“I thought so.”
His text came through, asking what she was doing. She started typing.
“Have you met him yet?”
Chloe shook her head, finished her message about the bachelorette party in Vegas.
“Are you going to?”
Three dots indicated he was typing.
“Only if he asks.” As progressive as she was, she found it necessary for the man to take the first steps.
“You know . . . if you stack the deck with dates while Dante is in town, it might be easier to be around the man.”
Salena had a point.
Chloe’s phone buzzed.
How about meeting for coffee when you get back? Tuesday enough time for you to sleep off the hangover?
Chloe showed the message to Salena.
“Say yes.”
Her friend was right. Chloe needed all the help she could get when Dante was home. If her attention was elsewhere, maybe he’d lose his appeal.
She agreed to coffee with Eric on Tuesday and told him she’d get in touch when she returned.
“I have a feeling this weekend is going to be one for the record books,” Salena said as she watched more passengers arrive for their flight.
“It’s likely the one and only time I’ll be in Vegas with both my brothers.”
“Considering how they’ve helicoptered you since your papa passed, that’s not a bad thing.”
She’d been seventeen when their father died. Luca became the head of the family while he had a one-year-old and a failing marriage. What a crappy couple of years that had been. Now, things were looking up. For all of them.
She’d finished her college classes and earned her business degree. But instead of working for someone else, she wanted to do something on her own. She blamed her family for that. Yes, she waited tables at their restaurant and, honestly, liked the job. But what she loved more than anything was teaching yoga. Her trip to Bali was supposed to happen the year the world shut down, and it was only now that time and world health were giving her the opportunity to go. She knew, somehow, that the trip was going to guide her to whatever her path was going to be. Maybe she’d start her own studio or her own online channel. Brooke had a boatload of knowledge about marketing and was on board with helping her start-up. Financially, Chloe had banked nearly everything she’d earned from the first day she started working and was more ready than most to begin her future.
Her father, in all his wisdom, had taken out a life insurance policy that their mother had divided and put into investment plans for each of them. Luca immediately put everything in his name to his daughter. Giovanni was itching to invest in a vineyard. The resident sommelier wanted to spend time in Tuscany as much as she wanted to spend time in Bali. So, while they did pull shifts waiting tables, doing what had to be done to make the family restaurant run, it wasn’t their lifelong ambition. Well, Luca was the chef, and that was his life’s choice . . . and she and Gio were thankful for it.
“They promised not to act like big brothers in Vegas,” Chloe said.
“Yeah well, they aren’t going to the same strip clubs we are.”
The image of her brothers holding a hand over her eyes made her smile. “Thank God for that.”
The Venetian Las Vegas was one of those hotels where every room was a suite. Put two of them together and everyone had their own bed with plenty of room.
Two rooms for the women, two for the men.
On different floors. Although Luca wanted to argue that arrangement when they were checking in.
“Oh, no. If we’re out late, you are not going to pull that older-brother card on us,” Chloe started in at the reception desk.
“How late do you plan on being out?” Luca asked.
“The real question is how early in the morning will we be walking in,” Salena informed him.
Gio patted his brother’s shoulder. “They’re all talk.”
Brooke waved her phone in the air. “Carmen just landed.”
Carmen was Brooke’s best friend, and maid of honor, from Seattle.
“When is Mayson arriving?”
“Not until three.”
“We should be good and buzzed by then,” Gio pointed out.
The receptionist handed them their keys and they headed toward the elevators.
They passed the casino, and even at eleven in the morning, the people sitting in front of the slot machines appeared as if they’d been there all night.
“Do you gamble?” Salena asked Brooke.
“I don’t mind giving it a whirl, but I don’t see dropping a paycheck chasing odds that are stacked against me.”
Gio nudged his brother. “I take it you didn’t tell her about your little addiction.”
Brooke snapped her attention toward the two of them.
Luca pushed him away, punched his shoulder. “He’s kidding.”
Chloe laughed, pressed their floor when they got on the elevators.
Gio pressed two floors higher.
Luca moaned.
“Dinner at six thirty, downstairs at the steakhouse,” Gio reminded Chloe.
“We’ll be there.”
A few moments later Chloe grabbed Brooke’s free hand and dragged her out of the small space. “C’mon. Time to have fun.”
They laughed as they made their way to their rooms. Inside, they opened the first of the two doors. The welcome package they’d requested—complete with chilled champagne and a basket of fruit—was in the living room portion of one of the suites.
The door between the rooms was open, and in the other room was another bottle of bubbly and a basket of cheese, crackers, and cold meats.
“Salena and I will take this room and you and Carmen take the other,” Chloe suggested.
“Sounds good to me,” Brooke said as she pushed through and rolled her suitcase to the second room.
“This is beautiful.”
The view from the massive windows looking out over the Vegas Strip was something to marvel at.
“I wonder if it’s even brighter at night with Christmas lights?” Salena asked.
“Probably.” Chloe turned to her friend and handed her the champagne. “Let’s get this party started.”
“Wow. This bathroom is huge!” Brooke’s voice called from the other room.
“Glad you like it.”
The sound of the cork popping out of the bottle filled the room. “Hey yo!”
Brooke bounced back in, a smile on her face. “I heard that.”
Salena poured the wine and Chloe made a toast. “To your last single weekend in Vegas.”
“You make it sound like we’re going out to find random men to hook up with.”
“Not hook up with, but look up at,” Chloe countered.
“Thunder Down Under.” Salena lifted her glass high.
“Magic Mike,” Chloe said.
They drank the bubbly wine and turned to the food. “Pacing, food, and hydration,” Brooke added.
That was the plan.
Only by the time Carmen arrived, less than an hour later, the first bottle of champagne was gone and the second was open.
Dante Mancuso walked through the Vegas casino with a suitcase the size of a smart car. To anyone looking, they’d think he was moving in and not there for a weekend bachelor party.
He bypassed the reception desk, already aware of the room he was in, and headed toward the elevators.