Chapter Nineteen
CHRISTMAS DAWNED white and chilly. Austin squinted out his bedroom window at the too-bright world and the large fat flakes falling from the sky. A bit of Christmas magic.
He pulled on layers, dressed Pepa in her prosthetic, and headed out.
His girl ambled through the snow, and Austin meandered after her, phone in hand so he could take pictures. Dog prints in the snow, big fat snowflakes, Pepa with snow on her muzzle, the trees, the house.
Pepa seemed to have had enough of the snow and was leading Austin on a meandering loop back toward the house when a voice behind Austin said, “Can’t say I blame her.”
Austin looked over his shoulder at Joe and grinned. “She was having fun, but her paws must be getting a bit frozen.” He shoved his phone back into his pocket and smiled. “It’s probably past time to bring her back in.”
Together they followed Pepa around the yard, when Joe suddenly stopped. “Is that Starling’s truck in Linda’s driveway?”
Austin followed his frozen gaze and, huh, yes, that indeed was Starling’s truck parked behind Linda’s Subaru. Well. Good for them.
“Did we accidentally set up my bestie with our new neighbour?” Joe sounded confused.
“Looks like it.” Austin had to admit that Linda and Starling made sense. They had similar senses of humor—and neither of them had time for Joe’s or Austin’s shit.
“What the fuck.”
He looked over at Joe’s gobsmacked face and chuckled. “You can’t say you’re that surprised. I mean, they did spend most of last night mocking us and getting on like a house on fire.”
“But…. Linda… didn’t she say something about an ex-husband?”
Austin gave Joe a look. “Seriously?”
“Okay, yes, I know, this is a bad look on me.” Joe waved his arms a bit. “I’m just surprised.”
“So I see.”
“Oh, shut up.” Joe shoved his shoulder playfully. “I guess you knew Linda was bi, then, O wise one?”
Austin gave him a flat look. “Her favorite Christmas movie is an episode of The X-Files, Joe.”
“There’s no reason to be mean.”
“I don’t know why you’re having a crisis here. Don’t you want to live next door to your bestie?”
Joe spluttered. “Starling’s not moving in—is she? They just got together yesterday, right?”
Austin laughed and took Joe’s hand, then gently guided him away from their neighbor and back home.
The light mood carried them through the rest of their morning as they got ready to join the Romano family Christmas.
Austin had no idea what to expect from the event.
It turned out that the Romano clan was huge.
Nonna (“Do not call her Mrs. Romano, Austin, it’s Nonna—always Nonna”) hosted the event in her six-bedroom, four-bath mini mansion.
Austin shot Joe a look when they pulled into the long driveway of the Amherstburg property.
Austin was pretty sure he could see the golf course from the front yard.
“Joe, does your family have money?”
Joe coughed. “Nonno used to say he was ‘not rich, just comfortable.’ He died a few years ago, but Nonna hasn’t exactly been a worried widow.”
“Riiight. I can see that.”
“Stop staring at my nonna’s driveway and help me carry stuff into the house.” The stuff in question was food, food, and more food, and also a beautiful wreath and potted plant for Nonna, who deserved a hostess gift.
Joe’s family didn’t otherwise do presents at this gathering. Austin was surprised, since he knew how much Joe enjoyed spoiling his own kids, but when he had asked about it a few days prior, Joe admitted that there were too many of them to try.
“How many young cousins do you have?” Austin asked, alarmed.
Joe’s answer was wry. “We’re Italian Catholics.”
Austin digested that information. “Is that your way of saying that you don’t actually know?” Joe didn’t answer; instead he walked away. “Joe? Joe, how many people are going to be at this event? Joe?”
Christmas with the Romanos was like being in a Christmas movie, Austin decided. The whole event was noise and laughter and food. Austin was barely in the front door before he realised trying to keep track of names was going to be impossible.
The day left Austin buzzing with warmth in a way he hadn’t experienced since the death of his great-aunt. Joe’s family didn’t question Austin’s presence, just accepted that he was there and deserved to be treated with the same welcome and affection as anyone else in the house.
Austin found himself happily engaged in conversation with Joe’s uncle Luca for nearly an hour once he learned that Luca was the owner of the Ferrari Roma Spider in the driveway—Austin cried inside about him driving it in the snow—and Luca learned that Austin was a mechanic.
They even tramped outside so Luca could show her off and Austin could drool over her engine.
