The woman might love organization, but it didn’t show in her bedroom. It was impossible to miss the black lace panties on the floor near the laundry basket, the rumpled pillow and half-made bed, and the warm vanilla scent of her that seemed to linger in the air. He’d spent way too many hours at night on that poor excuse for a couch staring at the ceiling and picturing her wearing only the black lace panties, dabbing perfume on her wrists and between her perfect tits. It was not what he should be pondering during the long, sleepless nights, as his captain would have told him if he wasn’t chewing Ford’s ass out already.
“So you’ve got nothing,” the captain said during their usual late-afternoon call.
“You knew this was a long shot.” Ford left out the part about the captain being the one to come up with this cockamamie plan, even though keeping it to himself was about to kill him. So, he took a second to inhale a deep breath and watch Gina through the window as she put another coat of white paint on the backyard fence.
The pinch in his shoulders eased, and his blood pressure dropped from the red zone as he watched her work her paint roller.
Then she bent over to get more paint on the roller, and the calming breath he’d inhaled came out as a frustrated groan that he hoped the captain took as annoyance about the lack of results. “Her brothers haven’t been around all week.”
“You need to find a way to change that.”
Well sure. He’ll just teleport the Luca brothers over from wherever they were. That would totally work. Clamping his mouth shut before that thought could spill out, he tapped his finger and thumb together to the count of twenty and only then gave himself permission to speak.
“Her grandmother’s birthday party is tomorrow. I’m her date. The whole family will be there.”
“If that comes up empty, then I’m calling your operation.”
And there it was. The captain couldn’t have been any clearer with his meaning, and the blame for the lack of results landed with a loud thud at Ford’s feet. It was a response that anyone could have seen coming, but that didn’t make it any easier to take. That’s why his gut did that clench and shimmy thing, because the failure that was all but assured was going to get pinned to him.
It wasn’t because the end of the operation meant no more Gina or hearing the silly songs she sang to herself as she brewed coffee in the morning or the mind-melting view of her ass in those black yoga pants she always paired with ridiculous novelty T-shirts.
That part didn’t matter. It couldn’t. He was one of Waterbury’s finest, and she was a Luca. There had to be regulations written down forbidding that kind of fraternization. So after tomorrow, that was that.
His grip tightened on his phone, and he turned away from the window. “I understand, sir.”
“Don’t worry, Hartigan. You’ll still be in the running to stay on the task force, but I have to tell you that bringing in some hard intel would go a long way to helping you there.”
No shit, Captain Sherlock. “Yes sir.”
And that was the little breath of hell that hung over him for the rest of the afternoon, right up until an incoming text message made his phone buzz as he and Gina were sanding down the intricately carved banisters for the main staircase. She’d been telling him some of her wedding planner horror stories—who knew ducks could shit that much—and explaining that despite the craziness of it, she was ready to start working with her newest client next week. Continuing to listen, Ford pulled out his phone and glanced down at the message.
Mom: Don’t forget to pick up the pastries from the bakery before you stop off for family lunch today.
Great. Lunch was in an hour. He rammed his fingers through his hair and tried to work out how he was going to explain to his mom that he wasn’t coming. Kate Hartigan was not going to be happy, and she wasn’t going to be shy about telling him. “Oh hell.”
“Did someone run a red light?” Gina asked.
God, didn’t he wish. “It’s my mom.”
The teasing look in her brown eyes softened. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just forgot to tell her I couldn’t make Saturday family lunch today. It’s pretty much a standing event for the entire family, and not going means you better be in the hospital.” He stared at his phone.
Gina started sanding again. “Why can’t you go?”
“I’m not leaving you here alone.” Yeah, or is it that you know your time pretending to be Mr. Fix It with Gina is almost over?
“Then I’ll come with you.”
As if it was that easy. Bringing the uninitiated to a Hartigan family event was not something to be undertaken lightly. “Trust me, that’s the last thing either of us want to do.”
