Chapter Two

(Dante's POV)

"Are you sure you're up for this?" I asked Lulu as we walked up the driveway to my uncle's restaurant. "Because the family we saw last night at mass… that was just a fraction of the Falconeris you are going to meet tonight."

"Is there alcohol here?" she countered with a grin that left me mesmerized. The past few days had been more fun than any family Christmas I could remember. Lulu fit in so well with my family, and she took their craziness in stride. The only difficult aspect of the trip was keeping my attraction to my best friend's sister in check. Her expression at that moment certainly was not helping.

"All the wine you could ever ask for," I answered in a mumble, forcing my gaze away from her lips.

"Then it'll be fine. And even if it's terrible, like miserably terrible… I am coordinating a New Year's Eve wedding for 700 guests in less than a week. So unless there are 700 Falconeris in there, I think I'll survive."

Her cheeks were a rosy red which closely matched the color of her hat. She was absolutely adorable – another reason why I needed to get her inside quickly before I lost the small ounce of will-power I had left.

"So, uh… have you heard from Lucky at all?" I changed the subject and led her to the door.

"Just a text message 'Merry Christmas'. How many times has he called you to check up on me?"

"I actually haven't heard from him at all. He must be pretty sick. I hope he's staying in bed."

**
(Maxie's POV)

"When did we last have a meal?" Lucky asked as he came out of the bathroom wearing only a towel. "And the strawberries and chocolate do not count as a meal."

"I don't know about you, but I had an awesome lunch at my dad's house earlier. Another reason you should have joined me…"

"Right," he scoffed, "I could have just said 'Hi, Mac. Merry Christmas, oh, and by the way, I'm sleeping with your daughter boss.'"

I rolled my eyes and pulled one of his t-shirts out from his dresser, draping it over my body. The first time we hooked up, we still did not know what exactly was going on between us. However, within weeks, I knew that there was something serious going on between us. I knew Lucky felt the same, but he was adamantly against telling anybody about our relationship. He insisted that he needed more time to figure out how to tell Lulu. Sometimes I wondered if that was really his only concern.

Lucky's past with Elizabeth was practically Port Charles legend. Even though Elizabeth turned out to be a complete bitch, there were still a number of people who believed they should be together. Lucky never talked about Elizabeth, but I had a terrible feeling in my heart that he was secretly hoping that she would come back to him. Yet that did not stop me from falling so deeply in love with him.

"You know, a gorgeous, talented, funny woman like me is a real catch, Spencer," I started, approaching him and running my fingers along his still damp chest. "If such a woman were to go much longer without being seen on the town dating, people will start to talk."

"Oh yeah?" he asked softly.

"Mmhmm," I nodded, placing kisses in the path my fingertips had marked.

"Are you asking me to go public with you, Ms. Jones?"

Before I could answer, a voice yelling up the stairs interrupted.

"Lucky! Lulu!"

Lucky's eyes snapped wide open and he put his hands on my shoulders before he whispered, "Shit, it's Ethan."

"Come on family! I have news!" Ethan continued from downstairs.

"Just stay up here," Lucky instructed, quickly grabbing some clothes and putting them on. "I'll get rid of him."

"Lucky," I started to argue, but he shot me a look that shut it down immediately.

"Please?" he begged. "I promise, we can talk about this later…"

"I'm coming up there!" Ethan announced.

"No!" Lucky yelled back. "I'm on my way down. Just hold on!"

I locked my hands on my hips and stared Lucky down, hoping he would see my chagrin. I was trying to be understanding about his wanting to hide our relationship from Lulu. Hell, I was even a little nervous about what she would say. But Ethan was hardly a conflict of interest where our relationship was concerned, and he was a fabulous liar.

Lucky rushed out of the room, still buttoning his shirt in the process. I waited approximately thirty seconds before tiptoeing into the hall and planting myself at the top of the stairs so that I could hear the brothers' conversation.

"Kristina," Lucky started, "I'm surprised to see you here. Shouldn't you be with your parents?"

"Where's Lulu?" Ethan asked immediately. "We need you both for this."

"She's out of town."

"On Christmas? I know she can't stop working, but even she has her limits."

"No, she's in Bensonhurst with Dante," Lucky explained. I could hear the twinge of guilt in his voice. "And before you say anything, it's not like that. We were both supposed to go, but I had a touch of the flu, so they went on without me."

"Oh, I wish we would have known. We could have brought some soup or something," Kristina remarked. "Why don't we go out and get you some now?"

"Let's just tell him, love," Ethan argued. "He looks fine to me."

"Not without your sister."

Now I was intrigued. There was obviously something big going on, and whatever it was, it was juicy enough to warrant Kristina's hesitation about telling Lucky. I slid down to the next step so that I could hear their conversation more clearly. When my foot fell to the next step, I accidentally kicked a basket of laundry, causing it to topple all the way down the stairs and into the living room.

"Shit!"

(Lucky's POV)

I was about to start interrogating my brother and his girlfriend when the sound of plastic bouncing down the stairs interrupted me. I had hoped to explain it away as a breeze knocking it over until Maxie added an expletive from the top of the staircase. Kristina looked confused, and Ethan was intrigued.

