Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER ONE
Aurelio
“I want more grandchildren,” our ma said, waving a frustrated hand holding a sauce-covered wooden spatula around for emphasis. “That’s all I’m saying.”
“She’s talking to you,” Elisa said, looking over at me. “You’re the oldest unmarried one,” she reasoned.
“Maybe, but your clock is ticking,” Milo shot back at her, safe in his singleness, being the youngest, and knowing our mother would give him some grace to ‘get his wild out’ still.
“Asshole,” Elisa said, rolling her eyes at Milo, and tossing a bit of dough at him that she was supposed to be twisting into garlic knots.
“A mouth like that, and the only man who is going to want you is a sailor,” our mother said, shaking her head at Elisa.
“Maybe I like sailors. Or outlaw bikers. Or—“ she cut herself off when our mother shot her narrowed eyes, knowing she wasn’t in the mood to be teased. “I’ve been busy, Ma,” she said, sighing.
“Busy busy busy. That’s all I hear from Smush too,” she grumbled. “Getting so busy making livings that you aren’t making lives.”
“I have a life,” Elisa insisted.
“You have a townhouse you pay too much money for. You have nice shoes. And a relationship with your phone. That’s not a life, Elisa.”
When it came to the Grassi moms, they all agreed on one thing. All their kids needed to be married and popping out babies.
The thing was, I wanted that too.
And I was sure Elisa and Smush had those things in mind as well. Sometimes, it just didn’t happen as quickly as we might like.
Luckily for Elisa, Milo decided to stop being a dick for a second and come to his sister’s defense. “Have you seen the men out there, Ma?” he asked, scoffing. “Wouldn’t trust ‘em to take out my fucking trash, let alone my sister.”
It was no secret that Elisa had recently gone through a nasty breakup. One she played down for our mom, but everyone else knew had really gotten to her.
Milo was usually self-absorbed and kind of an ass. But he could be counted on to be a good brother on occasion.
Elisa shot him a sad smile that he shrugged at.
“But that is not an invitation to start setting me up with men you think are good,” Elisa was quick to add, eyes panicked at the prospect.
I’d been on the receiving end of four dates set up by my mother. One, a girl barely out of college who only wanted to talk about her spring break plans. Another, staring down the barrel of the end of her fertility and, in my mother’s words, ‘desperate to get married and have babies.’ Unfortunately, ‘desperate’ very much was her vibe. I barely managed to untangle her from me in the parking lot of the restaurant, she was so determined to take me home.
The other two were decent enough but just not… right.
I was starting to worry that I might not know what ‘right’ was, though, if I was getting to this age and still not finding a woman to settle down with.
Hell, I’d just seen one of my youngest cousins—August—find his woman and start to build a life.
That shit was as humbling as the streaks of gray I was starting to see in my temples, and in my scruff if I let it grow.
“We’ll see,” our mom said, making all three of us wince. A mom’s ‘we’ll see’ was never a good thing in a situation like this.
But Lucky and his woman and the brood they were creating chose that moment to rush in the door, stealing all the focus from us single siblings, and easing the tension in the house.
“She digging in again?” Lucky asked as he moved onto the back porch with me, handing me a beer.
“Mostly on Elisa,” I said, shrugging. “But, yeah, she wants more grandkids.”
“Think she looks at you, Smush, and Elisa and knows that by the time she was your ages, she had two or three of us already. Forgets sometimes how times have changed.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, turning back to look in the French doors, seeing one of Lucky’s kids squeal as they played with floured dough, punching it with meaty fists.
“It’ll happen,” he said. “It’s worth the wait,” he added, his gaze going from his kid to his woman, making his gaze soften. Via was the only woman in the world who could make Lucky soften like that.
It wasn’t the first time I found myself jealous of my brother and the life he had that I wanted.
“I bet,” I agreed, taking a sip of the beer.
“How’s that deal you’re working on going?” he asked, knowing work was always a safer topic than the lack of my own family.
Work, at least, was something that was plentiful and often a point of pride. Even if, more and more these days, it was a hollow sort of pride.