TONY: Slow Burn (Raging Fire Book 1) by Kallypso Masters (the false prince TXT) 📕

planning this trip right after Marc and Angelina’s wedding. July and August can be a slower time at the resort, but I had to wait until after Angelina’s birthday party since I’d already offered to help. It worked out, though. The rental house I’m staying at wasn’t available until tomorrow anyway.”

He remained quiet for the rest of the short drive to the hotel, his mood growing somber again. She wondered what had happened to change his mood so much in three days. Had there been another bad call? Or was he still suffering the post-traumatic effects of the drowning accident in June? She knew from Marc’s healing period after his time in Iraq that triggers could set off all kinds of aftershocks from such experiences.

But she didn’t know Tony well enough to pry or ask probing questions. Maybe the party would lighten his spirits.

Chapter Nineteen

At the hotel, Tony carried the box to the room where the party would be held. It was one of their smaller banquet rooms, but she’d chosen one big enough for the twenty or thirty guests they expected for the sit-down meal, with plenty of room to move around when they played games after dinner. She quickly surveyed the room. The tables had already been set. Everything looked wonderful.

“What kind of story did Marc concoct to get Angelina here?” Tony asked as they blew up the balloons for one of the games they’d play later on.

Carm gestured to let her finish that one and while tying it off replied, “He just told her Mama and Papa wanted to have them over to celebrate a late birthday dinner. Not far from the truth, except they didn’t mention the rest of us would also be joining them.”

After the balloons were blown up, they hung birthday signs and set up a signature frame on which guests would write messages to the birthday girl. Megan had offered to take photos so Angelina would be able to choose one or a collage of several to fill the frame later on.

“Well,” Carm said, surveying the room, “we did that in record time. Thanks for coming early to help me set up.” She glanced at the open bar and the bartender appeared to have everything ready, so they might as well enjoy a drink before the guests arrived. “Would you like to grab a beer while we wait?” The attendees had been told to arrive thirty minutes before the time Angelina and Marc would show up so everyone would be inside the room and wouldn’t tip her off if she saw any of them in the lobby of the hotel.

“Sounds good to me.”

She decided to have a beer like Tony rather than ask the bartender to mix a cocktail before the party was in full swing. They sat at one of the tables on the edge of the room to chat while they waited.

“Gotten in any more dives since Friday’s?” she asked him.

He shook his head, his mood turning sullen as he scraped at the bottle label with his thumbnail. She wondered what was wrong and decided to give him an opening, in case he wanted to talk. “Everything okay at work?”

He shrugged with a grunt and raised the bottle to his lips for a long draw. Well, so much for talking about whatever happened. Maybe the party would lift his spirits. She hoped so!

“Carmella! You’ve done a fabulous job!” Mama said as she and Papa entered the room. Leaving Tony to drown his sorrows, she stood and crossed the room to give each of them a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Tony joined them fairly quickly, extending his hand to her father. “Great to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. D’Alessio.” When he tried doing the same to Mama, she waved away his hand and wrapped her arms around him.

“Please, call me Mama D.”

That was Angelina’s nickname for her mother-in-law too. Marc’s mama must have grown to like it.

Within ten minutes, the room had filled with most of the expected guests, including all of the women who had been at Angelina’s Thursday night. Seeing them so happy with their husbands, Carm was overtaken by a moment of envy, but quickly pushed the negative emotion away.

Karla and Megan came toward her and Tony. “Hey, you two! What a great job you’ve done!”

“Carm deserves all the credit.”

“My staff does, actually. We just hung some decorations.”

“I think you’re being modest,” Megan said, “but I can’t wait to see Angelina’s face when she sees what you’ve done for her.”

“It was a lot of fun to plan,” Carm said. Getting to see Tony a couple of times during the planning was nice too.

“Oh! Adam looks like he needs some help with the triplets,” Karla said. “We’ll talk later, Carmella.” She hurried off.

“Rafe’s motioning for me,” Tony said. “I’ll just be a minute.” He looked as though he was headed to the gallows.

Ryder joined them and kissed Megan on the cheek before greeting Carm. That Ryder had come today at all was a testament to how he was regaining control of his PTSD. He hadn’t been able to come to Marc and Angelina’s wedding reception barely two months ago. Of course, that was a much larger gathering. Still, what they were doing at their ranch must be aiding with his healing as much as with their clients’.

“We’re trying to get Tony to help out this week,” Ryder said to Carm, “now that he has some time off. Might take his mind off things.”

Tony had vacation coming? Why hadn’t he said anything to her? Maybe she could learn something from them. “What’s going on with Tony?” Carm probably shouldn’t have asked, but she was worried about him.

“He didn’t tell you about yesterday?” Megan asked.

Carm shook her head. Megan glanced at Ryder who almost imperceptibly shook his head. Megan returned her gaze to Carm. “I’d better let him tell you.”

She really needed to seek out Tony and find out what had happened, but before she could, a