Free Diagnosis: Danger by Marie Ferrarella Page A

circle and had been privy to his mother’s last question.
    “Mike’s got plenty of prospects, Ma.” He rolled his eyes comically, a wistful expression on his brutally handsome face. He clapped his brother’s back. They were almost the same height, with Mike less than an inch taller. “I should have prospects like Mikey, here.”
    This time Josephine’s frown was genuine. She wanted the best for all her children. Health, happiness and most of all, someone to love who loved them back. “One-day stands don’t count.”
    “‘Night,’ Ma, one-night stands,” Mike corrected her. His own words echoed back to him and he deftly backtracked. “And who says I’ve got one-night stands?” His expression was the epitome of innocence. All except the twinkle in his eyes. “I’m an altar boy, remember?”
    That was too much for Carl. “A funny thing happened on your way to the altar,” he cracked. “You became a playboy.”
    “My job leaves me too tired for that kind of stuff,” Mike responded, giving his brother a warning look. Josephine DiPalma was a sharp woman. He had a hunch that she knew a great deal more about the kind of life he led than she was saying, but he didn’t want to be blatant about it. For the most part, it was a game they both played and he for one was content to leave it at that for now.
    And then his mother surprised him. “Bull.”
    Mike’s jaw dropped open, as did the jaws of all the DiPalma men. Josephine DiPalma didn’t talk that way. “Ma.”
    Josephine jabbed her forefinger at Mike’s chest. “You heard me. Ever since you broke up with Brenda, you just go from woman to woman.”
    That wasn’t strictly true. For the most part, hedidn’t have the time to be the Romeo Carl was making him out to be. But every encounter he did have had been superficial by design. Mike focused on the one saving point his mother seemed to have forgotten. “You didn’t like Brenda, remember?”
    Josephine waved her hand dismissively. “Beside the point. I would have turned her into a proper DiPalma woman.”
    Mike inclined his head toward his brother and said in a stage whisper, “Remind me to send Brenda a note telling her that I saved her.”
    His mother’s arched eyebrows narrowed dangerously. “Laugh.”
    Mike held his hands up before him in a visible protest. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
    Josephine took his face between her hands the way she had when he was a little boy. Except that now she had to stand on her toes to do it. “I just don’t want you to wind up old and alone, Michael.”
    Gently he removed her hands and for a second held them in his. “With all the nieces and nephews everyone else is going to be giving me because you’ve given them quotas to fill, I might wind up old, but alone is the last thing I’ll ever be.”
    She refused to be amused. For the moment, she blocked out the rest of her family, trying to convert the unconverted. “I’m serious, Michael.”
    “Uh-oh,” Matt murmured as he came to see what this impromptu family meeting was about. “Ma’susing your full first name. If she throws in the middle one, I’d say it was time to run.”
    For a moment, Josephine relented. She retreated to the one person who never gave her any grief or opposition. Standing with her back against him, she took both his hands and wrapped them around her waist as she looked at three of her sons. “I just want everyone to be as happy as your father and I are.”
    Maybe that was part of the problem, Mike thought. His parents were a tough act to follow, much less live up to. “Not possible, Ma.”
    Josephine nodded toward the youngest of the DiPalma men. “Why can’t you bring me a nice girl like your brother Matt?”
    Mike laughed. “There aren’t any nice girls like Matt and a good thing, too. They’d be ugly enough to stop a clock.” He saw the exasperated look his mother gave him. He knew that look. It meant that he’d pushed her as far as she was willing to go. “Okay, okay,