Tempt Me Tonight (33 page)

“You’re going to have a long, long day,” she told him.

He nodded, somber, quiet. “It’s okay.”

Watching the world change into something new with her was worth it.

Carissa held out a flesh-colored dress that looked like it would hug every inch of her adolescent body. Joe narrowed his brow, shook his head no.

She tried again with something black, and so short it looked more like a top than a dress. Another head shake.

The next one sported a neckline that would probably dip to her belly button. No go.

“This is gonna take awhile, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Looks that way.” He sighed. “Hanging out with you was easier when you were little and I could get you to do things I
understood
, like fishing.”

Next, a red dress that sparkled and looked too much like the one they were returning earned another definite head shake.

“Probably should have asked Trish to come with us,” Joe said. “She’d be better at this than I am.” On the drive over, Carissa had asked about the girl Joe’d been seen around with, so he’d filled her in. Not on everything, of course—just that his high school sweetheart was back in town. From there, Carissa had prodded and asked questions, but he’d kept his answers short and vague.

Even so, he must have somehow said more than he’d meant to, since Carissa abandoned the dress rack to say, “So this whole romance thing never gets any easier, huh?”

Joe tilted his head, thinking. “It must for some people. Kenny and Debbie are happy. Seems easy enough for them.” But then he found himself remembering big fights they’d had from time to time, major disagreements over something to do with one of the boys or the fact that they often had a hard time making ends meet, and added, “Hell, Care Bear, it’s probably something you always have to work at.”

She held up an electric blue dress that made his eyes hurt and he shook his head. “How do you work at it?” she asked.

He raised his eyebrows, casting a dry look. “You’re askin’
me?
”

She shoved the blue dress back on the rack with a shrug. “Somebody as old as you surely has to know
something
about it by now.”

He gave her only the slightest hint of a wry grin, then summoned an answer. “All right, here’s my advice. Your love life will be easier if you make sure you…never hurt the person you care about.”

“How’d you hurt her?”

“None of your business.”

Carissa’s eyes widened. “Wow, you must have done something
awful
.”

If she only knew. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her. “Let’s just say…if any guy does to you what I did to her, he won’t live to talk about it.”

He expected her to pry further, or at the very least roll her eyes at his dramatics—but instead, she stepped forward, into his arms, for a small hug.

Hell, maybe, despite his mistakes in life, he
had
done one or two things right along the way.

After scouring at least ten dress racks, he’d approved a whopping five for her to try on, but he didn’t hold out much hope, and he didn’t think she did, either, judging from her slightly downcast eyes. Waiting for her to change, he wondered what time it was and how many other stores in the outlet mall had fancy dresses.

That was when she stepped out of the dressing room in a sophisticated-looking, layered sort of dress that stopped just below her knees. The fabric underneath was pale pink, but the filmy black overlay turned the whole dress a warm, rosy, glowy color that reminded him of the sunrise he’d watched with Trish that morning. Black beads sprinkled the top, near her chest, which showed only a hint of cleavage, and pink ribbons served as shoulder straps. “Wow,” he said.

Her eyes narrowed. “Good wow or bad wow?”

“Good wow,” he said with an emphatic nod.

“Yeah?” She smiled. “’Cause I like it, too.”

“You still look older, though.”

She frowned. “I thought that was bad.”

So had he. “But this is different. It’s older in a…classy way. You look…really pretty, Care Bear.”

“I was afraid you’d say it was too tight.”

And yeah, in a perfect world, it would have fit her looser. But the world was far from perfect, and all things considered, she looked gorgeous and it would be a sin for her not to wear that dress. “Nah,” he said. “You look too good in it for me to nitpick about that.”

Peering up at him with an earnest expression, she bit her lip. “You want to hear a confession?”

“Sure.”

“I love this dress
way
more than the other one. I guess I…
feel
kinda classy in it or something.” But when she reached down to check the price tag dangling beneath her arm, her happy expression disappeared. “Holy crap.”

“What?” he asked calmly.

She let out a huge sigh. “It’s a hundred and forty dollars.”

He gave his head a short, decisive shake. “No problem, Care Bear.”

