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  “Er,” Gabriella said as she used the tongs to place salad on her plate, carefully picking out the beets as she did so.

  Grandma Sarantos passed the pork sovlaki next. “You don’t look Greek.”

  Gabriella decided that comment did not require an answer.

  “How many kids do you plan to have?”

  “Er…” She turned to look at Brandon, but he was simply looking at her curiously, as if he too wondered the answer to this question. She scowled at him and turned back to his grandmother. “I haven’t really thought about it.”

  “You haven’t thought about it?” She passed the tzatziki and Gabriella looked at Brandon, a silent question because she was not exactly sure what tzatziki was.

  “It’s like a dip or sauce. Tastes great when you dip the sovlaki into it,” he whispered.

  “That don’t mean you don’t plan to have any, does it?” Grandma Sarantos pulled her attention back.

  “Not necessarily” –

  “Good, because Brandon’s the first born. He’s gotta give us a son. It’s his responsibility. He hasn’t been very responsible, for which we should all be grateful. But now it’s time. When’s the wedding?”

  Gabriella had taken her first bite of sovlaki dipped in tzatziki, and she immediately started choking. Brandon banged on her back and Nicole jumped up to get a glass of water.

  “Marilynn, they just met a week ago,” Rosalie admonished.

  Nicole returned and shoved the glass into Gabriella’s hand, a smile playing at the corner of her lips.

  Gabriella’s eyes were streaming and she knew her face was beat red. She gulped the water and then took two large gulps of wine.

  When she noticed that Brandon too seemed to be struggling not to smile, she leaned over and whispered in his ear, “I hope you don’t want to sleep alone tonight,” and he stopped smiling.

  “So?” Grandma Sarantos ignored her daughter-in-law’s comment. “He brought her to dinner. The boy’s thirty-two years old and this is the first time we’ve ever met one of his young women. Might as well announce the engagement,” she said firmly, and then she passed the bread.

  After that, everyone wanted to discuss the dead body Gabriella found in her apartment.

  “Poor Mr. Partridge,” Rosalie said with a cluck of her tongue. “I can’t imagine what his family must be feeling.”

  “At least they have closure now,” Nicole added.

  “So where are you staying then?” Courtney asked.

  Gabriella glanced down the table at her. It was the first time other than the initial greetings that Courtney had spoken to her. She was dark haired, blue eyed and had an olive toned complexion like the rest of her family. On her brothers it was sexy, on her it was… Exotic and beautiful.

  Gabriella thought about Daniel Franks. He was forty if he was a day, and he wasn’t overly good looking. What had possessed this young, dark haired beauty to sleep with a man nearly twenty years her senior, when Gabriella was willing to bet that all the boys her age were tripping over themselves trying to get her attention?

  “At Brandon’s house,” Gabriella replied. Courtney cocked an eyebrow but didn’t say anything further.

  Brandon glared at Courtney and said, “A little different, Court. We’re thirty. Old enough to know what the hell we’re doing.”

  Gabriella once again felt like she was missing something significant. Courtney looked like she wanted to reply, but Rosalie pinched her arm, so she didn’t.

  Stephanie sat on Brandon’s other side. Gabriella distinctly heard her mutter, “They’ve been dating for a week and the family’s already planning the damn wedding. I’ve been with Patrick for six months and his mother barely speaks to me.”

  Gabriella glanced at her, but it appeared she was talking to herself. Neither Brandon nor Patrick acknowledged what she said, even though Gabriella was certain they both had heard her.

  Grandma Sarantos spoke again. “How soon do you plan to wait after you get married before you have kids? Neither one of you are spring chickens, you know.” She looked directly at Gabriella.

  Luckily, Gabriella didn’t have any food in her mouth this time. She looked at Brandon and refused to answer.

  “We’re having the lawyers draw up the contract as we speak, Grandma,” Brandon said lightly. The comment elicited several chuckles from around the table, but Grandma chose to take him literally.

