Miracle (The Pagano Family Book 6) (20 page)

Tina stared, trying to imagine how she might phrase her concern. She’d never been alone with The Korgen. When she was putting together her committee, she’d emailed him to ask for a meeting, but he’d emailed back and asked for her prospectus and literature review, and then he’d simply emailed again after he’d read what she’d sent, and he’d agreed to sit on her committee.

Now, well after the end of the semester, the building was like a wasteland, and his office was on the opposite end of the faculty wing. She didn’t want to be in there with him when there was no one else around.

“Relax, Tina. His reputation is overblown. You’ll be fine. Besides,” she added with a tiny smirk, “I think he’s involved at the moment.”

~oOo~

Since she was already tied in knots over the meeting with Esther, and since she was on campus, Tina decided to bite the proverbial bullet and see if The Korgen was in his office, too.

He was. Some kind of heavy-handed classical music blared through his ajar office door. The administrative assistants in the adjoining department office must have been going crazy dealing with the racket.

She pushed the door open and stuck her head in.

His desk faced the far wall, so her view at first was of his back. He was jerking around like he was conducting the noise that was so loud the doorknob in her hand vibrated.

“Dr. Korgen?” she yelled. “DR. KORGEN?”

He jumped and turned, then picked up a small remote and pushed a button. The silence was so abrupt Tina thought her ears might pop.

“Yes? Oh! Valentina! A delight to see you. Come, sit.” Thankfully, he didn’t indicate the sofa, but instead gestured toward an upholstered chair beside his desk. She sat.

“You wanted to talk about my dissertation?”

“Yes, yes I did. Impressive work, my dear. I’d like to pick your brain a bit more.”

As long as it was only her brain he meant to pick, Tina figured she’d be fine.

~oOo~

As Esther had done in their meeting, asking her questions to prep her for her defense, so The Korgen had done as well. By the time she thanked him for his time, she felt better about her upcoming defense and better about Herman Korgen as a human being, too.

When she stood, so did he. “Let me take you out for a drink. To celebrate a job well done.”

Oh shit. Tina’s brain sped up. “That’s a…nice offer, but I have to get back. My boyfriend is taking me out to dinner to celebrate.”

That was a lie. Joey didn’t even know yet how the meetings had gone. But it was a safe lie. Men always respected the ‘there’s already a man with a claim on me’ rejection better than they did the ‘I’d rather not for my own sake’ rejection.

Except, it seemed, The Krogen. “I’m sure you have time for just one drink—with the traffic you’ll miss, you’ll barely be home any later.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t. But thank you.”

His friendly expression flicked off, exactly as if he’d pushed a button and turned it off. “Yes, well. Good evening, then.” Without waiting for her to leave, he sat down at his desk, putting his back to her.

Nothing in this last exchange had been inappropriate, and yet Tina felt as if she’d just landed in a disaster. Had she ruined her chances of completing her degree that easily?

Wanting to ask if he still intended to sign off on her diss, but knowing that the question would give offense, she crept from his office as if she’d done something wrong.

~oOo~

She didn’t tell Joey about The Korgen because she wasn’t sure whether her impression was rational. Instead, she simply texted the one real fact of the day:
Met with Esther. It’s in the committee’s hands now
.

He wrote back right away:
No more revisions? All done?

Looks like it.

Hey! Congrats, baby! That’s awesome!!!!

Seeing ellipses after she got that, she waited for another message. It was:
Let’s celebrate.

Especially after her last meeting, excitement seemed premature.
I only turned it in. I don’t know yet if they’ll all sign off on it.

You wrote a BOOK, T. That’s huge. Fuck them if they’re not impressed. I sure as fuck am. I want to celebrate you.

Joey’s enthusiasm for her eased her mind, and she smiled. He was right—already she’d accomplished a huge thing.
How?

Something fancy. Dominic’s?

Ooh. Dominic’s was the nicest restaurant in the Cove—the nicest on the coast, in fact. It rivaled any hoity-toity place in Boston, and the dining room was built out over the water. She looked down at her clothes—skinny jeans and Docs, with an oversized t-shirt. She’d been working with very young kids today, and that required a lot of crawling around on the floor, so she’d dressed down. She couldn’t go out to a nice dinner dressed like this, but it was getting late and she still had the drive home. Was there a nice enough outfit in her closet for Dominic’s? And she’d need a shower, too.

Not Dominic’s? Someplace else?

No—Dominic’s is perfect. A late reservation, tho. I need to go home and change first.

Okay. Pick you up at 8?

Better make it 8:30.

You got it. Love you.

Love you back.

~oOo~

She wore a little black dress she had—short and plain, with a low scoop neck and thin bands of white eyelet around the hems of the flared skirt and the long sleeves. It seemed innocent to the point of childish on the hanger, but it hugged her chest, and the neckline showed a lot of cleavage. The skirt was short enough that she couldn’t bend over without risking a public indecency charge. She wore it with fishnets and platform pumps. She did her makeup with an emphasis on sultry, and she clipped the front part of her hair back, arranging it into a bit of a pouf.

