“I don’t think I’m going to have this conversation with you,” I reply slowly. No way, no how.

“Why?” Jules asks with a tilt to the head.

“Because you’re my sisters.”

“Yes, but we’re adults. We have sex. We both have babies, for the love of baby Jesus.”

Natalie nods and thanks the waitress when she delivers our drinks. I order a glass of the merlot from my vineyard and we order our entrees as well.

“Let’s change the subject,” I suggest.

“Killjoy,” Jules mutters, making me laugh.

“How are things with Alecia?” Natalie asks.

I’m just going to be reminded of Alecia everywhere I go today.

“There are no things with Alecia,” I reply.

“Oh, there are things,” Jules replies smugly. “I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

I frown, but before I can reply, Natalie says, “And we know you’ve asked her out.”

“Which she’s declined,” I reply.

“So?”

Why doesn’t everyone understand that no means no?

“I was taught to politely retreat when a lady says no,” I say and sip my wine.

“But you only asked her out for, what, dinner?” Jules asks, clearly confused.

“Yes, I believe I asked her to dinner. Three times.” I cringe and shake my head. “A man can only take so much rejection from one woman.”

“But what else did you do?” Natalie asks.

I pause and frown at her. “What do you mean?”

“What did you do to show her that it wasn’t just a matter of wanting to get in her pants?”

What am I missing?

“Dinner doesn’t necessarily mean get in her pants.”

“Sure it does,” Jules says with a wave of her hand.

“For example,” Natalie continues, “back in the day, Luke would have my coffee delivered to me. He still does sometimes.”

“Oh, and remember when he left all those flowers on our front porch after he screwed up that time?” Jules says with a laugh.

“Yep,” Nat says with a smile.

“For me, it was the chocolate cheesecake,” Jules says. “Nate always had chocolate cheesecake in his apartment—our apartment now—because he knew I loved it.”

“Really? Coffee and cheesecake were the ways to your hearts?” I laugh, but Jules punches me in the shoulder. “Ow!”

“You’re not listening! It’s not about the coffee and the cheesecake.”

“It’s the fact that they paid attention to the little things,” Natalie agrees. “They didn’t just say, ‘Hey, baby, wanna go to dinner and then go to my place and fuck like rabbits?’”

“Even though we totally fuck like rabbits,” Jules adds.

“They showed us that they were interested in us.”

“And this worked for you.” My voice is full of sarcasm, but what they say makes sense. All I’ve done is ask Alecia out when we were both at a family function, usually while she was working. I’ve never taken the time to make an effort.

Not that I’ll admit that to these two.

“So, what are you going to do?” Natalie asks.

“Who says I’m going to do anything?”

Jules punches me in the arm again.

“Do that again, sorellina, and I’ll take you over my knee.”

“Don’t think you can charm me with your fancy Italian words,” Jules replies, clearly not afraid of me.

“But what did you say?” Nat asks, leaning toward me. It makes me laugh that whenever I use Italian words they want to know what they mean.

“I said little sister.”

“Aww,” Nat says. “I love that.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s sweet,” Jules says impatiently. “But what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to pay for lunch and go home.”

“We’ve failed you,” Jules says, and her lip quivers as if she’s going to cry.

She’s not fooling me.

I laugh as the waitress delivers our sandwiches and Jules wipes imaginary tears off her perfectly dry cheeks.

“Do the other brothers fall for that?”

“They did when we were kids,” she replies and grins as she pops a French fry in her mouth. “I used to produce real tears too.”

“We just want you to be happy,” Natalie says. “Honestly, we do. We love you.”

“And we love Alecia. We see how you look at each other.” Jules, perfectly serious now, cups my face in her hand. “Give it some thought. Alecia isn’t the kind of girl you can just ask out for dinner while she’s working a baby shower.”

Natalie slides a card across the table at me with a small smile. “Just in case you need her phone number and address.” She winks and exchanges a look with Jules.

“She puts her address on her business cards?” I scowl down at the card. If so, she and I are going to have a talk.

“No, I wrote it on the back,” Nat replies.

“So, do you like the Mariners?” Jules asks.

“Changing the subject now, are we?”

They both grin while chewing their food.

“Yes, I like the Mariners.”

“Good. We’re all going to a game in a few weeks.”

“We are?”

“Yep,” Jules replies. “Adult night out. No kids.”