  “What? It’s sex for chrissakes. You just do what comes natural, and don’t use any barriers. Not difficult. I did it six times.” This time, Brandon’s father was the one who fell into a choking fit.

  The conversation continued to ebb and flow. They talked at length about the football game that Brandon and Gabriella missed on Friday. Apparently the high school varsity team is undefeated so far, and they had high hopes of making the playoffs.

  They discussed the flower blight, and Brandon was annoyed because he was no closer to a solution than he had been last Tuesday. Gabriella realized she had not yet told him about her possible discovery, but she decided to wait and tell him in private.

  They talked about one another’s careers. Brandon’s father was a real estate guru and actually owned several of the properties in the historic downtown district as well as various other properties in and around the small town. He chatted about different vacant buildings he was selling or new tenants he’d found for this building or another.

  When Laney began throwing her food on the floor, Courtney unhooked the straps to the booster seat and the little girl scrambled to the floor and walked over to stand next to Gabriella’s chair. “You’re pretty,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Gabriella responded.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Gabriella.”

  The little girl tried unsuccessfully to pronounce her name.

  “You can call me Gabby. It’s much easier to pronounce.”

  “How come she gets to call you Gabby?” Brandon wanted to know.

  “Are you going to marry Uncle Brandon?” Laney asked.

  Gabriella heard a loud sniff from Stephanie’s general direction.

  “We’ll see, sweetheart,” she replied, and steadily refused to look at Brandon.

  Never in her life had she experienced a relationship that progressed at such an alarming speed. Even when Miguel set his sights on her, it took weeks of wooing before she would even go out with him, and then weeks more before it became serious enough to move past first base. With Brandon, they were talking about sex on the first date – which technically hadn’t even been a date – they were living together two hours after they met – even if they were sleeping in separate bedrooms – and four days later he gave her a public orgasm and she tumbled into bed with him. Now she sat at dinner with his family – the first girl he’s ever brought home – and they were all discussing marriage like it was perfectly normal and acceptable. To make matters worse, she wasn’t even clear if what they had could even be defined as a relationship.

  She had a not-so-insane urge to scream. Instead, she gulped more wine.

  As soon as dinner was over, Courtney took Laney upstairs to give her a bath. Courtney, Gabriella learned throughout the course of dinner conversation, was attending college at a university located about an hour and a half north of town. She had an apartment near campus, and she came home on the weekends, because Laney stayed with her grandparents during the week. As soon as she bathed Laney and put her to bed, Courtney would be heading back to school.

  When it was finally late enough that they could politely leave, Brandon and Gabriella did so. As soon as they were in the truck, Gabriella hit him with the questions. “Laney is Daniel Franks’ daughter?”

  Brandon grimaced as he backed the truck out of the driveway. “How did you figure that out? Most people have no idea; or at least they pretend not to.”

  “Well, for starters, she looks just like him. And you asked Daniel about her yesterday.”

  “You’re sharper than you look, Sweet Pea,” he said lightly,
and then his facial features hardened. “Yes, she is his child, although he’s never claimed her, and she has the Sarantos last name. He’s not even listed on the birth certificate, even though one of my cousins is a lawyer and she said Courtney should have listed him, in case she ever wanted to go after him for child support. Courtney has always had a thing for older men, and she’s always had a helluva rebellious streak.”

  “Yes, but he’s – he’s” – She did not even know how to put into words what she was thinking.

  “Twenty years older than her and not very good-looking?”

  “Well…yes.”

  Brandon sighed. “They hooked up, one time, the summer after she graduated from high school. I think he was having some sort of mid-life crisis at the time. He had been divorced for a couple of years by that point and his wife took him to the cleaners, so he was broke as a joke and still trying to get his life back on track.

  “Courtney was pissed off at my parents for God knows what reason. She was working at the Pizza Parlor at the time, and I guess they just started flirting one night. He picked her up when she got off work and took her back to his apartment. She said he got her drunk on rum and Coke. It was her first time.”

