That's Amore (7 page)

She nearly ripped the refrigerator door off the hinges.

Jeff poked his head in. “Uh, can I ask what you’re doing?”

“I’m figuring out what to fix us for dinner.”

“I can help.”

“No, thanks.” She slammed the door shut again and went to look in the cupboard to see if he had bought any pasta.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine.” Just waffling between wanting to strangle him or kiss him, but otherwise, fine.

Jeff looked doubtful.

Paige stopped with her hand on the cabinet and said, “You know what, I’m not fine. I’m furious. Do you have any idea what it’s like growing up blond in an Italian neighborhood with a name like Paige?”

He blinked. Then his finger pointed to his head. “Seeing as I’m a guy with black hair, no, not really. How did you get the name Paige anyway?”

“It’s my birth mother’s name.”

His jaw dropped. “You’re adopted?”

“Where have you been? Of course I am.” She thought everyone knew she was adopted. It had certainly felt that way growing up. “Two people with black hair cannot make a blonde baby, Jeff.”

Jeff just stared at her.

She went on. “So if you don’t know what it’s like to grow up here blond, I’ll share with you. You get treated like a glass figurine, that’s what. Like a pet.” She slammed the cabinet shut after realizing it was empty.

Jeff winced.

“And to make matters worse, since I’m adopted I’m an only child. See, your mom just let all four of you run wild. I think she figured if something happened to one of you, she still had three left.”

Jeff grinned a little. “Could be.”

“But my mom had all her biological eggs in one basket, so to speak. I was it. Her one shot at getting it right.”

He said, “She was a little overprotective, wasn’t she?”

“That’s like saying King Kong was a big monkey.” Paige looked at Jeff in exasperation. “She was hugely overprotective.”

“Okay, you’re right.” He frowned.

It was obvious he didn’t get it. Paige rolled her eyes. “What I’m saying is, I didn’t need you protecting me too. Got it? You should have let me make my own mistakes, if it even was a mistake. I have enough sense to know who I want to date and who I don’t.”

Jeff leaned on the door frame and studied her. “Did you want to date me, Paige?”

Duh. Where had he been for the last ten years? “Yes!”

Did he think she’d been prowling Mayfield Road every night three years ago because she’d liked pastries? Surely he had figured out she’d been looking for
him
.

His mouth twitched up in a smile. “So I wasn’t just someone safe for you to get that first time over with?”

That had never even occurred to her. She hadn’t been eager to shed her virginity. She had been eager to shed it with Jeff.

“No,” she said in a more normal voice.

“Then I really am sorry.”

She believed him. He looked too sincere not to be believed. “All right,” she said grudgingly. “There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

Tugging on the belly top, she said, “What… what was it to you, Jeff? Just a lucky opportunity, so you took advantage of it?”

She winced. That was a stupid thing to ask, because she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.

He still had the power to hurt her. Maybe not break her heart anymore, but he could kick a serious dent in it.

“It was something I’d been wanting for a long time.”

That wasn’t a bad answer. She gave in to a sigh of relief.

But Jeff wasn’t finished. He said in a hoarse voice, “I wanted you, Paige. I’ve always wanted you since as long as I can remember.” He came towards her, his jeans hanging low on his hips, revealing a tuft of black hair under his navel.

“I still want you.”

Her brain went dead. Her voice no longer existed. She was like those dreams where you can’t move and or make a sound, waiting to be consumed by night terror. Only this was Jeff heading towards her, and while he looked perfectly willing to consume her, she didn’t think there would be any terror involved.

More like mind blowing ecstasy.

He came closer. She pressed back against the counter, her breasts somehow mysteriously jutting out in invitation, without her aware that she had ordered them to do so.

There he was. Right in front of her. About to touch her.

A wild cry went up.

For an irrational second, Paige thought she had finally found her voice in a primal jungle roar.

Then Jeff swore and she realized it was Justin waking up from his nap with a hideous scream.

