Frisk Me(93)

Vincent shrugged, looking perfectly comfortable in his white linen shirt. Most of the time Luc wasn’t jealous that as a detective, Vincent had the option of wearing plainclothes while the rest of the family had the standard-issue uniform.

Hell, for occasions such as this, Vincent probably would have done well to wear his dress-up uniform too.

But…this was Vincent. Doing the expected was not really his thing.

Vin nodded in the direction of Anthony who was currently locked in conversation with some of the other NYPD captains. “How long until you think he starts asking us to call him ‘Captain’ at family dinner.”

Luc snorted. “I think that’s already started. I asked him if he’d used the last of the milk this morning and he refused to answer me until I used his title.”

Anthony had finally gotten that damned promotion, and Luc couldn’t be happier for his big brother. In true Moretti fashion, they’d opted to skip all of the fancy banquet halls for the celebratory party and opted with the place they all felt most comfortable: the Darby Diner.

Although, the evening was emotional in another way too. In addition to celebrating Anthony’s promotion, they were also bidding farewell to Helen. The elderly waitress had told them last Sunday that she wanted to spend the rest of her days with her grandchildren in Houston, and the Morettis had insisted that she come to Anthony’s party…as a guest. It made for a bittersweet evening. The start of one person’s career. The end of another’s.

A petite, angel-faced blonde appeared between Luc and Vincent, linking arms with both of them and pretending to use their body weight to “swing” like a little kid.

Luc happily complied while Vincent jerked his arm away with an irritable growl. The pretty blonde blew Luc’s pissy brother a kiss, which he patently ignored.

Luc grinned, in spite of his bad mood.

Jill Henley was the darling of the NYPD. With her light blond hair, huge blue eyes, and heart-shaped face with matching dimples in each cheek, she had definitely hit the genetics jackpot. Her personality was equally compelling. She had the sort of friendly charm that had been known to coax even the roughest of suspects to start talking.

In other words, she was the perfect good cop, to Vin’s bad cop.

Which was damned convenient considering they were partners.

Jill ignored Vincent as she stood there, arms linked with Luc. “What’s up with your brother? Constipated again?”

Luc grinned down at her. “Which one?”

“Good point. Your big brothers must have left all the friendly genes in the womb for you to soak up.”

“Disgusting,” Vincent muttered.

Luc kind of agreed.

Jill’s eyes sought and found Anthony. “The captain’s dress uniform looks good on Anth. Really good.”

Vincent gave her a dark look. “You hitting on my brother?”

Jill batted her eyelashes. “You jealous?”

Vincent snarled, which Jill ignored. “Hey, did you guys meet Helen’s replacement?”

“Yeah,” Luc said distractedly. “Megan.”

“Maggie,” Jill corrected. “Poor thing dropped a pitcher of iced tea. Splattered all over Anth’s shoes. As you can imagine, he did that pissy, glaring thing, and she looked about ready to cry. Still, she’s cute, don’t you think?”

Luc searched the room until his eyes landed on the brunette woman who would be taking Helen’s place at the diner. She was a far cry from the hunched, motherly figure of her predecessor. The waitress looked to be around thirty, curvy in all the right places, with a wide friendly smile. Jill was right. She was cute, in the friendly, girl-next-door kind of way. Something that had appealed to him back before his tastes had idiotically shifted from soft and sweet to sharp and ambitious.

Maggie stopped to talk to Luc’s father, and Luc’s eyebrows lifted at the ease in which she drew his often-crusty father into laughing conversation. Impressive.

“Right?” Jill jabbed his side. “Cute.”

Luc shrugged.

“Drop it, Henley,” Vincent told Jill. “Bambino here no longer recognizes women whose names aren’t palindromes,” Vincent said.

Luc shot him the finger as Jill shifted her attention to Vincent. “What about you? Do you think she’s cute?”

Vincent merely glared at Jill and walked away.

Luc shook his head as he took a sip of his rapidly warming iced tea. “I don’t know how you two survive each other.”

“Right?” she said, her voice unperturbed. “I’m thinking we should totally have a TV show based on us. The dark, dickwad cop and his perfect, darling partner.”

Luc smiled. “The latter who is of course, unaware of her charm.”

“Naturally.”

“You have seen most male/female partner cop shows, right? You know how those generally end up.” Luc glanced down and wiggled his eyebrows.

Jill rolled her eyes. “Yeah, trust me. That’s not happening with your dearest brother.”

“No? How about with me?”

She arched an eyebrow, knowing he was joking. “Rumor has it you’re taken.”

Just like that, all the mirth, all the elation about his brother’s promotion, seeped out of him.

Ava. He hated that he knew exactly how many days it had been since he’d last seen her. Twelve.