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I nodded. “I just shut down the computer.”
He held out his arms. “So you’re all mine.”
“Yeah.” She wrapped her arms around him and breathed in the fresh smell of wind, rain, and fresh-cut wood that clung to him. “I even turned off the phone.”
Silent laughter vibrated his big frame. “Wow. That’s huge.”
“It is,” I agreed. “Shall we think about dinner?”
“In a bit. First, there’s something I wanted to try. I’ve been thinking about it ever since I met you. It’s been keeping me up at night.”
I kissed the triangle of skin at the vee of his shirt. “What’s that?”
Suddenly, my jeans were tugged down around my hips and knees. He’d sneakily unbuttoned them. My panties soon followed.
I stepped out of them, giggling, and he seized me, hoisting me up onto the edge of the table he was making. The surface was cool and smooth against my bare ass.
I gasped and wiggled as he gently pushed me onto my back, easing my thighs apart. “Hey! What exactly do you have in mind?”
He leaned to kiss my belly and kissed his way lower. “Let me show you.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Liam
“Another slice of lamb?” I offered. “There’s more potatoes, too.”
Nell and Vivi, Nancy’s two sisters, shot each other a discreetly delighted glance and held out their plates without hesitation.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Nell said. “Yum.”
“Oh, hell yeah,” Vivi said. “You’re a great cook, Liam.” She shot Nancy a teasing glance. “Lucky girl.”
Nancy held out her plate, too, for another serving of the meltingly tender leg of lamb I’d roasted according to Mom’s recipe, which called for a ton of sweet roasted red onions. That recipe was a sure thing, and the baby potatoes had turned out well, too—sauteed in olive oil, garlic, and a mix of fresh herbs from my garden. I’d done a big platter of roasted asparagus, lightly golden and crispy on the outside, meltingly tender inside. A big frilly salad and some freshly baked bread rounded it all out. The meal had earned me points, particularly since I’d gotten it all onto the table in record time, after that long, hard day dealing with the mess of Lucia’s house.
Nancy and I had gotten the word that the crime scene investigators were done, and the crime tape had been taken down. It was time to go and face it head-on, but I’d insisted that Nancy call her sisters to share in the physical and emotional burden of dealing with Lucia’s trashed house. Nancy was too quick to shield her sisters and take it all on herself, but that just wasn’t fair. Or efficient, for that matter.
I’d invited them to dinner, just to make sure they came up to keep Nancy company. It was time to meet them and pass whatever mysterious sisterly tests needed to be passed to gain their blessing and approval.
So far, it seemed to be working. I refilled everyone’s glasses with red wine.
Nell took a sip. “It’s wonderful, to have a fabulous meal after a day like today,” she commented. “I can’t believe how relaxed and mellow I feel.”
“Amen. I’m all topped up. We’ll be full until next week.” Vivi smeared butter on a piece of bread to accompany her final scraps of lamb. “How on earth did you pull this dinner off? You were working at the house with us all day long. Then we come back here, and hey presto—you pull a meal like this right out of thin air?”
I shrugged. “I just prepped it. It was all ready to go. The meat was marinating, the potatoes were already parboiled, the salad was ready. It was just a matter of putting the roast in the oven.”
The sisters exchanged looks. “Mmm,” Nell said archly, eyeing me. “All that and mental organization, too.”
Now I was just being fucked with, but with good humor, so whatever. I smiled and lifted my glass to the D’Onofio girls,, resting squarely on my laurels.
Nell and Vivi D’Onofrio had exceeded my expectations. They hadn’t skived off from the work. They’d shown up bright and early at Lucia’s house for the painful walk-through to assess damage. They worked as hard as he or Nancy had, cleaning, sorting, sweeping, and assessing what was irreparably damaged and what was worth salvaging.
These two women didn’t shirk hard work. They were both fiercely pursuing their passions and ambitions in unconventional ways, like Nancy did. They were bright, tough, engaged, interesting. I saw Lucia’s influence in them, the way I’d seen it in Nancy. They were a cut above the average. Several cuts, actually.
“I called Giselle, my art restoration friend, before dinner,” Vivi said. “She’s already getting her A team organized to restore the slashed canvases.”
“Good,” Liam said. “I don’t know much about art, but even I could tell that the stuff on Lucia’s walls was next-level. I hope your friend can restore them.”