“Is he okay?” That didn’t sound like a hungry cry, or a lonely cry. That sounded like pain, even to her untrained ear.

Jeff was already jogging towards the bedroom. She followed right behind him.

“Oh my God.” Jeff was pulling Justin off the floor and swearing.

The baby had obviously rolled off the bed. She was an idiot. She should have known not to lay him on the bed. Why didn’t she know not to lay him on the bed? She was baby challenged, that’s why.

Paige would never forgive herself if something was wrong with Justin.

She yelled, “What? What’s the matter with him?” Her stomach rolled over and she tasted fear in her mouth.

Jeff turned towards her, cradling Justin, his hands feeling all over the baby’s body. “There’s blood everywhere. I can’t even tell where he’s bleeding from!”

“Don’t panic,” she shrieked in panic as she saw that Jeff was right. Justin’s face and chest were covered in blood.

“I’ll call 911.” She made a mad dash for her cell phone.

Jeff yelled, “Don’t leave me alone with him. What do I do?”

“I don’t know! Press where he’s bleeding.”

As she called 911, Jeff staggered out into the living room, wiping at Justin’s face with the bottom of his T-shirt. She wasn’t sure who looked worse, Justin or Jeff.

“I can’t hear anything, he’s crying so much.” Frantic, she covered her ear and spoke with the operator, who assured her an ambulance would be there in less than five minutes.

When she hung up the phone she sent up a prayer that Justin was all right. A real prayer this time. “Here, let me see him.”

As she reached out her arms for the baby, Justin’s cry dwindled off into a rattling gurgle.

“What’s that sound?” Jeff asked, his face an unnatural white underneath his olive complexion.

Paige saw the pool of blood in Justin’s mouth and bent him forward out of instinct. “He’s choking on a mouthful of blood.”

Jeff made a strangled sound as he watched blood splash out of Justin’s mouth. Then Paige stood there, arms full of baby, helpless to do anything as Jeff’s eyes rolled back in his head and he keeled over in a dead faint.

“Ohmigod.” Paige stared down at Jeff in shock.

But somehow, the sight of his uncle hitting the hardwood floor like a KO’d boxer startled Justin into silence. During which Paige gathered her wits and was able to determine that Justin had sliced the underside of his lip clear from one end to the other.

That was the cause of the gobs of blood. “Thank you,” she murmured in relief, squeezing Justin against her in a smothering hug as she breathed heavily in and out.

The wound was still bleeding but at least now she knew what it was. This was fixable. This she could handle.

The doorbell rang.

The paramedics. She placed Justin on her hip and opened the door.

“Hi, thanks for coming. We panicked a little when we called you.” In fact, her heart was still beating like a hummingbird’s.

Paige turned Justin out so the two EMTs could see him. “I think he just sliced under his lip, but there was so much blood and we didn’t know where it was coming from.”

They stepped into the apartment. The older man gave her a reassuring smile. “Well, we’ll just have a look at him and makes sure everything’s okay since we’re here.”

Paige led them to the couch and she sat Justin in her lap, taking his chubby hands into hers. “It’s okay, they’re just going to look at you, Justin.”

Justin was still sniffling and his nose was running, but he seemed okay. More okay than Jeff, who was still taking an unscheduled nap, bare-chested on the floor.

“Ma’am, there’s a man unconscious on your floor.” The paramedic stopped mid-bend as he started to sit down on the couch.

“There was so much blood, it was everywhere. We thought Justin was choking on it, and Jeff sort of keeled over,” she said in explanation.

The man nodded in understanding. “Happens to a lot of people.”

He turned to his colleague. “Jim, why don’t you check him out just in case and I’ll have a look at the baby.”

It was then that Paige realized the younger paramedic, who was about her age, was leering at her breasts and legs, which were barely covered in the Baby Gap outfit Jeff had bought her.

“What?” Jim asked his partner, his eyes never leaving Paige. Or rather, her chest.