"Who's that, big brother?" he asked me with a grin. "Is that your 'flu'?"

Before I could answer, Maxie strutted down the stairs, still wearing only my t-shirt. I felt panic rise within my chest, but she looked as calm as ever. There was a very good possibility that she threw that laundry down the stairs on purpose just so that I would have to tell Ethan about our relationship. This was the woman I loved – frustrating and adorable all at the same time.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Maxie Jones," my brother narrated, a look of satisfaction on his face. "The one and only best friend slash business partner of our little sister. Nice work, man. I didn't think you had it in you."

"Ethan, I think we should go," Kristina urged. "We can come back when Lulu gets home."

"We're not going anywhere until my brother explains himself. So spill… is this the reason you didn't go to Bensonhurst for Christmas? And, more importantly, does Lulu know?"

**
(Dante's POV)

"You ready for this, Dante?"

"I was born ready."

I gave the thumbs up signal to my seven-year-old second cousin, Vinny, from my assigned post behind snow-covered bushes next to the restaurant. My mission was clear. I was to take out as much of the opposition as possible to protect the boys' team. My weapon of choice: snowballs.

As a child, I spent the bulk of this particular family gathering outside with my cousins. We were constantly putting together games of baseball in the snow or building forts. It was a lot more entertaining than listening to my aunts and uncles argue about virtually any topic that was discussed. When I got into high school, I would bring a deck of cards and we would create a side game of poker for candy or whatever we could get our hands on. And in recent years, I spent the entire evening dodging questions about why I wasn't married with children already from my well-meaning relatives. So when I showed up with a beautiful guest, the questions only intensified.

Lulu was taking it all in stride, but I could tell the amount of relatives who were questioning her about our "relationship" was overwhelming her. That was the exact reason why I took Vinny up on his offer to be a part of his boys-versus-girls snowball fight. I felt bad volunteering Lulu to do the same, however, she seemed really excited to get some fresh air.

"There's only one rule," Vinny reminded me. "Do you remember what it is?"

"I do," I nodded, finding the young man's demeanor similar to that of a former commissioner I worked under at the NYPD. "You get to go after Vanessa."

Vinny's insistence on being the person to get his little sister made me wonder what it would have been like to grow up with my siblings. Granted, I always had fun with my cousins, but knowing that I had brothers and a sister who didn't know about me being their older brother was difficult, especially when I lacked the resolve to tell them.

"Dante! Fire!"

I must have gotten lost in my thoughts, because when Vinny yelled at me, he was already running full speed towards Vanessa and another cousin. Figuring that I could let Vinny take on the kids, I moved strategically toward the back of the restaurant in search of Lulu. There were three girls and two boys on this mission, and Vinny told me that it was only fair for me to cover taking down the adult.

I rounded the corner and didn't see any sign of Lulu. I bent down to form a snowball in my hands, and felt a burst of cold, wet show on the back of my head.

"Seriously, Falconeri? You'd think a detective would be better at taking cover," Lulu giggled from about twenty yards away. I stood up and studied her. She was laughing so hard that tears were forming in the corners of her eyes.

"That was really entertaining for you, wasn't it?"

"You have no idea."

I finished forming the snowball in my hands and stepped toward her slowly.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "I got you already, so you're down. You can't retaliate-"

Before she finished her argument, I flung the snowball towards her. What I hadn't anticipated was her ducking to get out of the way, which resulted in the snowball splattering across her face. She shrieked and my heart sank into my stomach.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry!" I apologized, rushing to her. The number one rule of snowball fights was never hitting anybody in the face. My Catholic school teachers were constantly warning us that there could be chunks of ice or rocks in the snow which could take someone's eye out.

"Are you alright? Did anything cut you?" I questioned, running my thumbs across her pink cheeks. Even with the ice water dripping down it, her skin was incredibly soft. My heartbeat was racing, making it difficult for me to choke out any more questions.

"I'm fine…" she answered softly, blinking the moisture away from her eyelashes. I kept telling myself to remove my focus from her eyes, but with my fingers against her skin and my gaze locked on hers, I got swept up in the moment. Before I knew it, I was pressing my lips against hers.

For the first time in my life, I knew with one-hundred percent certainty that what I was doing was wrong, but I didn't care. In the years that I had known Lulu, I had wondered about how this would feel. Even though her lips were icy cold from the snowball, kissing her in reality far surpassed what I had imagined. She parted her lips to allow me more access, which I accepted without hesitation.

It wasn't until I felt a snowball burst against my back that I snapped back to reality. Lulu must have felt the jolt, because she started giggling against my lips and took a step back to survey the situation. Vinny and Vanessa were laughing uncontrollably and pointing at us.

"So disgusting!" Vinny exclaimed, making vomit sounds. "Dude!"

I looked at Lulu, whose cheeks were turning pinker. Granted, she had just taken a snowball to the face, but I was sure that there was a little embarrassment causing that hue.

