but it was a losing battle. “No, you don’t. You live in Atlanta.”
“If you ever came to visit instead of hiding out in LA, you’d know Ramona still lives here.” Ramona was one of his sisters. “I was at the JV baseball game. My nephew plays third base. They lost. We had pizza and soda. And then I listened to my voice mails.” He paused and kissed the tip of her nose and then looked back at Luca over his shoulder. “Sorry. I know how bad I am at that.”
Luca cleared his throat. “I was just trying to convince Ava to grab a drink. It’d be good to not agitate her straight out the door and back to Los Angeles.”
Angelo’s gaze on her face was knowing. “That what the kids call it today? Grabbing a drink is the code for tug job?”
“Ha! There was no tugging. You lumbered in before we got that far,” Luca interjected, tossing himself back on the bed.
“Not yet . I was grabbing for his cock when you barged in.” She hid a smile as she looked back up at Angelo’s fallen-angel face.
He tucked her hair behind her left ear. “Still so pretty.” He said it just for her, turning her knees to jelly, like he always had.
Angelo’s attention turned back to Luca. “Town’ll be buzzing about Marlene Rand’s daughter boozing it up, and this right after her momma done up and got kilt by driving drunk.” Angelo turned up the Southern. “Probably not the kind of attention our Ava wants.”
“We went over that, too. My next sentence, if you ever let me get a fucking word in edgewise, was that I have tequila and that I’d make dinner here.”
Ava turned her attention back to Luca, moving toward him. Angelo caught her, pulling her against him, her back to his front.
“I’m sorry about your mom.” He slid his hands up her arms, and she tried not to swoon.
She sighed, tipping her head back to look up at him. “It’s okay. I wasn’t surprised when I got the call.”
“Why didn’t you call to tell me you were coming to Petal?” They’d spoken on and off over the years. She sent holiday cards. He sent lavish flowers at random, with little notes of invitation in them that she was never quite brave enough to accept. Still, they had something. A connection she’d never lost. He understood her in ways no one else really could.
What could she say to that? “I didn’t know if you’d care.”
His features darkened briefly. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know!” She threw her hands up, flustered. “It was ten years ago, and I was a bitch to leave the way I did.”
“You had to go to survive. I get it. You matter to me.” He said it like it was obvious, and she supposed it was.
“And to me.” Luca spoke from his place on the bed.
“Luca already got to show you how much.” Angelo kissed her neck. “You’re not wearing a bra.”
“Are those sentences even related to each other?” Luca unzipped his jeans, pulling his cock out.
Hello, gorgeous.
“Do they need to be? It’s a thing I noticed as I was staring down at her tits. Like you didn’t look.”
Luca fisted his cock, pumping it a few times, sending her train of thought right off the tracks. “No, no they don’t need to be. Just wanted to be sure I wasn’t missing something. Sometimes your logic escapes me.”
Ava laughed. “I’d forgotten what the two of you were like together. Like old married people.”
“Come on down here, Ava. Let’s remember what the three of us were like.” Luca waggled his brows, but her laugh caught in her throat as she caught sight of the shiny bead of pre-come on the head of his cock.
“Pretty bird, undress me first.” Angelo spun her, leaving her breathless. The raw need on his face didn’t help. “Since Luca got started before I’d even arrived. Rude.” He sent an arched brow toward Luca, who snorted his response.
Ava ran her hands all over Angelo as she pulled his shirt from his body. He’d first called her pretty bird back when she was in middle school. But after they’d …