He dragged five different ties from the rack on the back of the closet door. “I’ll live, Ma. I’ll eat the pandoro for breakfast tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, so now we don’t see you until breakfast. What’s going on, eh, Tony?”

He took a deep breath, then said, “Well, there’s this girl—”

“I knew it! Ringrazi il cielo, did you hear that, Sal? Tony’s got a girl. A Christmas Eve girl.”

He grinned, shaking his head. “Look, Ma, don’t get too exci—”

“Ha. Don’t you tell me. I know what it means when a man spends Christmas Eve with a girl. Didn’t your father and I get engaged on Christmas Eve, eh? Didn’t we?” She paused to blow her nose. “It’s just like when you were in college, and you kept promising to bring someone to meet us. It always broke my heart that you never brought her home, Tony.”

He knew he should explain that this was a casual date that happened to fall on Christmas Eve. He knew he should explain that Elaine St. James was out of his league, that they’d probably go their separate ways after tonight, that she was no more cut out to be a cop’s wife than he was to be a society husband. He should tell his mother that he’d stood in the middle of Elaine’s designer apartment today and felt like an alien life-form.

But he didn’t say any of that. Because there was something stubborn about his heart, something that made him think that maybe, just maybe, he and Elaine could get it right this time.

“Are your shoes polished?” she demanded, businesslike now.

“Huh?”

“Your shoes, your shoes. You shine them until you see your teeth reflected, you hear me?”

Grinning again, he excavated his dress shoes. “No problem, Ma.”

“And your suit—the one you bought for Uncle Rico’s funeral, yes?”

“An excellent choice.”

She rattled off a string of instructions while he held up each tie, looking for the perfect match.

“I got to get in the shower, Ma,” he said after a while. “I don’t want to be late.”

“Go, go,” she urged him. “But...Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“Bring her home this time, eh?”

He ripped the cellophane off the white shirt. “I’ll do my best, Ma.”

Chapter Eleven

chapter eleven

Elaine’s work on the St. James affair had long been finished. What she was supposed to do, at this point, was relax, enjoy the party and make sure everyone had a fabulous time.

But tonight was different. It was Christmas Eve, the clients were her parents and she was getting a shot at her biggest account to date. In the midst of all this, she was supposed to forget her troubles, forget that her best friend had betrayed her, forget that her boyfriend had dropped her.