Vinny, Uncle Sal, Uncle Bernie, and a couple of the other men sat around the poker table divvying up chips. The women were still in the kitchen, cleaning.

Leo had asked Faith to join him so she wouldn’t be left with the women. After the Caprice incident and the drama the night before with Gemma, he didn’t want to leave Faith to the wolves who would poke around in her head for as many dirty details as they could.

He joined her on the sofa, and she snuggled against him for a long time, not speaking. He wanted to take her somewhere private and find out what she suspected or knew about what had happened that afternoon leading to Caprice’s departure, but he waited until it was time for bed.

His mother gave him a conflicted look as he led Faith to his room. He suspected she knew something had happened with Caprice. If she’d known the details, it would have sent her into a Christmas Day heart attack. It was bad enough she thought something normal and vanilla had happened.

In her head, her son sleeping in the same room with Faith might keep his interest off Caprice, but at the price of living in sin. Such a conundrum. Leo was glad he didn’t have to live in his mother’s mental cottage.

He shut the door and locked it. Faith was beside the bed with the kitten who they’d decided to leave in the box with the top off when they weren’t playing with her until she was fully litter trained. The box was far too tall for the little cotton ball to climb out of, though she made quite an angry and repeated effort.

“Did you decide what you’re going to call her?” Leo asked as he stripped down.

Faith looked away from him when he got down to his boxers and turned her attention back to the box. “Snowball. I know, stupid name.”

“It’s not stupid. She’s too warm for a snowball, but she looks the part.”

His nudity made her uncomfortable, but it was his room and his bed and he didn’t wear clothes to bed. And Faith shouldn’t either. It was unnatural. She should be grateful he wasn’t pushing the issue. After his family was gone, she could go back to her room and feel safe behind her own locked door.

“Get your pajamas on and let’s go to bed,” he said.

She looked relieved that he wasn’t going to insist on her nudity and scurried into the bathroom to change. Even with his liaison with Caprice, he was aroused again, so he couldn’t blame her for the fear. So sweet and defenseless. She always looked as if she’d stepped out of a professional soft-focus portrait.

Caprice was probably right about the woodland creatures. He had a red-haired Snow White in his castle. But weren’t redheads supposed to be more fiery? More opinionated and strong-willed? He’d waited endlessly for that part of her personality to assert itself, but if it existed at all, it came out in small, ineffective protests. He didn’t mind her reserved nature, but it meant he had to be more careful with her. He was never confused on where Caprice was mentally, but Faith held back more of herself. Too much.