Gianni - The Santinis Read Free

had been beyond embarrassing to have his
mother questioning the doctor as if Gee was five. Of course, he
didn’t tell her that the accident came under heavy fire and
they had to set the copter down hard. She probably would have been
even worse.
    “ Vince did say
I was overreacting.”
    “ He’s
right, Mom.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek as he slipped past
her into the hallway.
    She followed him to
the kitchen. His father was reading the news on his tablet while he
finished his morning coffee. With a sigh, she grabbed the coffee pot
to top off his mug. “I wish you wouldn’t leave so soon.”
    “ I need to get
back to Georgia.”
    And back to
Kianna . They hadn’t done more than email over the last two
months, but it had kept him going while he was over there. He lived
for each and every email. She had even sent him a box of brownies.
He’d talked to her a few times since he’d returned. Okay,
every day since he returned. Each time the connection he felt with
her seemed to strengthen.
    His mother wasn’t
done trying her best to keep him close. “I think you should
stay here.”
    “ You think all
the boys should stay here, Joe. Quit fussing,” his father said.
He glanced at Gee. “Can you walk and talk?”
    “ Yes, sir.”
    Papa as he was
called—because only soon-to-be-dead men called him by his given
name of Stewart—peered at his mother over the top of his
glasses. “Then, he’s fine.”
    She shot his father
a look that usually spelled trouble for any Santini man but Vince
saved him. “I have to get Gee to Dulles if he’s going to
make that flight.”
    His mother frowned
but she nodded. She gave him a hard hug. “You get hurt again, I
will beat the hell out of you.”
    He laughed. His
mother had a twisted sense of humor and he loved her more for it.
    “ I’ll
make sure to remember that.”
    It took him more
than ten minutes to get out the door. By the time they were heading
down I-66 to the airport, Gee was exhausted.
    “ You’re
lucky Mom doesn’t have direct access to reports.”
    He glanced at his
brother. “I take it you do.”
    Vince nodded. “How
bad was it?”
    “ To tell you
the truth, I’m not sure. I remember the distress call, then
flashes after it.” He shrugged as some of the memories washed
over him. “I woke up in the hospital.”
    Vince whistled.
“Damned glad Mom can’t read those things. She would
freak.”
    “ Did you ever
tell her you broke your leg in three places?”
    Vince snorted. “What
am I, crazy?”
    He chuckled. “No
more than any other Santini.”
    “ That’s
true. Glad you made it back in time for the wedding. We have a month
to plan a bachelor party.”
    He rolled his eyes.
“You know Marco won’t do anything like that. Hell, Leo’s
was sad and pathetic.”
    “ That’s
true.” He took the exit for Dulles but said nothing for a few
minutes. Gee knew there was something coming up. You just never knew
when it came to Vince.
    “ So, you gonna
tell me who she is?”
    He shouldn’t
be surprised his brother figured out his reasons for rushing back to
Moody. Still, it didn’t mean he had to give into the
questioning. “She?”
    “ The woman you
want to get to see back in Valdosta.”
    He sighed. Close to
ten years separated them, but Vince was the same with all the
brothers. Hell, Leo and Vince were less than two years apart and
Vince did the same thing to him.
    “ Just a woman
I met the last day before I left.”
    Vince’s
eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
    “ Not like
that. I met her at that sweet shop I go to. We hit it off and we
spent the day together. We’ve been emailing.”
    “ Name.”
    Gee smiled amused at
the command. “Is this an inquisition?”
    “ I just want
to know what to call my future sister-in-law.”
    Gianni rolled his
eyes. “We barely kissed.”
    “ Gee Santini,
who never lasts more than two months with a woman has been pining for
one for almost three. And you haven’t even slept with her.
Damn, I am going to be the last