Free Sealed with a Kill by Lucy Lawrence Page B

Brenna’s relief, Dom laughed. He had a good laugh. It rumbled up from his chest and enfolded all of them in its warmth. It made him even more charming, if that was possible.
    “That’s old-school,” Dom said. “You know how you take care of your enemies nowadays?”
    Suede shook his head. It was the first time Brenna had seen him make eye contact with any adult. He was positively entranced by Dom. Brenna couldn’t blame him. That Cappicola magnetism was hard to resist. A glance at Julie and Brenna saw that she, too, was being sucked in by Dom’s raw energy. The man should really come with a warning label.
    “You crush them—financially,” Dom said.
    “But how?” the teen asked.
    “You play to win,” Dom said. “You make sure you are more educated and have better connections, and then you outmaneuver them in every business deal that comes your way. Pretty soon you don’t need to whack them because they are no longer a threat to you or your business. This method comes with the added bonus that it’s legal, and there’s no body to dispose of and no jail time to serve.”
    “Wow,” Suede breathed, impressed.
    “Where did you go to school, Mr. Cappicola?” Julie asked.
    “Call me Dom,” he said. “I went to MIT, and you?”
    “Yale.”
    “I thought I saw a little Bulldog in you,” he said. Julie flushed a pretty shade of pink, and Dom grinned at her. Brenna watched the exchange and felt a twinge of something unwelcome. Was it? It was—jealousy!
    Mercifully, the phone rang at the counter, pulling her away from the group and this horrifying realization.
    “Excuse me,” she said, and she raced to the counter to pick up the phone. To her chagrin, they hardly noticed her departure.
    “Vintage Papers, may I help you?” she asked.
    “You have to change my order!” It was Donna Wilkins, known to Tenley and Brenna as the bridezilla from hell. She had changed her save-the-date order six times already. Both Brenna and Tenley were terrified that if she was this bad with the reminder cards for a wedding that was still a year and a half away, she would be a thousand times worse with invitations to the real deal.
    “Breathe, Donna,” Brenna said. “It will be all right. Let me just pull your order from the file.”
    She heard Donna draw a shaky breath as she flipped through the order book that they kept at the counter. She glanced over at the threesome still standing in the shop and noticed that Julie and Suede were laughing at a story of Dom’s, and again Brenna felt the unwelcome surge of unhappy. What was the matter with her? Dom was just a friend. She should be happy for him if he met someone he liked. She did not feel happy, however; she felt jealous, and she didn’t like it, not one little bit.
    “Hello? Hello, are you listening to me?” Bridezilla was getting hysterical again.
    Brenna switched her attention back to the phone. As Donna blathered on about pink versus purple embossed lettering, Brenna watched as Dom and Julie made their way to the door together, with Suede in between them like one happy little family. At the door he turned and waved.
    Brenna waved back and forced a smile that felt more like a baring of her teeth.
    She had to crane her neck to watch them, but sure enough the three of them headed down the sidewalk together to Stan’s Diner. The phone was cordless, so she hurried across the shop to make sure, but yes, they all trooped into Stan’s, with Dom holding the door for Julie and Suede.
    Brenna returned to the counter, uncertain about how she felt about this sudden turn of events. She had never thought about Dom with anyone else. Obviously, he wasn’t going to wait around for her forever. But she had thought. . . what? That he would wait around for her forever.
    Brenna didn’t like that she had taken his interest in her for granted. Feeling jealous when she saw him with Julie was no doubt just what she deserved.
    With a sigh, she put the phone back in its holder. It took her