She lowered those incredible eyelashes and looked at him through them, “Thanks, you’re not so bad yourself.”  He could swear her eyelashes fluttered as she said, “Any other hidden talents?”

He was about to make a reply filled with double entrendres and sexual innuendos, when Pauli stepped in and asked Jess to dance.

Ben and Lane had danced together to Exactly Like You.  Papa had cut in for the second dance and Ben danced with Mama.  Lane and Ben sat out the third dance.  Uncle Sal had asked for Jess to dance the third dance.

It was the first time Jess and Uncle Sal had spoken since Friday night.  “I am in your debt, little one.”  He said as they began dancing.

She smiled at him.  “I think Joey owes you.  I’d like to acquire his debt as payment for the debt you owe me.”

“Consider it done.”  He smiled down at her.  “Are you sure you aren’t Benito’s child?”

Jess laughed.  “I’m not.”  She inclined her head toward her grandmother, “I look too much like Nana Evie.”  Jess was short like her grandmother.  Evie Parker was five feet nothing.  Lane and the boys were all tall, there was no place else this short stature could have come from.

Joey came to claim the next dance with Jess.  Salvatore Luciano placed Jess’s hand in Joey’s and said “Giuseppe, Il vostro debito è ora nelle mani della bambina.”

Joey looked at her. “You bought my debt from Uncle Sal?”

She smiled.  “Traded, I traded him his debt for yours.”

He narrowed his eyes and nearly growled, “Why do you want me to owe you, Toots?”

“Uncle Sal already owes me.  There’s no reason to have him owe me two favors.”

He pulled her closer and bent to whisper in her ear.  “That still doesn’t tell me why you want me to owe you.”

Did she have any idea what that meant within his family?  He was sure she couldn’t and yet what had Ben told him?  She’d called in a favor from Uncle Vinnie to protect Meg last month.

“You never know when I might need protection.  We’ll keep Ben out of the middle of things this way.”

“Huh?”  He grunted, “And I just come running when you call.  Is that it?”

“Only if I call in the favor.  It will be very clear when I call it in.”

“God you are such a little princess.” He mumbled in an exasperated tone.

The music had stopped and they stood on the dance floor amid Ben and Lane and Jake and Meg and Jamie and Nana Evie.

“Of course I’m a princess, my father’s a queen.” She said as she turned and quickly walked away.

Jamie and Jake both moved toward Joey.  Ben stepped closer to the three of them as he said, “Joey, you have to go after her.”

Joey was confused. “What the hell did she mean?”

Jake stepped closer to Joey and quietly said, “Our father came out of the closet and walked out the door when Jess was a year and a half old.  He may have left Mom, but he abandoned all of us.  Jess has never gotten over it.” Jake looked at Nana Evie.  “Sorry Nana.”

Lane took a step away from Ben. “I’ll go to her.”

Joey held up his hand.  “No, I clean up my own messes.”

He turned and left the ballroom.  Where had she gone?  She had left the ballroom.  She hadn’t stopped at the table to get her purse and she had no keys.  So she hadn’t left the building.  All of the family was in the ballroom.  That meant the Board Room would be empty.  He knew she hadn’t left, and knew she’d want to be alone.  Really alone.  She wouldn’t have gone to the Ladies’ room.  Nope she’d be all alone in the Board Room.

He pushed the carved wooden doors open. She turned as he walked into the room.  She picked up a glass center piece, with an unlit candle, from the table next to her and hurled it toward him.  It whizzed past his head.

“Get out.”  She said firmly as she swiped at her eyes.

Oh, God, she was crying.  They all told him she didn’t cry unless it was written in a script.  Oh, crap.  What had he done?

“I’m not leaving.”  He said quietly but firmly.

She moved to the next table and picked up the center piece and hurled it at him, hitting him in the middle of the chest.

What’s wrong with him, he isn’t even trying to deflect. She thought, but said, “You’ll go or you’ll regret it.”

“I’m not leaving.” He repeated.

She stepped to the next table but before she could pick up the center piece, he’d pulled her into his chest.

He ran his hands gently down her back.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t know.  I’m sorry.”

She pushed away from him.  “That’s because from day one you had a preconceived notion of who I was and that picture was painted by your delusional brother…”  She affected a perfect Pauli tone … “Dr. Paolo Raffaele Bellini.”

She’d stopped crying.  That was good, wasn’t it?

“And he only wants me because I won’t swoon and because he can’t have who he really wants.  My Mother.”

Good God, crying was better.  While she was sort of cute when she was mad, he knew mad wasn’t good.

She started poking him in the chest.  “I am not a princess.”  She waved her hand around, “Do you see Disney anyplace?  Uh-uh. No movie rights here!”

Damn that hurt.  What was it with her and his chest?

She slapped her left hand into her right. And in Italian she began yelling.  “Giuseppe Gabrielli Bellini!  You stupid Italian man.  Every time I try to explain, you tune me out. Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall. A big muscled brick wall. You never hear the important things.  And my name isn’t Toots or little girl.  It’s Jess!”

She looked in his eyes and, still in Italian, said quietly, “Got that or do I need to repeat it?”

So, to answer in English or Italian was Joey’s dilemma. In English, he quietly responded. “Oh, no need to repeat, I got every word.  Every Italian word, Jess.  So you’ve got my attention.  What else?”

She turned her back to him and shook her head.  And then, barely above a whisper, she said, “I never dated Pauli.  I never wanted to date Pauli. I will never want to date Pauli.”

She sighed thinking, I just want to date someone who looks like him.  And she turned back around. They stood only inches apart.

“About that favor. It wasn’t about you owing me.  It was about you not owing Uncle Sal.”

Well, that was bewildering, “I have traded favors back and forth with my Uncles since I was old enough to talk.”

She shook her head. She had understood every word the man had spoken to Uncle Sal last night.  She’d heard him ask for more money.  Uncle Sal had said he didn’t even know the man.  And now that man was dead too.

“It’s better to owe some people than others.  But it doesn’t matter anymore because I have to call in my favor now anyway.  You can’t ever tell anyone I speak Italian.”  She paused.  “Oh and one more thing.  What about those packages?  Who decided to keep them from me?”

“The guy’s dead and the police have them, does it really matter?”

“What matters is that no one gets to decide what’s best for me.  If I had known he was here I wouldn’t have gone to the mall. If we hadn’t gone to the mall, you wouldn’t have been stabbed.”

He shook his head. “And Lila would still be alive and you wouldn’t be the hottest thing in Hollywood.”

She shook her head as she let out an exasperated groan.  “Priorities Joey.  I didn’t want Lila dead, just in jail for the rest of her life. Someone would have taken care of her there.  And I don’t need to be the hottest thing in Hollywood.  But I do need to know you’re okay.”

“And I need to know you understand, I’m not going anywhere.”  He pulled her into his chest and whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She’d been abandoned one too many times already.  No, I’m not going anywhere, he thought, but you are.  She was going to Europe, and who knows how long she was going to be gone or what would, happen while she was there?