When It Falls Apart (The D'Angelos, #1)(55)

“Luca, I didn’t say that to beg a date out of you.”

“You’re not begging anything out of me. I have a woman on my arm I want to show off. And she needs the rumors to end. Tonight, we’ll go out. Be ready by seven.”

“And who will take care of things here? What about Franny?”

Luca gathered the bags she had come in with and walked her to his door. “You let me take care of that. You be ready.”



Luca made the promise, now he needed to scramble.

Once Brooke’s apartment door closed, he went downstairs to his mother’s.

He found Chloe and his mother in their kitchen putting away the market finds. He greeted them in Italian, complimented them both before he started to ask for favors.

Only he didn’t have to.

“I want to borrow my niece tonight,” Chloe said. “That new animated film is out, and I need an excuse to see it. We haven’t had a sleepover for a while, either.”

Luca narrowed his eyes.

“And you’re working too much,” his mother added. “When was the last time you took a Saturday night off?”

“Have you been talking to Brooke?”

His mother glanced over her shoulder as she put flowers into a vase. “Why would you ask that?”

Luca walked first to his mother, kissed her cheek. “I love you.” Then to his sister . . . the same thing. “I need to run a quick errand. Keep an eye out for Franny?” he asked.

“You never need to ask,” his mother told him.

He had his cell phone to his ear as he walked out the back door and up the street in search of Hyun. “Thomas, it’s Luca . . . I need a last-minute reservation.”



Brooke opened the door, promptly at seven, to a threshold filled with flowers. Behind them stood Luca, a smile as broad as the sky. One look at her and that smile turned sultry, and the flowers dipped low. “Bella!”

“Are those for me?”

A combination of peonies and roses screamed that Luca had taken Hyun up on his offer.

“Beautiful flowers that don’t come close to how stunning you are.”

Brooke had spent the afternoon pampering herself. A blowout and a mani-pedi put her in the right frame of mind for a date. She wore a cap sleeve dress in dark blue and had a sweater to go over it as the night progressed.

From the look in Luca’s eyes, it worked.

He wore a button-up shirt, slacks, nice shoes. He’d groomed some of the roughness off his face and left enough to keep the sexy edge she’d grown to like. “You clean up well yourself.”

She reached out for the flowers. “Should I put those in water before we go?”

“Right.” He handed them to her and followed her inside.

“You really didn’t have to take Hyun up on his flower offer.”

“Would you have been disappointed if I didn’t?”

Brooke’s immediate reaction was to shake her head, but “Yes” came out of her mouth.

“Your honesty is refreshing.”

She did not have an empty vase but did find a glass pitcher that made a good substitute.

Once she was satisfied the flowers wouldn’t die while they were out, she dried her hands on a kitchen towel and turned to Luca. “Ready?”

He reached for her hand.

They walked down the stairs side by side. Instead of heading out the back, where the cars were parked, Luca directed her through the door to the restaurant.

It was packed. Typical for a Saturday night. “Do you need to check on something?”

He shook his head but moved toward the bar. “No, mia cara, this is to help those tongues stop wagging.”

“How exactly—”

“Luca?”

Giovanni stood a few yards away and waved him over.

Luca raised a hand, turned to her, and leaned close to her ear. “Give me a moment?”

She smiled, noticed a server, a hostess, and the bartender watching them. “Okay.”

Luca winked as he walked away.

The eyes that were on her darted in other directions when she glanced up.

“Can I get you something, Brooke?” Sergio asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. We’re headed out.”

“Oh.”

Luca was already walking back her way. He stopped in front of her, smiling. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

He leaned down, kissed her briefly for all to see. “That should do it,” he whispered.

“You’re crazy.”

Luca reached for her hand and walked her out of the restaurant.





CHAPTER NINETEEN


Coasterra was an upscale Mexican-style restaurant on Harbor Island that overlooked the San Diego Bay and had magnificent views of the city.

Luca had managed a table on the water’s edge without anyone sitting in front of them.

The food was reminiscent of the time Brooke had gone on a girls’ trip to Tulum. Fresh fish and a variety of vegetables cooked with Mexican spices. They had jalape?o margaritas and were finishing their meal off with a shared sorbet and coffee.

“Did you always want to be a chef?”

“I was destined to be a chef. I learned to cook before most learned to read. My father would bring me into the kitchen every week. When I started school, my math lessons were in the kitchen, then eventually in the office.”