“He didn’t change a bit, huh?” Melina asked.
Mac grinned, knowing damn well she was talking about him.
“Not much in his looks,” Cynthia said. “His attitude, however …”
“Ma,” Mac said quietly.
Cynthia never even looked up from the pictures she was showing off. “That attitude of his just grew and grew until it was too much for the rest of us to handle.”
“I don’t have an attitude, Ma.”
“You do,” the three woman said in unison.
“Although it’s more like an arrogance,” Melina added, shooting him a sly look.
Mac was a smart man—he prided himself on that virtue. Shit that didn’t kill him only made him a hell of a lot stronger in the end.
This was one of those times, he knew.
No smart man would walk into the lion’s den of three woman and write a check he had no way of cashing. And that was exactly what he would be doing if he decided to indulge his mother, sister, and Melina in an argument about what he acted like.
Besides, he was an arrogant fucker.
Mac wasn’t about to deny that for a second.
He simply didn’t think it was an attitude problem.
To each their own.
“James?” his mother asked.
“Yeah, Ma?”
“Get me the bottle of wine and a few glasses out of the cupboard, hmm? I think we all should celebrate Melina’s homecoming.”
Mac’s gaze slid to his lover, and he watched the sweet smile bloom over Melina’s features. Her dark caramel skin flushed in her happiness.
Homecomings were meant for those a person cared for—those who people wanted to know they were cared for.
Melina was adored.
Mac hoped she knew it, too.
She’d spent so much time either taking care of others, or surviving on her own. She deserved people who were willing to be a cornerstone in her life, regardless of what was thrown at her. God knew his family—his mother and sister, anyway—were the best kind of people for that job.
“Wine and glasses, James,” Cynthia said, giving him a look that reprimanded him without even saying what for.
“Going, Ma,” Mac said.
Mac found the chilled wine in the refrigerator, and the crystal glasses his mother always kept high and out of the reach of guests in the very top cupboard. Careful not to drop one of his mother’s favorite wine glasses, he set them down to the counter when Victoria slid in beside him.
“Hey,” she said.
Mac offered her an easy smile. “Hey. And thanks for earlier—letting Melina know there are other people who missed her—I think she needed that.”
Victoria shrugged. “I’d miss your ass, too.”
That was Victoria Maccari—always the blunt one.
“So,” his sister started, glancing toward the entryway to the living room, “… has Ma said anything to you about you-know-what?”
“She’s made it very apparent she would like to see me married, Vic.”
Victoria’s brow furrowed a second before a burst of laughter followed right behind. “Besides that, Mac. I guess I should have said ‘you know who.’”
“No.” Mac spun around slowly to face his sister fully. “Who, exactly, should she be telling me about and why?”
If someone was bothering his mother, they were going to have serious problems.
Like drinking through a straw for the rest of their miserable life.
“Apparently, James has been coming around lately, asking things.”
It took Mac a second to realize who his sister was talking about—he’d gone months without having to deal with his father, and he really wished he could have gone a few more.
“What kind of things?” Mac asked.
“Ma said he was asking about you—but that’s not the important part.”
Mac sort of thought it was. “Then what is?”
“He wanted to be here today—even showed up, but Ma made him leave. He was …” Victoria trailed off, tipping her thumb up toward her mouth and pretending to take a fake drink. “You know?”
“Wonderful,” Mac muttered.
He wasn’t all too surprised that his useless, fuck up of a father was coming around. He was even less surprised that James was trying to get info on Mac.
He was surprised, however, that his mother made her estranged husband leave. Cynthia didn’t indulge James Maccari, but she was never outright rude.
“She seemed really uncomfortable when he was here, Mac,” Victoria added.
Fuck.
“I’ll handle it,” Mac assured.
“All right.”
“And don’t say a word to Ma that you told me about it.”
Victoria gave him a wide, innocent look. “Told you about what?”
Exactly.
From across the large dining room, Mac sipped from a glass of Cognac as he watched Melina accept yet another hug from Neeya Pivetti. He let the liquor settle over his tongue before swallowing it back, and then he set the glass aside, done with the drink altogether.