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I click my tongue. “Well, what do you want from Ethan? Because I’m pretty sure you’re not going to get it.”

“What exactly do you know about Ethan?” she asks, folding her arms.

I chuckle. “Probably more than you.” In reality, there’s so much about him I don’t know. But there are things I wantto know, like how he tastes in the morning…needing to stay focused, I try to brush that thought away.

Lena scoffs. “I didn’t even know you two knew each other.”

“There are some things that are just pretty damn obvious. Especially watching the two of you together.” I tilt my head to the side, keeping my eyes locked with hers.

“Whatever you’re referring to, it’s nothing I can’t handle,” she insists.

I laugh softly. “Sure, I guess that’s true. Plenty of couples keep skeletons in their closets, but…this isn’t just some little game.”

“Then what is it?” Lena leans in closer. “Because it sure seems like you’re fucking around with me.”

“Let me put it this way.” I lean closer to her as well. “You keep seeing Ethan, and more than just your feelings are going to get hurt.”

“Is that a threat?”

I shrug. I hear the swinging of a door, and I can’t risk it being the bathroom. “You’re smart, and you know who I am. Who my family is. You figure it out.”

I push up from the table and quickly make my way out of the diner, just in time to see Ethan walking back to the table from the corner of my vision.

“We agree then. Contessa’s wedding takes precedence over anything else,” my aunt Tania says from across the room.

My father stands near the fireplace with a glass of whiskey in his hand, as he often does. “Over anything else at the moment,” he corrects her. “If something vital to the family’s survival comes up, will we discuss postponing.”

“Absolutely not, Nicholas,” Tania says as she stands up. “It’s one day. The most important day of my daughter’s life! And may I remind you, this marriage is vital to our family.”

“The marriage is important, but the wedding is…of little meaning to me,” my father tells her with a sigh.

I roll my eyes from where I’m leaning against the doorframe of the large family room. “If it were up to you, they’d be getting hitched at the courthouse yesterday,” I say.

They both look at me with annoyed expressions. My cousin, Contessa, is seated next to her mother, her hands in her lap, as quiet as she usually is.

“This is serious, Dante,” Tania snaps at me, then looks back at my father.

My father, rarely known for his grand displays of emotion, waves his free hand and motions Contessa over.

Contessa looks to her mother before standing up and walking over to him.

“Tessa, darling. You know how special you are to me, my only niece.” He rubs her on the back. My face crinkles as I watch them. I know what he’s going to say next. “And likely the closest thing to a grandchild I’ll have for quite some time…” His eyes dart to me, then my brother, who’s standing a few feet away.

If my eyes could roll any farther back into my head they’d come out of my ears.

“I know, Uncle Nick,” Contessa says softly.

“You know I would never postpone your wedding for anything less than life or death, don’t you?” he asks her.

She nods.

“I can’t promise that won’t happen,” he explains, shaking his head a bit. “But I will do everything in my power to prevent it.”

Aunt Tania scoffs and turns so her back is facing them.

“I understand,” Contessa replies.

It’s obvious that neither of us wants to be here. It was our parents’ idea to have this little meeting.