When It Falls Apart (The D'Angelos, #1)(60)

“I needed to get this out before dinner. Before there is any chance for us to show affection in front of your daughter. I won’t be offended if you want to hold off on that for her sake. You’re the dad here. You’re in charge. I just need you to know where I stand.”

This woman. This woman! “Do you have any idea what—”

“Franny!” Brooke said as an announcement, looking over his shoulder.

Luca dropped his arm from where he’d been holding Brooke’s hip and turned to see his daughter walking behind the kitchen island.

“Hi, Brooke. What are you doing here?”

Brooke took a step back, a little out of Luca’s reach. “I came to help your dad with dinner.”

Franny wiggled her nose. “Papa doesn’t need help.”

Brooke shrugged. “I know that.” She lowered her voice and pretended Luca couldn’t hear her. “I offered to help so I would find out what he puts in the ravioli so maybe I can make it on my own sometime.”

Franny jumped up onto one of the barstools. “I wanna help.”

Luca stopped staring at Brooke and watched his daughter. “Excuse me?”

“I wanna help. If you’re going to show Brooke, you can show me.”

Luca felt the air entering his lungs a little too fast.

Brooke glanced at him, her lower lip between her teeth.

“Okay, ladies. Put your hair back and your aprons on. Nobody wants hair in their pasta.”

“Do you have an extra hair tie?” Brooke asked his daughter.

Franny bounced off the barstool and reached out a hand. “In my room.”

The two of them walked away. . . Brooke glanced over her shoulder, a concerned smile on her face.

In the few minutes they were gone, Luca gathered his composure and made a plan.

Together his daughter and Brooke returned to the kitchen. Brooke’s hair was up in a messy bun, and Franny had a braid down her back.

“We’re ready,” Brooke announced.

He looked at the two of them.

“So am I.”



Luca brushed Brooke’s hair over the pillow and smiled down at her.

She was flushed and out of breath.

“You know, Luca . . . when you said you needed my help this morning, this isn’t exactly what I thought you had in mind.”

Their legs were still tangled from their lovemaking, their hearts still racing. He’d called her after taking Franny to school and asked her to come down.

“I needed the image of you in my bed,” he confessed.

“Do you practice saying all the right things?”

“It sounds like a line, but I assure you, it isn’t.”

Brooke stretched under him. “This beats yoga.”

“Don’t tell my sister that.”

“Chloe doesn’t want to hear any of it, trust me. After Gio’s comments at dinner last night, it’s safe to say your whole family knows what’s going on.”

“Giovanni needs to mind his own business.” His brother had joked about how relaxed they both looked. Brooke had blushed and his mother had smacked Gio’s shoulder to shush him up.

“Your brother teasing us means he approves. I’m not offended,” Brooke said.

“My family adores you.”

He felt Brooke run her foot up his leg. “Do you ever get the feeling your mother planned this?”

“Planned us?”

“Yeah. The way she was watching us last night made me wonder if she would have rented the apartment to just anyone.”

“We’ll eventually find out. I wouldn’t put it past her.”

Brooke lifted her lips to his for a brief kiss. “As much as I’d love to stay here all day, I have to get some work done.”

Luca rolled to the side and watched her climb out of his bed.

The image of her slim waist and heart-shaped butt would last in his mind for some time. “Let me know if you ever want to skip your yoga session.”

Brooke slipped into the clothes Luca had quickly rid her of once she entered his room.

“Skipping yoga is a great code name,” Brooke teased.

He put on a pair of shorts and walked her to his door.

“I pick Franny up at two thirty if you need a break.”

“You sure?” Brooke asked.

“I’m sure.” He kissed her and watched as she started up the stairs.

From below he heard a noise and saw his sister. “Well, well.”

“Nothing to see here, Chloe, move along,” Brooke called out.

Luca laughed and closed the door before heading to his shower.



At one, Brooke sat in front of her computer for a Zoom meeting with the design team on the Downes account.

Portia Corrigan, her boss, had requested a last-minute call, and none of them had a clue what it was about.

Kayleigh, the youngest of the team at just twenty-two and fresh out of college, looked like she jumped out of bed with makeup on and a frozen smile on her face. Mayson was a little older and someone Brooke had bounced ideas off of before. He was twenty-eight and had moved away from Seattle two months into the pandemic and now lived in Boise. Nayla was a seasoned new hire from New York who had experience with fashion design and, from what Brooke could tell, had the most to add.