  His face darkened, and Gabriella knew he was reliving a memory he didn’t care to recall. “He dropped her off at the Pizza Parlor the next morning and never talked to her again. Eight weeks later she went to him and told him she was pregnant and he said it wasn’t his, even though she swears that night was the only time she’d ever had sex with anybody.”

  He pulled the truck into the driveway at his house and cut the engine. He turned to face Gabriella in the seat.

  “And to this day, he’s never claimed her? Has he seen her?”

  “Oh sure. It’s a small town. He’s seen her at the park, walking downtown, at the Pizza Parlor. And he just refuses to acknowledge her. I don’t think he and Courtney have even spoken since the day she told him she was pregnant. Now you see why I want you to stay away from him? He’s a self-centered asshole who won’t even stand up and take care of his own child.”

  Brandon reached across the seat and wrapped his arms around Gabriella’s waist. He tugged and she slid across the bench seat and right into his lap, right where she realized she wanted to be.

  “All that talk about marriage didn’t really put me in the mood,” she said lightly.

  It was a bald-faced lie. She was pretty sure she could find another dead body and still be in the mood to have sex with Brandon. He had awakened hormones that had been asleep for at least two years. She didn’t even realize that she was simply going through the motions with Miguel, until she experienced passion with Brandon.

  “Good,” Brandon said as he nibbled on her neck and slid a hand under her shirt. “Luckily, I don’t feel like talking about marriage right now.”

  Gabriella’s body hummed with need, but her mind was still on dinner. “What’s the deal with Stephanie? Your mom doesn’t like her?”

  Brandon’s hands moved to her breasts and began massaging them over her bra. “Stephanie’s not the one for Patrick,” he mumbled into her neck.

  “What does that mean?”

  His hands found the clasp on her bra and unsnapped it. She sucked in a breath when he moved her bra aside and began massaging her breasts again.

  “Patrick and I are complete opposites. As steadfast as I’ve refused to find Ms. Right, he’s been searching high and low for her. When he was in kindergarten, he asked one of his classmates to marry him. Her name was Natalie. They were best friends until high school, when they finally started dating. I’m pretty sure they had sex before she moved away, and I’m almost certain it was Patrick’s first time.”

  “When did she move?” Brandon’s hands were now sliding into her pants and cupping her backside. Gabriella’s mind was beginning to go fuzzy.

  “She went to California for college and never came back. Now, can we stop talking about my brother? It’s not really working for me.”

  Gabriella giggled and brushed her hand across his lap. “I beg to differ,” she teased.

  “It’s not talk about my brother that’s doing that to me.” He squeezed her backside and she arched against him.

  “Don’t we need to go inside?” Gabriella asked, as she wantonly rubbed herself against him.

  Brandon pulled a hand out of her pants and reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a condom. “I never make the same mistake twice.”

  They kissed intensely for a few more minutes and then Gabriella said, “We should still go inside. We’re sitting in the middle of your driveway.”

  “It’s dark outside.” Brandon lifted her shirt and began kissing her breasts. Gabriella pushed him away.

  “Come on, let’s at least go to the laundry room.” She was near to succumbing, and she did not particularly want to have sex in his truck in the middle of the driveway.

  “Who knew a laundry room could be so fucking erotic?” Brandon asked, as he opened the door and tugged Gabriella out of the truck.

  They hurried to the back door and Brandon fumbled with his key. He opened the door, Butter bound out, and they fell inside. Brandon walked across the room, turned and lifted her onto the washing machine and slid between her knees.

  He pulled her shirt over her head, and since her bra was already unhooked, it came off with it. Gabriella sucked in a breath as the cool air hit her and puckered her nipples. Brandon bent his head and spent so much time suckling her breasts, she was so near orgasm she was begging him to take her, now.

