Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts

We’ve been seeing each other a couple of months now.”
    â€œMonths? And you didn’t tell me?”
    â€œYou’ve been a little preoccupied.”
    â€œStill.” Bella pouted a moment. “Is he from around here?”
    â€œNo, he grew up in Ohio. But he’s living here now. He’s got a job in a bookstore for the summer. I really like him, Bella. I’ve slept with him. Five times.”
    â€œJesus!” Bella’s eyes went saucer-wide as she bounced her butt on the bed. “Reena, this is huge. Is he good at it?” She popped up, closed the door. “Vince is amazing in bed. He can go for hours. ”
    â€œI think he’s good at it.” Hours? Reena wondered. Was that really possible? “He’s the only one I’ve ever been with.”
    â€œMake sure you always use protection. I stopped.”
    â€œStopped what?”
    â€œBirth control,” she whispered. “Vince said he wants to have a family right away, so we tossed away my pills. It’s so close to the wedding, it won’t matter if I get pregnant. We threw them away last weekend, so I might already be pregnant.”
    â€œGod, Bella.” It gave Reena a jolt, a hard one, to think of her sister going from bride to wife to mother in one big rush. “Don’t you want some time to get used to being married first?”
    â€œI don’t need time.” When she smiled, everything about her went dreamy. Lips, eyes, voice. “I know just how it’s all going to be. And it’s going to be perfect. I have to finish getting ready. Vince will be here any minute, and he hates when I’m late.”
    â€œHave a good time.”
    â€œWe always do.” Bella sat down at the vanity again when Reena wentto the door. “Vince is taking me to a fabulous restaurant tonight. He says I need to relax and take my mind off the details of the wedding.”
    â€œI’m sure he’s right.” She went out, closing the door just as her brother came up the stairs.
    He glanced at the door, back at Reena and grinned. “So how many times did she say ‘Vince thinks’?”
    â€œI lost count. He’s pretty crazy about her.”
    â€œGood thing, otherwise by now he’d have been driven crazy by her. I know one thing, I’ll be glad when it’s over.”
    She walked to him. He’d edged over her in height, so she bounced up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “You’ll miss her when she isn’t in the next room.”
    â€œI guess I will.”
    â€œYou got plans tonight?”
    â€œOn your first night home? What kind of brother am I?”
    â€œMy favorite kind.”
    S he waited until Bella was out to her fancy dinner and the rest of the family was around the dining room table sharing steak Florentine in honor of Reena’s return from college.
    â€œI have some news,” she began. “John told me today, and I asked him to let me tell everyone else. Pastorelli’s out. He was released a week ago.”
    â€œSon of a bitch.”
    â€œNot at the table, Xander,” Bianca said automatically. “Do they know where he is, where he went?”
    â€œHe served his time, Mama.” She’d had time to reconcile to that, and to sound calm about it. “John doesn’t think we need to worry, and I agree. He doesn’t have any ties to the neighborhood, no reason to come back here. What happened was long ago.”
    â€œAnd yesterday,” Gib said. “Seems like yesterday. But I think we have to accept this. What else can we do? He was punished for what he did. It’s done, and he’s out of our lives.”
    â€œYes, but it wouldn’t hurt to be a little watchful, at least for a while.”Bianca drew a long breath. “And it’s probably best not to say anything to Bella until after the wedding. She’ll just have hysterics.”
    â€œShe can have hysterics over a chipped