“The guy. On the floor. Make sure he’s breathing.”

“Oh, right.” Jim drew his gaze away with an obvious effort.

Paige shifted Justin so he was covering more of her from old X-Ray Eyes over there. After a quick once over, the paramedic agreed that Justin was fine except for a split chin, which would need stitches.

He reassured Paige. “There’s a lot of blood in this kind of laceration. Don’t feel bad about calling 911. Better safe than sorry, that’s for sure.”

Jeff groaned from the floor.

Paige set Justin down and went over to Jeff, waving the paramedic out of the way. “Jeff, are you all right?”

“Paige?” He blinked. “What happened?”

“You fainted.”

Jeff tried to sit up. “What? I did not.”

“Sshh. Yes, you did. It’s okay, it was pretty gross.”

“Is Justin okay?” He paused in his effort to sit and rested on his elbows, his breathing labored.

“He’s fine. He’s sliced his chin open. We need to take him for stitches.”

“Benedetto men don’t faint.” Jeff squeezed his eyes shut and sat all the way up.

“Whatever.” She fought the urge to roll her eyes.

The paramedics started for the door.

She followed them and thanked them profusely, even as the younger one shot a last look of longing at her breasts.

The door slammed in his face.

Rooting out her purse, she said, “Where did you put my car keys? We need to take Justin to the ER.”

“I think on the kitchen counter.”

Justin had toddled over to Jeff and was holding onto his bent knees. Jeff said, “I’m glad you’re fine, kid. Don’t scare me like that again.”

Justin gave a grin and Paige and Jeff both saw that his six little teeth were stained a strange brown color from blood. Paige wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Jeff hit the floor again.

HREE HOURS LATER Jeff was still arguing with her about it. “I did not faint that second time. I was resting.”

“Whatever, Jeff. I’m tired of this conversation.” They had been having it for two and a half hours solid, ever since she had casually mentioned that she thought his fainting had been cute.

The tough, macho, power tool wielding Jeff Benedetto hitting the floor over a little blood. It made her giggle all over again. But it was cute. It showed he cared about his nephew.

“Are you laughing at me?” he demanded as he started the car and backed out of the parking spot at the hospital emergency room.

Justin, exhausted from his ordeal of receiving a dozen stitches in the chin, was sound asleep on Paige’s lap.

“No. Don’t be so sensitive. A lot of people are afraid of blood.” She shifted Justin in her lap. “And we’ve got to get a car seat. This is so dangerous. Good thing it’s only a half a mile to the apartment.”

Jeff obviously heard nothing about the car seat, preoccupied with his masculine failings. “I was not afraid. More like startled, that’s all. Give me a break. Afraid? I don’t think so.”

Paige sighed, deciding she needed to deal with Jeff’s identity crisis now or they would be discussing this all night. “I know that. Of course you weren’t afraid. You’re very brave, Jeff.” She struggled to sound sincere, and keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

“Just look at the way you handled Johnny Romano. He was waving a gun in your face and you didn’t panic. You got Justin and I out of there and shook him right off our tail.”

Jeff’s chest swelled a little. “That’s right. I did.” He parked the car in front of the apartment building and turned to her. “Benedetto men aren’t afraid.”

Maybe not of bullets or participating in bar room brawls. But a little blood had him keeling over. And how about commitment? While it might not make Jeff faint, it had sent him running out on her three years ago.

Yes, Jeff definitely had his fears.

So did she. Fear of getting her heart trounced on again.

He smiled at her, his gleaming white teeth a straight and interesting perfection in a face that was more rugged than classically good looking.

Fear rose in her that it was already too late. She suspected if he wanted to trounce, he could. Her heart was teetering on the edge of the cliff and one more molten lava look from him and it was going to go free falling off the side, Wile E. Coyote style.

Jeff wondered what Paige was thinking. A little frown was furrowing her forehead and she was studying him as if he had just burped or something.