Protecting What's Mine(28)

“You are just the cutest little baby in the whole wide world,” Mrs. Moretta shouted.

“Ma! Avery’s not deaf. You’re piercing her eardrums,” Aldo said, sweeping the baby out of his mother’s grip.

“I’m not piercing her eardrums! She loves when I talk to her!”

“Ma, this is Mackenzie O’Neil. I believe you screamed at her on the phone once.”

Mrs. Moretta gave Mack a formidable stare. “You the one who saved this dumbass’s life?”

“Uh. One of them,” Mack said.

The woman wrapped her in what apparently was the Moretta family back-breaking hug. “You’re okay by me, doc.”

“Ma, please stop strangling her,” Aldo said, trying to wedge his way between them.

Reluctantly, Mrs. Moretta released Mack from her death grip. “You’re a good girl, honey,” the woman said at an almost conversational level.

“Now that you can breathe, this is our daughter Avery,” Aldo said, holding up the round-cheeked baby. She had Aldo’s complexion, Gloria’s eyes, and, so far, she hadn’t demonstrated Mrs. Moretta’s vocal cords. But Mack wasn’t ruling out the possibility.

The baby gave her a toothless, drooly grin, and Mack felt a funny, mushy sensation in her chest.

“Want to hold her?” Aldo offered.

Mack’s hands rose at the same time she shook her head. “Oh, no. That’s okay. I don’t really know how—”

“Let a pro show you,” Linc said, muscling his way into the conversation. “Hey, pretty girl!”

The baby’s eyes widened, and after a moment of contemplation, she giggled and held out her chubby arms to him.

Aldo expertly transferred Avery into Linc’s arms. The baby looked up at him in awe. She reached up to touch his jaw with a drool-covered fist. Linc pretended to eat her hand, and Mack felt lightheaded.

It was as if she’d hit the very last snooze on her biological clock. But she wasn’t a husband and babies type of woman. She wasn’t sure exactly what type of woman she was, but it was a thousand percent not a mommy.

She took a long pull on her beer.

Harper danced into their circle and gave Avery a smooch on her round cheek. “I’m so glad you all could come over tonight. We’ve been so busy with back to school that I almost forgot what socializing was like.”

“Well, you’ll get to socialize with someone very special,” Mrs. Moretta shouted mysteriously.

Harper’s face lit up. “Tell me everything, Mrs. Moretta.”

“Well, his name is Ricky, and we met on an app. He’s fifty-four, and his profile says he’s an entrepreneur.”

“That’s code for unemployed, Ma. And you can’t just invite a boyfriend no one’s met to a family get-together,” Aldo complained.

“Why the hell not? James did!” Mrs. Moretta pointed accusingly in the direction of the man walking through the gate in the fence.

He looked like Luke, and the way Sophie hug-tackled him told Mack he was definitely family.

Behind him, another man stood tentatively in the open gate, holding a covered dish.

“They came!” Harper clasped her hands together. “I’m so excited!”

“I’m gonna get a closer look.” Mrs. Moretta barreled across the yard with Harper on her heels.

Claire and Charlie rose from their pile of grandkids and started toward the newcomers, too.

“Small town gossip update. That’s James, Luke and Sophie’s brother. After years of serially dating women, he realized he was very, very gay,” Aldo said.

Linc pointed the baby in the direction of the couple. “Do you see that nice, handsome guy with Uncle James, Aves? That’s Manny, and it’s the first time Uncle James has brought a boy home to meet the family, so be nice and try not to barf on him.”

Mack watched as Harper gave James and then Manny welcoming hugs. Claire and Sophie each took one of Manny’s arms and led him in the direction of the beer cooler while James and his dad, Charlie, hugged it out.

“Moretta, dogs are done,” Luke called from the grill.

“Duty calls.”

“He forgot his baby,” Mack said.

“Time for your crash course in baby holding,” Linc announced. “Now, Avery here is three months old. So she prefers to be up so she can see what’s going on,” he said, demonstrating.

“It’s fine. Really. I don’t need to hold her.”

But he was depositing the wiggly bundle in her arms, and she was holding on tight.

“If I drop her, I’m blaming you,” she hissed.

Avery apparently thought that was hilarious. Her giggle was belly deep and ridiculously charming.

“Oh, you’re very cute,” Mack told her. Avery beamed up at her and made a humming noise.

“See? You’re a natural,” Linc said, leaning in to make faces over Mack’s shoulder.

She could smell his shower gel, his deodorant. She could feel the heat that pumped off his body. It felt…close. Intimate. And entirely inappropriate for all her new goals.

She turned and took a step back to put a little distance between them. “How’s the shoulder?” she asked abruptly.

He circled his arm slowly. “Still a little tender. How are you at massage?” he asked wolfishly.