But she didn’t look relieved. “That’s a
lot
, Joe. I’d feel
cruddy
.”

“Don’t. It’s a gift.”

“Still…”

He decided to end this by changing the subject. “Want to pay me back? Tell your friends I’m giving away free kittens.”

Her eyes widened in girlish delight as her mouth formed a large O. “You have kittens? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Guess I forgot.” What he’d actually forgotten until this moment was that she’d had the exact same reaction the
last
time Sunshine had dropped a litter. Man, girls and kittens—what was the big attraction?

“You think Mom would let me have one at the apartment?”

He shrugged. “You’d have to ask her.”

She grimaced instantly. “She’ll say no. Because we’re not there all day and it’ll scratch stuff up.”

Joe thought through it a minute, then decided he was going way too soft even as he said, “Tell you what. Maybe I’ll…keep one at the house, but it can be yours.” And it had nothing to do with Trish saying he shouldn’t give away all of Sunshine’s babies.

She looked like he’d just handed her a million dollars. “Really? Could I come visit?”

He rolled his eyes. “Of course you can come visit. That’s the whole point. And there’s a little black one that’s got your name written all over it.”

A huge smile took over her face. “I
love
black cats!” He knew that, of course. “I’m gonna name him Midnight!”

But then—again—she looked slightly deflated. “I still haven’t exactly paid you back for the dress, though. I’ve just made you adopt your own cat for me instead.”

He laughed softly—yet he always appreciated that she understood the value of money, so he made her an offer. “How about this? You really want to pay me back, you start stopping by the garage two or three days a week after school. I’ve been thinking I could use some help in the office. I could train you, you could see if you like it. Then after you’ve worked off the dress…”

She tilted her head. “I could work off everything else you’ve ever bought for me?”

Joe sighed. “No, dummy. I was thinking I could pay you.”

Carissa blinked, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen her look so stunned. “Really? So it would be like…a real job?”

“Sure. But only if you like doing it and your mom says it’s okay.”

Carissa hugged him again, and as they exchanged the old dress for the new, then climbed into Joe’s truck and hit the road back to Eden, he realized that despite the exhaustion beginning to set in, it had been a pretty damn good day.

“Bride’s side or groom’s?” asked a bald, burly guy wearing what had to be an
XXL
tux. He sported three diamond studs in one earlobe.

“Bride’s,” Joe bit off, adding, “I’m her brother.”

“Joe, right?” the big guy asked with a smile.

Trish could tell it took him by surprise. “Uh, yeah.”

“Jana wants you right up front,” the usher said, then seated them in the second row of white chairs situated before a picturesque gazebo twined with flowers. A pristine lake in the background came complete with two regal swans.

“Probably a bouncer at Vinnie’s bar,” Joe growled after the guy walked away.

Trish shrugged. “Bars need bouncers. Come on, lighten up and try to enjoy the day.” She knew Joe didn’t like Jana marrying this guy, but she was beginning to think he was overreacting.

The weather was lovely for a wedding—temperatures in the seventies with a soft, gentle breeze—and despite Joe’s tension, things were going smoothly enough. Of course, they’d not yet spotted the bride—or the groom.

Trish hadn’t had anything appropriate to wear, but rather than make the trip home, she’d stopped at The Daylily Boutique, adjacent to the diner on Main Street. She’d found a lovely pale yellow dress with rusching below the bustline—and now that they’d arrived, she thought she’d made a good choice for the setting. Joe sat with his arms balanced across his knees, fingers threaded, looking uncomfortable but still handsome in crisp khakis with a dark sports coat over a blue button-down.

Only…as other guests began to trickle in, Trish began to notice that not everyone seemed dressed in what she thought of as normal wedding attire. Two young women, one blonde, one redhead, both with hair that hung long and voluminous down their backs, wore low-cut halter dresses without anything remotely resembling a bra underneath. Then a couple arrived—a handsome guy sharply dressed in a black suit, black shirt, and black tie, with numerous earrings in both ears, and a woman in a frighteningly short, off-the-shoulder dress—also sans bra, noticeable mainly because her breasts were so voluminous. Her earrings dangled to her shoulders and she sported a mane of thick raven hair that draped nearly to her hips.

