Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts Page B

let me look at you.”
    â€œYou saw me two weeks ago at Bella’s Bridal Shower of the Century.”
    â€œTwo weeks, two days.” Bianca pulled back. Her smile faltered for a moment, and something came and went in her eyes.
    â€œWhat? What?”
    â€œNothing.” But Bianca pressed a kiss to her brow, like a benediction. “I’ve got all my children home again. Pete, go switch with Catarina. She’ll take over for you in here. We want to be girls.”
    â€œMore wedding talk. I’m already getting a headache.” Waving his hands, Pete scooted out.
    â€œAm I in trouble?” Only half joking, Reena got a bottle of water out of the cooler. “Did the crack I made about the bridesmaid dress making me look like an anemic scallion get back to Bella?”
    â€œNo, and you’ll look beautiful, even if the dress is . . . unfortunate.”
    â€œOooh, diplomacy.”
    â€œDiplomacy is my last tool of survival in this wedding business. Otherwise, I’d have snapped Bella’s neck like a twig by now.” She lifted ahand, shook her head. “She can’t help it. She’s excited, terrified, wildly in love, and she wants Vince to be proud of her—all while impressing his parents, looking like a movie star and trying to furnish a big new house.”
    â€œSounds like she’s in her element.”
    â€œTrue enough. Your dad needs dough for two large and a medium,” she added, and watched as Reena competently cut and weighed. “You don’t forget how.”
    â€œI was born weighing dough.”
    She put the extra dough back in the cooler, took out what her father needed. Then joined her mother at the work counter to pitch in with salad.
    â€œTwo house for table six. I’ll take the Greek for station three. This wedding is the biggest dream of her life.” Bianca continued as they chopped. “I want her to have exactly what she wants. I want all my children to have exactly what they want.”
    She loaded a tray, moved it to the pick-up area. “Order up,” she called out, then moved back to fill another.
    â€œYou’ve been with a boy.”
    The water felt like a hard little ball when Reena managed to swallow. “What?”
    â€œYou think I can’t look at you and see?” Bianca kept her voice low, gauging her husband’s proximity and the noise element that would cover her words. “That I couldn’t see with each of my children? You were the last.”
    â€œXander’s been with a boy?”
    To Reena’s relief, Bianca laughed. “So far he prefers girls. Do I know the boy?”
    â€œNo. It just . . . We started seeing each other a while ago, and it just happened. Just last week. I wanted it to happen, Mama. I’m sorry if you’re disappointed, but—”
    â€œDid I say that? Did I ask you about your conscience, or your choice? You were careful?”
    â€œYes. Mama.” Reena put the knife down, turned to wrap her arms around her mother’s waist. “We were careful. I like him so much. You will, too.”
    â€œHow do I know if I’ll like him when you don’t bring him home to meet your family? When you don’t tell me anything about him.”
    â€œHe’s a lit major. He’s going to be a writer. He keeps a sloppy apartment and has the sweetest smile. His name is Josh Bolton, and he grew up in Ohio.”
    â€œWhat about his family?”
    â€œHe doesn’t talk much about them. His parents are divorced, and he’s an only child.”
    â€œHe’s not Catholic then?”
    â€œI don’t think so. I didn’t ask. He’s gentle, and he’s very smart, and he listens when I talk.”
    â€œAll important things.” Bianca turned, took Reena’s face in her hands. “You’ll bring him to meet the family.”
    â€œHe’s going to come to Bella’s wedding.”
    â€œBrave,