“It’s cute.” Bianca pinched her daughter’s cheek. “She’s cute, eh?”

Cute was a wholly inadequate word to describe Angi, but Gabe nodded because what else could he do?

“Also single,” the woman added with a cunning glint in her eyes.

Gabe chose not to respond to that information.

Angi rolled her eyes. “Come on, Mom. We’ve got to get set up.”

“It was good to see you,” Bianca told Gabe. “You’re a good boy. Also handsome.”

Now it was Gabe’s turn to blush, but Bianca wasn’t finished.

“Come for a meal, and you can take my Angela out sometime. She has a date with Artie Caferno on Friday, but she’s free another—”

“Mom, I don’t have a date on Friday.”

Bianca winked at Gabe. “I haven’t told her about it yet, but she does. He’s a couple of years younger, but Angela is as gorgeous as any girl out there. I talked to Artie’s mom yesterday to confirm the details.”

“Mom!”

“I had a heart attack,” Angi’s mother continued, her gaze focused on Gabe. “It helps me feel better—less stressed—to think of my beautiful girl settled. It’s not too much to ask, right?”

Gabe blinked but was saved from answering as Angi grabbed her mother’s arm and pulled her toward the door that led to the kitchen and dining area, muttering the entire way about appropriate boundaries.

“See you soon,” Bianca called over her shoulder.

Gabe waved, then couldn’t help but shout, “Have fun on Friday.”

Angi lifted her hand like she was waving, but it turned into a one-fingered salute, which made Gabe laugh even harder.

ANGI DIDN’T REALIZE how difficult it would be to avoid Gabe Carlyle until she set out to try. After the humiliating interaction with her mother at the nursing care facility, the last thing she wanted was to see his inevitably smug smile or have him ask about her unwanted plans for Friday night.

She still couldn’t believe her mother had arranged a date without Angi’s consent. But when Angi had demanded that Bianca call Julia Caferno and cancel, her mother had pressed a hand to her chest. It had been subtle, and maybe she was faking, but Angi wasn’t going to take the chance.

That was the number-one reason she didn’t want to see or talk to Gabe, followed closely by the knowledge that he wasn’t only the surly, angry man he appeared to her. It had been easy enough to write him off when that’s what she’d thought. But the way he’d talked to his grandmother and the sadness that had filled his gaze at her obvious confusion added a facet to his personality that made Angi more than a little uncomfortable.

It made her remember the sweet and gentle boy she’d known during those long-ago summers. The boy who’d looked at her with an adoration she’d never before experienced, who hadn’t cared that she was chubby or her hair was too black and her eyebrows too thick compared to a gaggle of blond-haired, blue-eyed Southern belles that seemed to inhabit the town. There had even been a runner-up for the Miss Junior North Carolina title in Angi’s class. Angi had been different from every girl she knew. It hadn’t mattered for her older brothers. They were athletic and swarthy. She was just an odd duck.