Austin might not have made his whole personality about cars, but he couldn’t resist the power of this engine or the classic lines of a Roma Spider’s body.
They probably would have stayed outside even longer if Joe hadn’t come out to drag them to the dinner table.
If Austin had thought the spread at their place was incredible, Nonna’s offerings overwhelmed him completely.
He couldn’t identify half the dishes, but he tried every one of them anyway.
Joe had obviously gotten his cooking abilities from Nonna, and he also obviously had a way to go to catch up to her, and when Austin voiced that thought out loud, Nonna beamed at him and cupped his cheek like Austin was one of her own grandchildren.
“You’re a nice boy,” she told him. “Not like that Paul.” She tutted and turned her attention to Joe. “Giuseppe, you keep this one around.”
Joe went scarlet as Younger Female Cousin Number Seven snickered.
Austin got a slightly envious look from what’s-his-name’s pregnant girlfriend, who was apparently going to be persona non grata until either her particular Romeo Romano put a ring on it or the kid entered the world and became eligible to be showered in Nonna’s love. He couldn’t blame the girlfriend.
He couldn’t blame her baby daddy either. What kind of insanity would a wedding in this family even look like if Christmas was an event of several dozen people? He didn’t imagine Nonna would be satisfied with a small affair.
But it was too early to get anxiety about that. That would be putting the cart firmly before the horse. Austin had plenty of time to panic about nuptials later.
But he couldn’t help thinking about it as dinner ended and people dispersed to various regions of the house.
There was a pool table downstairs, and ping-pong, and the youngest kids—children of Joe’s cousins—took over the TV room to play some kind of board game.
Austin volunteered for kitchen cleanup with the mom-to-be, thinking maybe they could help each other out, but Uncle Marco—possibly her baby-granddaddy?
—shushed her and sent her off to have a nap, saying he’d take her place.
She did look exhausted, and she thanked them both profusely as she snuck off, presumably to one of the many guest bedrooms.
Cleanup promised to be a long, terrible job until Austin got a proper look at the kitchen and realized Nonna had two dishwashers, which was the most over-the-top rich-person thing he could think of but for which he was immediately grateful.
Plates and cutlery went in one, serving dishes in another, which left Austin and Marco just a football field length’s worth of pots and pans to hand-wash.
“How’d your man get out of this?” Marco teased as they started rolling up their sleeves.
“I think someone dragged him off to play pool,” Austin admitted. “But I don’t mind. Uh, I need a minute to decompress, really.”
“We are a lot,” Marco agreed. “I heard you’ve been fixing up the house?”
They chatted easily as they blasted through the dishes, first about renovations, then the Romano family construction business. “You let me know if you ever need anything. Tile, fixtures, whatever. Rich people are always changing their minds after their shit gets ordered,” Marco said.
“Definitely let me know if anybody decides they don’t want their dishwasher,” Austin answered before he could help himself, and Marco cackled.
They got halfway through the mess before Maria and Uncle Luca came to spell them off, and Austin went downstairs to watch Joe finish wiping the pool table with Older Male Cousin Number Five.
It was nice, Austin thought, this kind of wild, affectionate family affair, even if it was boisterous and overwhelming in a hundred different ways.
But maybe his favorite thing about it was that dinner had been scheduled for three so everything could wrap up early to get the wee ones and their great-grandmother to bed at a decent hour.
Uncle Luca saw everybody off at the door with a bottle of his homemade red wine—Austin caught Joe’s eye as he accepted theirs and felt heat lick up his spine—and then they were free, sent off into the night together.
For the first few minutes into the drive, they didn’t say anything. Austin used the time to recalibrate; he was half sure he’d been shouting all night to be heard and just hadn’t noticed. His ears hurt.
But once the noise in his head quieted, he started thinking instead—about the Ferrari in the driveway… and the Lexus, and the Land Rover, and Uncle Marco’s Escalade. Joe’s mom had a Cadillac too, but a car, not an SUV, several model years old.
Obviously, none of those uncles were driving their fancy sports cars to their job sites, except maybe Marco if he was picking up a crew, so those weren’t their daily drivers.
But Joe just had his work truck, steady and reliable, no frills unless you counted the heated steering wheel and seats, which when Joe’s work sometimes included removing icy fallen trees, Austin did not.
“Hey, Joe,” Austin said without engaging his brain.
“Mm?”
“Are you the family poor kid?”