The final book in Mari Carr’s Italian Stallions series is out this week—in which the last single Moretti finds his happily-ever-after with his best friend, Miles, and Lucy, a brewmaster and YouTube star—and I have an awesome excerpt for you.
Excerpt
When another slow country ballad started to play, Joey looked at Lucy and quickly tilted his head toward Miles, who wasn’t looking their direction.
She nodded at the unspoken suggestion, asking Miles to dance. Joey tried not to laugh when his best friend shot him an alarmed look, as if he expected Joey to be pissed off.
Lucy wanted him to like her, so Joey was going to make sure she got what she wanted.
“Don’t be surprised if she steps on your feet,” Joey joked, before leaning close to mutter in his friend’s ear. “And act fast. Mayor Douchebag is en route.”
Miles rolled his eyes, rising quickly and taking Lucy’s hand. “You act like Lucy’s the one to blame when the problem is you, Joey. Let me show you how a real man leads,” he bragged.
Joey pitched a pretzel at him, watching as the two of them made their way to the floor before treating himself to a quick peek at Scottie’s irritated face.
Miles took Lucy in his arms, her hands resting on his best friend’s broad shoulders as Kenny Chesney’s “Take Her Home” played. If Joey had expected the dance to be stiff or awkward, he would have been disappointed.
In fact…
Joey leaned forward, grateful Remi and Theo had found dance partners as well and were also on the floor. Because it gave Joey the chance to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was.
Miles was focused on Lucy, who was peering up at him through those long, thick lashes of hers. The two of them were staring into each other’s eyes, Miles smiling at whatever Lucy was saying. He sure as shit wasn’t looking at her like she talked too much.
Nope. He was looking at her like a man who was hanging on her every word.
He was looking at her exactly the same way Joey had when he’d danced with her.
“Jesus,” he muttered.
Suddenly, he was reexamining Miles’s behavior the past few days…and seeing things in a very different light. Miles hadn’t been keeping his distance from Lucy because he didn’t like her or because he was distracted about Rhiannon.
Miles was holding himself apart because Joey had expressed an interest in the beautiful brewmaster first. And Miles, good friend that he was, was respecting that, stepping aside, giving him a chance to form a connection.
Joey prayed the couple on the dance floor didn’t look his direction because they would think he was drunk as a skunk if they saw him sitting there, watching them with a big goofy grin on his face.
Something Joey never imagined had just presented itself, and rather than shove that thought into a dark corner, he waved it in.
Because the future was right there, spinning around on that floor.
Joey was the last single Moretti standing. Unbeknownst to some, he wasn’t holding on to his bachelorhood because he enjoyed it.
He was holding out for something special.
It was true love he was seeking, and he was determined he wouldn’t settle down with just anyone simply to be married. He wanted a love like his parents had, one so enduring, his dad hadn’t even considered dating another woman after his mother’s untimely passing nearly twenty years earlier. How many times had Dad said he couldn’t give his heart to another woman when it still belonged to Mom?
Joey wanted that. Wanted to meet the person who completed him. He felt like Lucy could be that person. All he needed in order to be sure was the very thing he’d asked her for.
Time. Time and a chance to see if this instant connection he felt was genuine.
So yeah.
True love. That’s what Joey had been telling himself he was holding out for. And while that desire was genuine…he could see now that perhaps that wasn’t all he wanted.
He wanted more.
It was his sister Layla’s fault. And his brother Tony’s. And Gio’s and Luca’s.
His siblings hadn’t found just one true love. They’d found two. All of them living in committed threesomes.
Each of his brothers’ throuple relationships varied, but they were all making it work, each of them living with their best friends, as well as the women who’d stolen their hearts.
Joey hadn’t considered that was what he wanted as well until this very instant.
Watching Lucy and Miles together, seeing the way they were looking at each other…
He drew in a deep breath because…
God, they were beautiful together. Joey and Miles had been friends for years, but he’d never seen his friend look quite as…
Joey struggled for the word. He’d met Miles post-Rhiannon, so he’d only ever known the Miles who lived with a broken heart. The guy currently swaying on that dance floor with Lucy, looking down at her like she hung the moon, was one he’d never seen before. There was a sudden peace in Miles’s expression, as if every sadness, every hurt, every drop of anger had evaporated inside him, leaving this new man behind instead.
Joey had never realized how unhappy his best friend was until right now when he saw him truly happy.
As he considered that, Joey saw two paths open before him.
One where he stepped aside to let his best friend pursue Lucy.
Or one where they pursued her together.
The second was definitely the more difficult to tread, but Joey’s Moretti blood flashed hot, that passionate, never-say-die adventurer inside telling him the sweeter reward—a life with Miles and Lucy—would be worth the fight.
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Italian Stallions - Recommended Reading Order
(standalone stories with interconnected characters)
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