Read One Step Closer (Erotic Romance) Book 1 (The DeLuca Brothers) for Free Online Page B

for Sofia, but he'd always
acted as if he'd never do anything about it because she was with Frank. When
he'd heard that Gio and Sofia were engaged, Frank had been just as mad at his
cousin as he had been at Sofia. At least, at first. As time wore on, Frank had
come to sympathize with Gio. After all, Gio'd had a crush on Sofia for years,
one that she'd never requited. Could Frank really blame him when, after all
that time, she had finally acknowledged him? It wasn't like Gio'd had someone
that he'd supposedly loved that should've taken some time to get over. Sofia's
betrayal was so much worse than Gio's weakness.
    Frank smiled at Gio
and held out a hand. “I'm doing great,
Gio. How've you been?”
    “Good, man, thanks,”
Gio remained standing as Maria announced that dinner was ready.
    Gio visibly relaxed
as Frank motioned for Gio to join them in the dining room. Maria glanced at her
son, raising an eyebrow in question, but he didn't answer her unspoken inquiry,
instead focusing on Gio talking about his job at his father's auto-body shop.
He nodded in all of the right places, asked polite questions about his cousin's
life, all the while skirting around the very large elephant in the room. For
once, Anthony even kept his mouth shut and no one mentioned Sofia. After
several minutes of making banal small talk around a delicious meal, Frank
excused himself, claiming to need a refill for his drink.
    Once in the kitchen,
he leaned against the counter and closed his eyes. He was trying, but even if
he wasn't angry at Gio anymore, the sight of his cousin was just a reminder of
all that had been lost. Even the food didn't taste as good as it should have.
    “Francis,” Maria's
voice startled him.
    “Ma,” Frank
straightened and hoped that the expression on his face was one of pleased
surprise. Judging by the fact that her lips were pressed together in a tight
line, he didn't think he'd succeeded.
    “You're not as good
of a liar as you seem to think you are,” Maria got straight to the point. “Or
maybe I just know you better than most, because you may be fooling your cousin,
and maybe even your brothers, but you're not fooling me.”
    “I don't know what
you mean,” Frank was intentionally evasive. He turned his back on his mother to
take a bottle of water from the fridge.
    “Bullshit.”
    Frank spun around,
his eyes wide. Had his mother, Maria DeLuca, the woman who'd once put him in a
headlock and washed his mouth out with soap for saying 'damn,' actually cursed?
    “Ma?”
    “You heard me,
Francis Russo DeLuca,” Maria crossed her arms and looked up at her son, the use
of his full name telling him as much as anything just how serious she was.
    In that moment,
Frank saw every inch of steel that had given his mother the strength she'd
needed to raise him and his brothers on her own. Still, he played dumb. “You're gonna have to help me out here, Ma. What are
you talking about?”
    “You're still in
love with Sofia.” When Frank started to protest, Maria raised a hand. “Don't
bother. I saw the look on your face when you saw her. Your brothers might think
that you followed her because you're still upset and wanted to confront her,
but I know better. I know you're still in love with her.”
    Frank started to
shake his head, to deny it, but Maria kept going.
    “You need to go talk
to her, Francis.”
    “I don't think
there's anything left for us to say to each other,” Frank managed to get a
sentence out. Something crossed Maria's face, a strange look, as if there were
something important he needed to know, but that she wasn't sure she should say.
“Unless you know different.”
    “I know that you two
left things unsettled. You need closure. Both of you,” Maria's tone was firm,
leaving no room for questions.
    Frank sighed,
suddenly weary. “I'll go see her.” Before
Maria could say anything, he clarified. “Tomorrow. I'll see her tomorrow. Right
now, I'm tired. I'm going to head into the city, find a hotel for