should know who I’m going to meet on the island. She made these index cards for me. One side has a name written on it. The other side has clues on how to recognize that person. We could see who is best at guessing the person from the description.”
Cocking his head to the side, Luke asked, “Rena did that for you? Interesting.”
Julia held the stack of cards to her chest for a moment. “She thinks I might be able to make a connection at the wedding.”
Nick looked at Max and shrugged. “Okay, I’ll bite. A connection for what?”
Julia instinctively brought a hand to her necklace, and she flashed a brave smile at Gio’s three brothers. “I moved to New York to try to sell my jewelry designs. So far, nothing, but I’m not giving up. I’m hoping to find an investor.”
Nick nodded toward Gio. “I’d say you’ve already met one.”
Julia winked at Gio and said, “No, I’m just with him for the sex.”
Max choked on the sip of coffee he’d just taken. Nick’s mouth fell open, and Luke shook his head.
Gio’s eyes flew to Julia’s in surprise.
Julia burst into laughter. “You should see your faces. No wonder you fight so much. You’re all way too serious.” She composed herself, folded her hands in mock contriteness, and said with just a trace of humor, “Even my dad would have laughed at that joke.”
Gio looked down at Julia, half coughed, then chuckled.
Julia’s eyes were brimming with laughter, threatening to erupt again. She waved her hands in a plea for him to stop. “Don’t laugh, Gio, because I shouldn’t when I’m still trying to make a good impression.”
“You have,” Max said and joined in their laughter. “I didn’t think anything could shock Nick, but I believe he’s speechless.”
Nick said, “I’m just trying to figure out how Gio ended up with a woman who is actually fun.”
Julia smiled. “I may have scrambled his brains the first time I met him. I hit him with that lamp pretty hard.”
Luke said, “I believe it was physicist Joseph Henry who said, Great discoveries only take root in minds well prepared to receive them. He needed some scrambling.”
“Funny, Luke,” Gio said gruffly, raising a hand to his temple as he remembered that blow. “It could have killed me.”
Conversation was halted while the attendant set trays of food on a table between them. Once by themselves again, Max said, “I want to know why you hit him with a lamp.”
Julia blushed. “I thought he was breaking into Rena’s desk . . .” As she retold the story, Gio noticed his brothers were genuinely interested, and relaxing for the first time since they’d entered the plane. Julia had a gift when it came to breaking down barriers. As they joked together, Gio was reminded of how he and his brothers had interacted when they were younger. Julia had given him a glimpse of the past, and he wasn’t sure what to do with the way it made him feel.
The next two hours flew by. Conversation flowed easily, and Julia kept the mood light by periodically reading a new index card to the group. They took turns using the small bedroom in the back of the plane as a dressing room, slowly transforming from casual to party-ready.
When Julia returned to the main part of the plane dressed in a floor-length navy gown, Gio couldn’t take his eyes off her. She’d styled her hair in a loose bun that made a man want to reach out and release those barely contained curls. The dress fit her snuggly and emphasized her curves so deliciously that had they been alone she wouldn’t have kept it on for long.
She caught him looking at her, and the smile she gave him knocked what was left of his sanity out of him. In that instant, he didn’t care about anything but having h
er again. By the way a blush spread up her cheeks, he knew she’d guessed his thoughts.
The pilot’s voice interrupted and requested everyone fasten their seat belts for the final approach to Isola Santos.
Gio tensed instinctively as he was slammed back into reality. He looked out the side window and caught his first glimpse of the island. The enormous glass-and-chrome building Dominic Corisi had built still dominated a good fourth of the island. The sight of it made him angrier than he’d expected it to.