When other people took seats around them and Trish witnessed still more scant, often sparkly dresses and amazingly high-heeled—and also sparkly—shoes, she couldn’t help turning to Joe, speaking quietly. “Is it me, or am I underdressed?”

She could tell he’d already taken in the same phenomenon. “It’s not you, honey. You look beautiful.”

She didn’t want to judge Jana’s friends harshly, but she was reasonably certain she was the only woman in attendance wearing anything that descended past midthigh. And sure, she’d worn a dress like that
recently
—to Joe’s house, but that had been for
sex.
This was a
wedding
. She also couldn’t help realizing the other women were all drop-dead gorgeous and seemed to possess especially large breasts. Trish squinted, turning it over in her head. What were the odds that one girl’s friends would
all
be so well endowed and beautiful?

She couldn’t help being aware of too much perfume scenting the air as her eyes dropped to the monster platform heels—silver and glittery—on the woman who’d just sat down next to her. She had great legs—shapely and tan. Trish knew because the woman’s hot pink dress rose right to the top of them. Yeesh.

She was still trying to piece it all together when Joe said softly, voice strained, “I think we’re at a stripper wedding.”

Trish gasped, albeit more in shock than doubt. “You’re kidding!” Okay, so maybe he hadn’t been overreacting.

Joe’s mouth pressed into a flat, grim line. “Nope, I think my sister’s a stripper. And all of her friends are strippers. And I think Vinnie’s in the mob, and that all these guys dressed in black break people’s fingers if they go bad on a debt. That’s what I think.”

Trish tried to scan the area again without being too obvious, and without letting her jaw drop. A stripper wedding? Really?

Beside her, Joe released a heavy breath, looking angry. “I’ve had suspicions about Vinnie’s bar and what exactly Jana does there, but I didn’t ask…because I didn’t want to know. But don’t these people look like strippers and mobsters to you?”

She pursed her lips, wishing she could argue the point, for Joe’s sake, but she couldn’t. “Well, um…yeah.”

Just then, an Italian-looking guy appeared near the gazebo to start greeting people. His thin hair was pulled into a low ponytail and he sported a small silver hoop in one earlobe. If he weren’t smiling, he would have looked scary.

“Could that be…” Trish began, but she trailed off as a large shadow fell over them. Glancing up to see the bald bouncer/ usher back at their side, she nearly flinched, wondering if he really broke people’s bones.

“Joe,” he said, leaning over. “There’s a little problem. It’s past time to start, but your dad hasn’t shown up.”

“Bastard,” Joe muttered, eyes darkening, and Trish felt just a hint of what that sort of abandonment must be like. And to think Joe had been carrying the burden since he was eighteen.

“Jana wants to know if you’ll give her away.”

Joe pushed to his feet without hesitation, looking instantly like he’d mow down anyone who tried to hurt his sister. “Hell—of course I will.” He squeezed Trish’s hand in parting, then followed the big usher down the grassy aisle.

When Joe made his way into the little white tent erected behind the chairs, his sister leapt up from a small dressing table and ran toward him. His first thought—she looked beautiful in her strapless white wedding gown, even with the blond hair. His second—she also looked like she was about to burst into tears.

“He didn’t come, Joe! He didn’t come.” She threw her arms around his neck and he hugged her to him, wishing what he’d always wished from the time she was a little girl—that he could somehow hug her pain away.

“You know he’s an asshole, honey, so forget about him.
I’m
here.
I’ll
walk you down the aisle.”

Jana pulled back to look him in the eye. “I should have asked you in the first place. I’m sorry I didn’t, Joe. I was just…afraid you wouldn’t.”

Hell. Maybe, if she’d put forth that request a week ago, he
would
have turned her down. But now he just wanted to make his sister happy. He lifted a hand to her cheek. “Of course I’ll do it. Now let’s get going before people think there’s something wrong.”

She nodded. “You’re right. I want this to be perfect.”

And that’s when it hit him. God, no wonder she wanted to get married. She wanted some
security
in her life; she probably wanted a
normal family
. And Joe had no idea if Vinnie Balducci could give her either of those things, but for today, he had to believe the guy would.