Before he’d left Vegas this morning, Joey had called his brother, Pauli, who was doing his residency in St. Louis.  “Bro.  Stay in St. Louis.  I’m you in Kansas City.”

Jess still didn’t understand why no one else seemed able to see the difference between Joey and Pauli, but she was glad he’d stopped calling her Toots and was behaving more like Pauli than like an extra from The Godfather.  What was she thinking?  Pauli fawning over her was annoying all on its own.

She wasn’t sure how long he planned to walk around in scrubs and what was he wearing on his feet?  The shoes were all wrong.  Pauli wore athletic shoes, that was true, but Jess could swear the Nike’s Joey was wearing had diamonds in the logo.  Who would do that?

He’d taken the keys to her mother’s Escalade and driven by her mother’s house.  He was hunting for paparazzi.  He wanted to lure them out into the open, where he could pose and let them know he was Dr. Paolo Raffaele Bellini and that he was dating Jess.  The more photos the paparazzi got of him in his Pauli clothes the better.  Then he could get out of these stupid scrubs, back into his suit, fly back to Vegas and get on with his life. And no one in Vegas would know he was mixed up in this mess.

Of course, he wasn’t sure who was going to protect Jess when he went home, and clearly someone needed to keep an eye on things.  She was a little spitfire and who knew what kind of trouble she’d get into on her own.

She was a good actress though. They didn’t even like each other and she’d let him hold doors for her and hold her hand as they’d wandered into and out of some stores on the Plaza.

They’d gotten back in the SUV, and he’d driven them to Ben’s.  Once inside she’d looked at him.  “I’m not sure what you think you know, but your brother and I are not a couple.  Do you hear me?” She said, as she followed him through the house.  He was carrying a garment bag, so he could change out of the scrubs and into his own clothes.  She was so mad she followed him right into the guest room.  He’d put the garment bag on the bed and stood listening.  He was six feet four inches tall, she was five feet four inches tall in her bare feet and he wasn’t sure whether that was the truth or publicity propaganda.  She seemed shorter to him.  He’d looked her up online earlier today and read the whole publicity spread.

Jessica Anne Parker, whose Screen Actors Guild card said Jessica Anne Lane. She was 20 years old, born February 14, and was America’s sweetheart as she prepared to take on the dual roles of Kate and Kit Hart.  She was five feet four inches tall, so she always wore shoes with at least five inch heels.  She’d been a student at UCLA and had some bit parts in TV shows and movies before getting the call for the audition.  Interviewers seemed obsessed with her eyelashes.  They were real, she’d told all of them.  He’d seen a clip of her tugging on them to prove the point. Having seen them up close and personal, he had to admit, they were the longest thickest eyelashes he’d ever seen.  The interview must have been done yesterday, before she’d gone to her condo and had the melt down, because she was wearing the same little red dress and shoes she had on when he’d found her holed up in the bathroom.

He’d watched a couple of her other interviews on the internet.  She seemed to be poised and intelligent, with a sharp wit, as she answered questions.  She bantered with the interviewers when they asked about her personal life and whether or not she had a boyfriend.

She had always denied having a boyfriend, but that wasn’t the story Pauli had been telling Joey ad-nauseam.  For the last month, it had been Jess Parker this, Jess Parker that, Jess Parker has the biggest bluest eyes. Joey had never seen his brother so enamored with a woman.  He wondered if the attraction might be that Jess wasn’t falling all over Pauli the way women usually did.

All of the Bellini brothers were tall, with dark hair and whiskey colored eyes.  They all worked out.  They had rock hard biceps and six pack abs. Hell, their muscles had muscles. They had million watt smiles that could stop traffic.  Women normally fell all over them, but Jess Parker didn’t seem to notice.  Maybe it was because she’d been in Hollywood, where drop dead gorgeous men were a dime a dozen; or maybe it was because she’d spent the last three years around the eldest Bellini, who had set the standard for the rest of them.  Maybe she was just immune to the Bellini charm.  Whatever the reason, she didn’t cut him any slack.  Pauli, he meant, she didn’t cut Pauli any slack.

She still stood in the bedroom, haranguing him about telling the paparazzi that she and Pauli were a couple.  For inferring that her SAG card would soon say Bellini because their relationship was so serious that she’d soon be using Pauli’s last name.  The truth was her Screen Actors Guild card bore the name Jessica Lane.  There were already Sarah Jessica Parker and Jessica Parker Kennedy and she had felt another Jessica anything Parker was too confusing.

She wasn’t yelling.  It seemed to Joey that the angrier she got, the quieter her voice became.  He had to lean in to hear what she was saying, but there was no mistaking the body language.  She stood toe to toe with him, fists on her hips, except when she was poking him in the chest.  God it hurt every time she poked that huge bruise she’d given him, but she was so cute when she was mad.  Suddenly, he practically doubled over when the heel of her right hand landed in his solar plexus knocking the wind out of him.

“You big dumb Pisano.  You aren’t even listening to me,” she said as she turned and left the room closing the door behind her.

As he stood, bent at the waist, his hands on his knees, struggling to catch his breath, he wondered why he’d had to go to L.A. yesterday to save her.  Seemed to him between the paint ball gun yesterday and the punch she’d just delivered that she could take care of herself in a pinch.

She walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. No soda.  Oh right, Ben had the fridge in the in the garage for sodas.  She went into the garage and got a Diet Dr. Pepper. She was back in the kitchen getting a glass of ice when Joey came in.  He was wearing what must be the Bellini casual uniform.  He had on a black long sleeved silk T-shirt tucked into a pair of khaki slacks.  He was wearing Berluti loafers.  Geeze there were only two places in the United States to get Berluti’s; Miami or New York.  He’d pushed his sleeves up, apparently so he could showcase the muscles in his forearms.

He smiled at her.  “You sure know how to throw a punch, Toots.”

She raised an eyebrow and glared at him.  “Jess.  My name is Jess.”  She inclined her head toward the lake behind Ben’s house.  “There are three of them out there with telephoto lenses.”  She walked over to him and ran her hand down his arm. She smiled.  “Whatever your plan was, I guess it’s working.”  She stood on her tip toes and kissed him, before leaning in and whispering, “Now what, wise guy?”

She’d spent the day with this infuriating and controlling man.  Ben had accused her of trying to direct her family like actors on a stage.  Had he even met his brother Joey?  She’d followed his direction all day.  “Smile like you’re glad to be here with me.” “Hold my hand.”  “Now laugh because I just said something funny.”  She’d been doing improv all day and she needed a break, but with the paparazzi camped outside Ben’s house with telephoto lenses she wasn’t going to get one any time soon.  She still had to act like the happy girlfriend.  And she had no idea why.

He picked her up, sat her on the island and moved her legs apart so he could stand closer.  He looked into her eyes. Before leaning down and kissing her.  He told himself it was so the paparazzi could get their candid shots and move on. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him closer.  She leaned into him and whispered into his ear.  “Take it easy big guy.  It’s called acting.”  She leaned back and looked onto his eyes.  Where had she seen those eyes before?