  Brandon quickly shed his clothes and her pants, put on the condom and in one swift thrust, was inside her. Gabriella’s hips immediately began bucking and Brandon grabbed them and began pumping as hard and fast as he could, keeping pace. With a strangled cry, Gabriella exploded with her orgasm and Brandon almost immediately shouted, “Oh God!” and exploded too. He leaned his forehead on hers and they stayed like that, waiting for their breathing and heart rates to slow.

  “Does it feel like the first time, every time, for you too?” Brandon asked after a while.

  “Not really. My first time was clumsy and a little painful,” Gabriella said with a chuckle.

  “I meant the feelings: anticipation, excitement, a little scary with the intensity.”

  “Oh,” Gabriella said, and she realized that was exactly how she felt. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

  “I can’t imagine ever tiring of doing this with you, Gabriella,” Brandon said, and then he gave her a smacking kiss and pulled out and walked down the hall to the small half-bath that was located just off the kitchen.

  Gabriella climbed off the washing machine and dressed. Butter began scratching at the back door, so Gabriella walked over and let her in. She refused to let her thoughts loiter on the comment Brandon had just made.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  On Monday morning, Brandon was late for work. When he kissed Gabriella goodbye, he whispered that he planned to set his alarm thirty minutes earlier from now on, just in case he got lucky every morning, now that Gabriella shared his bed.

  She climbed out of bed after he left, took one look at the dark, rainy day and decided she was glad the police had not yet completed their investigation of her apartment. She did not particularly want to work today, and now she had no reason to feel guilty for not doing so.

  She headed to the bathroom and took a long, steaming hot shower. Her whole body ached, but it was a nice, satisfied kind of ache. Her abdomen and knee were both still tender, but the pain was negligible and only really hurt when they were touched.

  After she showered and dressed, she sat in the kitchen and drank coffee and ate breakfast while she read the local newspaper, which Brandon had left, in his haste to get to work. Normally, he took it with him to work in the morning.

  The temperature had plummeted. The rain brought in a cold front. Since she had nothing better to do, Gabriella decided she might as well go shopping. She had enough money in her account that she could afford to
add the necessary winter items to her wardrobe.

  She paid cash for the candy store when she bought it, and now that she was apparently living with Brandon, she had minimal expenses. She tried to pay for part of the groceries yesterday, but he had refused her money. Her car was paid for, a gift from Miguel that she felt only mildly guilty for taking.

  Gabriella put on another sweater and her rain slicker and after patting Butter on the head, she rushed out the door to her car, which was still parked at the curb in front of Brandon’s house.

  She drove the short distance to his office and managed to find a space right out front. When she rushed in the door, he looked up and gave her a wide smile that told her he was really, truly thrilled to see her. That smile gave her butterflies in her stomach. He stood up and walked around his desk to greet her in the reception area.

  “Hey, Gabriella. What brings you out in this weather? Did the police call to say they’ve completed the investigation at the candy store?”

  “No, not yet.” She pulled off her rain slicker and said hello to his receptionist.

  “This is Amanda,” he said, indicating the young, dark-haired woman sitting at the desk in the reception area. “She’s my part time receptionist and full time cousin. Amanda, this is Gabriella.”

  Amanda stood up and shook Gabriella’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Gabriella. I’ve heard a lot about you.” She smiled.

  Gabriella wondered how long she had to live here before people stopped greeting her with, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Nice to meet you, as well,” Gabriella said automatically.

  Brandon took her rain slicker and hung it on a coat stand near the door. “Come on back to my office.”

  Gabriella followed him and he closed the door behind them. He pulled her into his arms and they lost themselves for a few minutes in the kiss. When they came up for air, Brandon said, “I’m prepared, if you want to do it on my desk.”

  “You brought condoms to work?” Gabriella asked incredulously.

  “Sweet Pea, I’m never going anywhere again without condoms. Saturday damn near killed me.”