Page 62 of Disarming Caine

She was right about that.

“And the only warning I’ll give you for tonight is that she’s going to be overly nice. The word, I think, is smothering.”

The doors swung open suddenly and Dominico appeared, his expression as joyous as always. He waved us inside. “Samantha, my love! Come in from the cold.”

As my feet crossed the threshold, he snatched my face in his hands, coming in for enthusiastic kisses at each of my cheeks. The foyer of Antonio’s parents’ house soared up three floors, decorated with bright marble, and painted a warm off-white. A chandelier dropped from the ceiling high above us, while a wide spiral staircase went up to the second- and third-floor landings.

“Dr. Ferraro, it’s good—”

“Dom! How many times do I have to say this?”

“Nothing for me, Papa?” said Antonio with a chuckle.

Dominico took my hand and placed it on the inside of his elbow. “I’m surprised you left the house when you had such a beautiful woman to distract you!”

Antonio’s mother, Valentina, glided into the foyer, wearing a stunning red sweater and flowing black pants, her black and white hair upswept. She was almost as tall as me, taller than Dominico by an inch. Her side of the family must have been where Antonio and Lorenzo’s height came from, let alone their cheekbones.

I smiled, overly conscious of the way my jaw clenched and hand shook on Dom’s arm. Good thing the present was so solid, otherwise I would have crushed it.

She liberated my hand from Dominico and wrapped her arms around me. “It’s so good to have you back.”

“Good to be here.”

“Has my boy been treating you well?”

I tried to withdraw from the embrace, but she held tight, longer than necessary. “Yes, very well.”

“Good.” With a final squeeze, she let go and shifted to Antonio. She cupped his cheeks in her hands, pulling him down to look her straight in the eyes. “And you. How are you doing? Not stressing that shoulder, are you?”

“No, Mamma,” he sighed.

“My poor baby.” She pouted, then kissed each of his cheeks, not letting go of his face.

“It’s only a couple of stitches.”

Her eyes widened and she jostled him. “You were shot!”

“My love…” Dom’s voice softened, and he placed a hand on one of her arms.

“We were over this yesterday, Mamma.” Antonio pulled his mother’s hands away from his face and straightened. “It was glass. And I’m fine.”

This seemed like a good time to flee out the front door.

“This sort of thing shouldn’t be happening here.” Her eyes narrowed and snapped to Dominico, her tone sharper than I would have expected from her. “Maybe around your brother, but not here. Not inourtown.”

That caught my attention. Dom’s Brother? Was this the same one Nathan was referring to?

Before Valentina could continue, Antonio put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Is Samantha’s gift ready?”

The cloud over her vanished in an instant, the same mischief sparkling in her dark eyes that Antonio frequently possessed. “It is.”

We stripped off our jackets and switched our winter boots for indoor shoes. Why would Valentina be getting my giftready? Antonio didn’t strike me as the sort to have his mother wrap presents for him, but it was always possible.

Antonio snatched my hand and pulled me toward the stairs. As soon as we were halfway to the second floor, the pleasantries below us halted. Valentina and Dom exchanged heated whispers. I only caught snippets, including ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ from Dom and ‘dangerous’ from Valentina, then ‘about time’ from her, and ‘what will she say’ from him.

Nerves churned in my stomach. When we were leaving the interior designer’s office, he’d said the gift was something special. And he wanted to exchange it here because his mother wanted to see my reaction. This was going to be significant.

But really, the gift I was going to give him was significant, too. Something so deeply personal, Cass was speechless when I first brought it up with her.