Her father was back with her mother when she came downstairs. She peeked into the room and said good night.

“You look fancy,” he observed, on the evidence only of her head, since she had endeavored not to open the door enough to show her dress. Her father didn’t like when she showed too much leg.

“Joey’s taking me to Dominic’s to celebrate turning in my final draft.”

“Nice. Well, get in here, let’s have a look.”

Tina sighed. She would be twenty-nine in a few months, but she knew her father was about to say something. She stepped in.

Rather than speak, he raised a single bushy eyebrow. It said volumes.

Luckily, the doorbell chimed just then. “Okay. That’s Joey. Don’t wait up. I love you!” She hurried in and kissed her mother’s cheek and then her father’s, ignoring any further critique her parents might offer of her wardrobe.

Joey stood there stunned when she opened the door, and that review-by-expression was vastly more satisfying. Tina grinned. “You like?”

Looking great himself, in a black suit with a black shirt, the top buttons open and showing a preview of the delights underneath, he nodded. “Beautiful.”

With a start, she realized that he looked
fantastic
. That he was
really
fit. He’d been losing weight and building muscle for months, and she’d thought she’d noticed the changes as they’d happened, and she’d been naked with him less than forty-eight hours earlier, so she knew his body intimately. But standing there in that black suit, broad-shouldered and narrow-hipped, she realized that she hadn’t perceived the full transformation.

She’d thought he was hot when he was heavier and softer. She’d thought he was hot when he was gym-rat shredded and veiny. She simply thought he was hot, and her attraction was built on much more than physical appearance. But she knew it was important to Joey that he be seen as attractive, generally, and that fitness was an accomplishment he needed.

Damn, he’d sure met that goal.

Meeting that goal had brought greater health and strength, which was more important. They both reaped the benefits of his fitness. Nearly every night.

“You look wicked hot, Joey Pagano. Almost too hot not to jump right here.”

He grinned and took her hand. “Jump…later. Planning it.”

~oOo~

As usual when they were together, especially while they shared a meal, Tina did almost all of the talking. In the weeks since Carlo Sr.’s funeral, Joey hadn’t regained much of his word access—some, but he was still behind where he’d been before. It wearied him to try, especially at the end of a long day, so she was inclined not to push him.

On the other hand, he had emphatically insisted that she stop babying him, so she’d stopped monologuing so much and engaged him in actual conversation.

On this night, however, he wanted to know about her meeting with Esther, and she was happy to focus on that good meeting, so she spoke at length about it.

While she spoke, it was hard not to notice the large table at the far side of the dining room. She was facing it, and she couldn’t look at Joey without seeing who was behind him: Nick Pagano, surrounded by men in dark suits. She knew them as his capos, the officers of his organization. At smaller tables around Nick’s table, and at the front as well, were other men who were, to her familiar eye, Pagano Brothers men.

Angie was one of them, sitting near Nick’s table. He’d nodded at her when they’d first made eye contact, and he hadn’t seemed happy to see her there, but she knew he wouldn’t make further contact. He was obviously working.

At Nick’s right was Donnie Goretti, a man she would recognize anywhere, because he had been terribly burned, and half of his face was skin grafts, like a plastic mask. Angie called him Face. Tina supposed they all did.

Although the family was supposed to ignore what Angie did, and their father wanted them to ‘know nothing about nothing’ regarding the Pagano Brothers, it was difficult to remain ignorant in a small town like the Cove, especially with her own brother in the organization. What she was thinking right now was that the place at Nick’s right was where his underboss sat. She thought Julie Nicci was Nick’s underboss.

“Baby?”

At the sound of Joey’s voice, she understood that she’d drifted off, probably in mid-sentence. “Sorry. Got distracted.”

“Don’t… …see.” He sighed and tried again. “Ignore them.”

Joey had his back to Nick’s table. “You know who’s back there?”

He nodded. “He’ll…stop here. … …If goes…first.”

Of course. And she supposed they would go back there if they left first. Familial respect. But Nick was obviously working, so until that time they’d stay in their respective bubbles.

“Julie Nicci isn’t there. That’s a big deal, right? Donnie’s sitting at his right. Do you know if something happened?”

“Tina, stop. Not our… …business.”

That was true. But her brother was sitting right there, looking intently around the room, his face creased with wary menace. Angie was an asshole, but he was her brother, and she loved him. Something seemed off.

But how the hell did she suppose she would know if there was anything off? She didn’t understand the inner workings of the Pagano Brothers. She shook her head and dislodged those thoughts with a laugh.

“Sorry.” They were about finished with their meal, and she’d been thinking about dessert, but now she was ready to leave Dominic’s. “You want to go?”