She stopped sanding and looked up at him, her smile too cheerful to be real. “Don’t worry, it’s not like you have to pretend I’m your girlfriend with your family.”
And there it was, the famous Ford Hartigan charm thrilling women everywhere. Fucking A, Hartigan. Get your shit together.
“It’s not that.”
“What is it, then?” she asked.
“My family can be a lot to handle—especially all at once.” How in the hell did he explain it to her?
First, there was the sheer number of them. Then there was the whole volume aspect, because they were not a quiet family. Finally, there was the fact that his mom wouldn’t stop pestering Gina with questions about every aspect of her life from the moment she walked in the door.
The Hartigans were not for everyone.
As the family saying went, there was the red Irish, the black Irish, and the so-much-trouble-they-got-kicked-off-the-island Irish—the Hartigans were all three. Yeah, there was no way he could subject Gina to all of that.
“You really think they’re crazier than mine?” she asked, her tone so full of disbelief he would have thought he’d just told her that coffee wasn’t the best thing ever invented.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Well, the only way to settle this is to compare.” She tapped her finger against the tip of her nose and made a series of little harrumph sounds that reminded him of being at the doctor’s office. “You’re already locked in for my grandma’s party tomorrow. I’ll meet your people today, and then we can compare tomorrow night.”
“What about your brothers, will they be there?” he asked, keeping his tone neutral.
“They’ll be there. I keep trying to schedule a bowling night with them, but they’re being cagy on dates.”
“Are they busy next Friday?” he asked, part of him hoping they weren’t, not because he particularly wanted to hang out with them but because that was the night the Espositos’ big deal was going down, according to Kapowski’s informant—and with each day he was hoping more and more that his time with Gina would be a bust for the investigation.
“No clue, but I’ll ask,” she said. “Don’t think you’re getting out of this bet, though. The one with the more normal family buys the cannoli.”
“I don’t like cannoli.” Because that was the most important thing to note about what she’d just said. Is it a wonder the woman hasn’t fallen at your feet in worship?
Gina gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. “What a horrible thing to say. You obviously have never had Vacilli’s cannoli. Don’t worry, you’ll understand the error of your ways after you buy the cannoli tomorrow night.”
“That’s not gonna happen.” It couldn’t. There had to be an SOP about it.
“We’ll see,” she said with a grin that lit up her whole face, giving her a kind of gleeful radiance. “Now get a move on, we don’t want to keep your mom waiting.”
She dropped her sandpaper onto the table where all their supplies were laid out and bounded up the stairs, while Ford stood there watching with his mouth hanging open. Had he agreed to take her to the Hartigan family lunch? He didn’t think so, but there she went to change.
Maybe she’d do just fine dropped into the pushy, loud-mouthed, crazy mix that was his family.
Or not.
Chapter Nine
Ford hadn’t been lying about his family. They were even more of a cliché than hers. Huge Irish family, far too loud and friendly, and firefighters. Well, except Ford. He was the odd man out in this craziness. More quiet but no less affectionate. And a cop. Which his brothers teased him about incessantly.
His family was totally overwhelming, but in a good way. It reminded Gina of the last Luca family christening—loud voices, lots of food, and too many people crushed into a space that would always seem too small no matter how big because the personalities of those inside were just that large.
Ford had introduced her to his parents first, Kate and Frank Sr. He was a bear of a man with a shock of orange hair that was probably visible from space, and she was an Amazon of a woman who was so pretty it was kind of hard to look her in the face and remember what to say.
Thinking of what to say wasn’t a problem with the oldest Hartigan, Frankie, because the towering ginger firefighter rarely stopped talking, so Gina didn’t have to think about what to talk about. It wasn’t like he rambled, it was just that he was so charming that people couldn’t help but hang on what he was saying and encourage him to offer up more. Frankie’s twin brother, Finian, had dark hair instead of red, but otherwise he looked almost exactly like Frankie. He talked almost as much, too.