Page 92 of The Breaker
“And if you and Con don’t work out for some reason, we’ll keep you and drop him,” Beatrice said. “He’s kind of a prick anyway.”
Antonio squeezed his thumb and forefinger together. “A little.”
When I’d first come to Taormina, I didn’t know where I stood with these people, but now I felt like one of them. “Thank you, guys. It really means the world to me.”
“So excited for the wedding,” she said. “And honored to be your maid of honor.”
“I’m a little irritated that Constantine asked some random guy named Rocco to be his best man, but at least I’m a groomsman,” Antonio said.
I smiled. “It was a hard decision, for sure. He loves all you guys.”
“Well, try to relax and don’t stress,” Beatrice said. “Weddings can drive people crazy.”
“I’m not stressed,” I said. “If the cake doesn’t make it or the decorations are wrong or the dress is too tight on my stomach ... I don’t really care. All I care about is Constantine being at the end of the aisle when I get there. And I know he will be.”
Chapter 27
Constantine
My mother was blowing up my phone.You can’t spend the night together before the wedding, Constantine.
We’re already living together and have a baby on the way, Ma.
But it’s not tradition.
I’m pretty sure a child out of wedlock isn’t traditional either.
Her dots disappeared, but then my screen lit up with my mother’s name. “Oh boy ... code blue.”
“What?” Aurelia asked, sitting on the couch beside me with Medusa’s chin resting on her thigh.
“Ma’s gone nuclear.” I answered the call and rose from the couch to step away. I headed out the back door and stepped onto the terrace. “Ma—”
“It’s bad luck, Constantine.”
“No, it’s not.”
“It’s one night,” she said. “You really can’t do one night?”
I didn’t say what I wanted to say—not to my mother anyway.
“How about you come here and spend the night with me?”
Spend the night with my mother?“Ma, I’m a grown man—”
“Listen to me, Con,” she said abruptly, but then there was a long pause afterward. She’d cut me off but had nothing to follow it. “When you were born, my mother told me to cherish this time ... because I only got to keep you for eighteen years. I know you’re a man now, but soon, you’ll be married and you’ll have your own family, and it’ll never be the same. I would love one more night with you, just the two of us.”
I felt the breeze move through my hair as my eyes darted down to the floor at my feet, feeling a wave of emotion I didn’t expect to hit me so hard. “I have two conditions.”
“All right.”
“You make dinner.”
She didn’t say a single word, showed no sign of emotion in her silence, but I knew her eyes were welling with tears.
“And let my friend Rocco join us.”
She still said nothing, like she needed a moment to recover from what I’d said. “I would love that.”
