That's Amore! - Janelle Denison [72]
"Thank you," she finally murmured. "I'm glad you showed up."
He met her steady stare and nodded to acknowledge her thanks. Then they both fell silent. Just … staring.
He looked at her as though he'd never met her before, and she couldn't tug her gaze away from his dark brown eyes, sparkling with warmth and energy. Not cold. Nowhere near cold.
"You do know who I am, right?" he finally murmured, filling what had been a long, though not uncomfortable, silence.
"Sure." She cleared her throat, figuring her wildly swinging emotions were causing that warble in her voice, and the weakness in her legs. "We've met at your parents' restaurant."
"I wondered if you remembered. Every time I see you, you look the other way or walk out the door." His words, though, light and teasing, held a hint of accusation.
She couldn't deny it. She had avoided him, thinking she was doing it because she didn't like the third Santori brother, who wasn't as playful and friendly as his two older siblings.
The happily married ones.
Now she suspected she'd been avoiding him for another reason. Because she found him too attractive. Definitely too attractive for a man scheduled to marry someone else in less than a month.
Reading about him in the papers had made him even more interesting to her. Lucas Santori was a hotshot in the D.A.'s office and was often mentioned by the media for his anti-crime crusade. And of course, she couldn't help but hear about him from his very proud parents, who liked to brag about their sons who fought bad guys—as cops, soldiers, or, in Luke's case, prosecutors.
"How's Maria?" she asked, trying to busy her hands with some useless paperwork on the counter. Receipts, order forms, ad copy … none of which seemed to have any words right now, just dark, blurry specks on which she couldn't concentrate. He didn't reply right away, and she looked up in curiosity.
Lucas seemed a bit stiffer, as if he wasn't comfortable talking about his fiancée. Considering Maria was as well liked as your average everyday serial killer, Rachel could understand why.
"Getting jittery. She's actually the reason I came down here," he finally admitted.
"Oh? Don't tell me the wedding's off and I'm going to get stuck with that twenty-thousand-dollar dress."
Luke's jaw dropped open and his eyes widened. "Twenty…"
Grimacing and cursing herself for her big mouth, Rachel forced a laugh and shook her head. "I was exaggerating."
Though not by much.
"She's, uh, not going to be able to make her appointment tomorrow."
Another cancellation. Why was she not surprised? "What if it needs alterations? We're not dealing with the normal turnaround time here, since she changed her mind so many times before settling on a dress."
"I'm sorry."
"She does remember the wedding is less than three weeks away, right?" she asked before she could stop her runaway tongue.
"How could any of us forget?" Luke asked, sounding almost mournful.
She chose to chalk his tone up to standard pre-wedding guy-talk. Not anything more personal. Certainly not an indication that Lucas wasn't exactly thrilled about his upcoming marriage.
Even if he was, it was none of her concern.
"It'll all come together," she said, wanting to comfort him for some reason. "Everyone is stressed this close to the big day. It's perfectly normal."
"Speaking from personal experience?"
His gaze shifted to her left hand and she instinctively curled her ringless fingers. Forcing herself to focus on totaling the day's receipts, she said, "Just from being in the business. Not personal experience. I'm completely unattached."
Now, why on earth had she needed to volunteer that tidbit? Lord have mercy, this man was making her jumpy and uptight. She couldn't control what was coming out of her mouth … odd for Rachel, who was usually adept at hiding her true thoughts since the customer always had to be right. Even a customer who insisted on a strapless