"I'm going to go clean up," she whispered, and with that, she was on her way back inside, leaving me to wonder what I just started while being taunted mercilessly by two children.

**
(Lucky's POV)

Maxie had a look of satisfaction on her face that I had only seen a few times before. Forcing me to come clean about our relationship to my brother was the first step in going public, and she had wanted that for awhile now.

"Lulu doesn't know about this," I started, running my hands over my face as if it would wipe away some of the guilt. "It just happened…"

"In August," Maxie corrected, "And a lot since then."

Ethan's grin widened, while his girlfriend's face got a brighter shade of pink. It was obvious that she wanted out of that room as soon as possible. But my brother was like a dog with a bone, so he was not going to give up easily and leave this secret alone. I had reservations about telling him everything. Our relationship was good, but he was also getting closer to Lulu. It was too soon to tell where his allegiance lie.

"We agreed to wait to tell anybody until we knew what this was," I reminded Maxie through gritted teeth.

"We're in love, Lucky, remember," she spouted out. "That's pretty definite."

"Love?" Ethan interrupted. "You're in love with Maxie and you haven't even told Lulu that you're seeing each other? She's going to be so pissed…"

"She's not going to find out!" I clarified quickly. "Not yet. I want to find the right time."

"Right time? Oh my God!" Maxie exclaimed. "You're unbelievable, Lucky, you know that? I would have thought that you could be happy or even relieved to share your happiness with your brother, but instead, you're acting like this is some kind of cover-up, and for what? Just so that you can shelter Lulu from something that she may or may not be upset about?"

"We should go…" Kristina urged Ethan.

"No, stay…" Maxie insisted, sitting on the couch and wringing her hands to calm herself down. "Didn't you have news or something?"

"It can wait," Kristina answered, tugging on my brother's sleeve.

"No, it can't," he replied, widening his eyes against her gaze. "Come on, this room could obviously use a distraction."

"Ethan…"

"We're getting married," he spat out, completely erasing the argument Maxie and I had been having from my mind.

**
(Lulu's POV)

I studied myself in the mirror, noticing the damage that Dante's snowball had caused my makeup. Granted, the smudging could have also been a product of our kiss, but it was easier not to think about that at the moment. Kissing Dante was a ridiculous thing to do, and allowing myself any time to analyze the feelings it brought out in me would just be plain stupid.

I slipped my coat off and set it on the counter. As I started running my hands through the warm water in an attempt to return some circulation to my fingers, I noticed that snow must have dripped down my neck under my coat, because my white blouse was drenched and making my bra completely visible.

Fortunately, there was a hand dryer on the wall across the room. I peeled the fabric from my body and started for the dryer. But when the doorknob to the bathroom turned and I saw the door opening, I panicked. In retrospect, it was a ladies room, and I could have easily explained away the need to dry my shirt because of the snowball fight I had participated in. It must have been my guilt and conflicting feelings about what happened after the snowball incident that caused me to freak out, because I practically sprinted into a stall and closed the door behind me swiftly.

"I have to say, this might be Angelo's best recipe yet."

I recognized the voice in the room to be Olivia's, making the heat in my cheeks increase. In the short time I had known Dante's mother, I could tell she was the type to read guilt off of your face.

"Don't dodge the issue here, missy."

"Ma, I already told you that I'm not going to force this on Dante. He has to decide if and when he's going to make the first move."

"Have you ever known Falconeri men to take that initiative when the stakes are so high?"

I brought my hand up to my mouth as if the gesture was going to help me stay quiet. Could they have seen us kissing? Was Dante's grandmother trying to arrange some sort of relationship between us?

"I'm not forcing my son into anything."

"He wouldn't need to be forced if you would have been truthful with him from the beginning, Olivia. He should have a relationship with his father."

His father? Dante had always talked about now knowing who his father was, that his mother didn't even know. Granted, I was relieved that their conversation had nothing to do with me. But I was intrigued as to why Dante's father was an issue if his identity was unknown.

"It's not that simple…"

"They've lived in the same town for years now! I'm sure they have crossed paths, and he has other children, right? Doesn't Dante want some kind of relationship with them?"

"He thinks about it, I'm sure. It was his first concern when I told him the truth. But Dante's a cop. He's conflicted on this for many reasons, but that's going to trump it every time."

"I'm sure he can talk to the commissioner and make sure he is excused from any cases where there would be a conflict of interest."

"Ma, that could be every case! Sonny Corinthos is always a suspect in Port Charles, and Dante's met him many times in the PCPD for questioning. He hasn't felt the need to tell Sonny that they're father and son yet, and I can't see him changing his mind anytime soon. Can we just drop it and enjoy Christmas?"

"I'm going to talk to Dante…"

"You will not! He has a friend in town with him, and he's having a good time. Just drop this, okay? Let's go have some dessert."

I heard their heels clicking against the tile flooring, followed by the sound of the door opening and closing again. I leaned against the door of the stall I was in and let out a deep breath that I must have been holding for awhile. After hearing that Sonny Corinthos was Dante's father, kissing my brother's best friend seemed like the simplest part of the evening.