“Damn, I’m an old man compared to her,” he muttered with dismay.
“A dirty old man too,” Decker informed him, and when Justin glanced to him with surprise, pointed out, “You can’t look at her without imagining her naked and in some sexual position or other.” He shook his head. “It’s a good thing she can’t read your thoughts or she’d be slapping that smiling face of yours.”
Justin merely shook his head, feeling dazed. “I’m an old man.”
“Yes, you are,” Decker said cheerfully, then glanced at him sideways and said, “Ah, don’t worry about it, Bricker. We all get there eventually. Well, unless we die,” he added dryly and then shrugged. “Better to be old than dead, huh?”
“But I’ve always been the young one.” Justin heard the whine in his voice, but too late to stop it.
“Yeah, well them’s the breaks my friend. Get over it,” Decker said with a distinct lack of sympathy.
“What did you do? Buy out the store?” Gia asked as she held the door open between the garage and kitchen and watched them cart in the first load of groceries.
“Don’t look at me,” Holly said on a laugh as she stepped inside and set her bags down. “Most of this is down to the guys. Each of them filled a whole cart to overflowing on their own. It was almost embarrassing when we went to the checkout.”
Gia shook her head and glanced from Anders to Decker. “You won’t even be here to eat any of it.”
“We were thinking of Dante and Tomasso,” Anders said with a shrug as he turned to head back out.
“Ah.” Gia nodded her head, and then arched an eyebrow at Justin. “And what’s your excuse?”
“I was thinking of your cousins too,” Justin assured her. “Those two could put away an entire cow at one sitting . . . each. I’m lucky to get anything at all to eat when they’re around. It seemed a good idea to pack in the food. That way Holly and I might at least get a sandwich or something here or there.”
“Si.” Gia grinned and then confided to Holly, “My cousins are big boys who like their food.”
“We can get the rest, Holly,” Justin said, stopping her when she started back out to the garage. “Why don’t you start unpacking while we lug the bags in?”
Nodding, Holly turned to move back to the bags she’d set down and began to pull out and sort items. Gia immediately moved to help her. Neither of them knew the kitchen layout though, so it was slow going.
“You will like my cousins Tomasso and Dante,” Gia announced suddenly as they worked.
“Why is that?” Straightening from sticking half a dozen frozen pizzas in the freezer, Holly turned in time to see Justin scowling as he dumped a bunch of grocery bags on the counter.
Gia waited until he’d stomped out, then grinned and said, “I mostly said that to annoy Bricker. He is sometimes acting too big for his bitches.”
Holly blinked once and then gave her head a shake. “I think you mean he is growing too big for his britches.”
“Britches?” Gia stopped with a box of pasta in hand and eyed her uncertainly. “What is britches?”
“They’re pants or slacks,” Holly explained.
“Why would he grow too big for his pants? We are immortal. We never gain weight,” she pointed out with a frown.
“No, well, it’s just a saying. When someone gets conceited or puts on airs, they say they are getting too big for their britches.”
“Not bitches?” Gia asked with surprise.
“No,” Holly said gently, biting her lip to keep from laughing. She didn’t want to make the woman feel bad.
“Oh.” Gia shrugged. “Okay then, yes, that is what I meant. These britches.” She pursed her lips. “It makes more sense than bitches anyway.”
“Yes,” Holly murmured as she moved back to the bags.
“But you really will like my cousins,” Gia announced. “They are both big, beautiful bad boys.”
“Bad boys? And you think I’ll like them?” Holly asked with confusion.
“They are not really bad boys,” Gia assured her. “They just look like bad boys with their long hair and leather. Inside though, they are dolce.”
“Dolce?”
“Sweet,” Anders announced, carrying in more bags. “Dolce means ‘sweet.’ ”
“Si, and Dante and Tomasso look big and pauroso—-scary, but inside they are as sweet as gelato.”
“Sure they are, big as bears and sweet as ice cream,” Decker said with a smile as he entered now as well. “Speaking of which, I just got the call, they will be landing in an hour. Anders and I won’t be able to help put this stuff away after all. We have to head to the airport if we want a ride home.” He grimaced and added apologetically, “Otherwise we’ll be waiting for at least a -couple hours for the plane to come back for us.”
Holly nodded with understanding, recalling Gia explaining that the planes they used were apparently behind on pickups.