Chapter 9 Tilly
TILLY
“Who are all these people?” I ask Angelo after a solid hour of greeting wedding guests.
The only thing I can liken it to is the clown car at the circus.
They just keep coming and coming. There’s no end to the line of people waiting to shake our hands, congratulate us on our big day, and stuff the box with envelopes.
Just when I think we’re getting to the end, the group of cousins from last night arrives.
Angelo laughs as he pulls me close and kisses the top of my head. “I told you I had a big family.”
“Big is an understatement, sweetheart.”
An extremely handsome older man comes to a stop in front of Angelo. “Son, you look happy. It’s nice to see the smile on your face.”
Angelo grabs the man in a tight embrace. “Uncle Sal, it’s so good to see you.”
I’ve heard stories about Uncle Sal, Santino’s brother from Florida, and their wild days when they were younger. Sal looks so much like Santino, only with less gray sprinkled into his black hair.
Sal turns his gaze toward me, and his smile widens. “Ah, Tilly, my dear.” He reaches for my hand and brings it to his lips. “More beautiful than I ever could’ve imagined.”
My face heats at the way this man looks at me, the devilish gleam in his eyes as he kisses the tender skin on the back of my hand. I can picture Sal and Santino breaking hearts all over the streets of Chicago back in the day.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say, unable to hide my smile as he moves away.
“The pleasure is ours,” he says as he pulls a woman forward. “This is my wife, your aunt Maria.”
The woman is stunning. A complete knockout in her long black silk gown, which hugs every curve just perfectly.
“Well, aren’t you a looker,” she says, and before I can reply, she grabs me, practically squeezing the air from my lungs. “You hold on to this one. Don’t let him boss you around either. We’ll talk. You have to handle a Gallo man.”
I laugh softly as she pulls away, winking at me. There’s so much truth in her words. Every man in this family likes to assert his dominance. They’re not unlike Southern gentlemen with their natural-born instinct to be the master of the universe, including the boss of their women.
Angelo’s different. He’s bossy, for sure, but I’ve learned how to get my way and have him see the light. It doesn’t hurt that a little girl has him practically wrapped around her finger, too.
“We’re not bossy, Auntie Mar,” Angelo tells her.
She places her hand on his cheek, staring up at him with such love. “You’re all bossy, dear. It’s genetic and sometimes you can’t help yourself, but it’s our job as your women to help you adapt.”
Angelo laughs as Uncle Sal rolls his eyes and mumbles under his breath about showing her who’s boss later.
Everyone from last night is behind Sal and Maria, plus some new faces. They’re busy talking, paying no attention to our conversation.
“I heard you had a nice time last night,” Maria says as she steps off to the side, making room for them to greet us.
I guess no one told her what happened last night. How we ended up at a sex club, drinking way too much, and spending time together. I don’t say a word, deciding it’s best for the parents not to know the details of our evening.
My eyes move from one to another, seeing them in the light and dressed to the nines.
The men are huge with that dark, mysterious edge to them.
Wide shoulders, little peeks of tattoos showing on their exposed skin, and hot as sin.
The women are beautiful, and each one is so different, it’s clear the brothers do not have the same taste in women.
Joe steps in front of the pack. “Suzy and I are so happy for you two,” he says in a deep voice. I’m sure he makes most women go weak at the knees, and I’m not immune to his sexy purr.
“Welcome to the family,” Suzy says and isn’t shy about hugging me either. “It’s always wonderful to have more cousins.”
I think about her words as she embraces me.
I’ve never really had a family. Mine was small, and when my parents passed, Roger and Mitchell were all I had left.
Now, standing in front of all these people, I realize my world has just exploded like in the big bang, but instead of stars, my universe is filled with relatives.
Her husband pulls her back to his side, a move Angelo’s made with me more times than I can count. “These are our children.” He motions for them to step forward, and they do. “This is Gigi, Luna, and Rosie.” He points to each girl as he says her name.
Gigi isn’t a child. She’s almost fully grown and probably going to give her father a run for his sanity. Actually, they’re probably all going to give their father trouble as they grow. They’re a perfect mix of their father and mother, stunningly beautiful.
Luna and Rosie each give me a small smile, but Gigi’s busy typing on her phone until her father clears his throat. She finally looks up when he moves behind her, and his shadow falls over her.
“I’m sorry about that,” Gigi says, ignoring her father and talking directly to me. “Men are so needy.” She rolls her eyes, and I immediately like this kid. “My boyfriend doesn’t like me being so far away.”
I move my gaze to her father as she’s speaking. He’s staring at the ceiling with his jaw set tight and his hands fisted at his sides. Yep, she’s definitely going to give him more than a few gray hairs.
“It’s fine, dear.” I smile. “They don’t get any better the older they get either, but there’s a fine line between caring and suffocation.”
Joe grunts as Gigi rolls her eyes again. She clearly doesn’t like my message. It takes years to know the difference. With age comes wisdom and a ton of hard lessons.
“They grow so fast,” Suzy says as she grabs on to her husband’s thick bicep. “Right, honey?”
Joe glances down at his wife, and the annoyance at his daughter virtually melts away. “Too fast, sugar,” he says softly.
“Give me the phone, Giovanna,” Maria, her grandmother, says and holds out her hand. “He can talk to you later. Tell him goodbye and hand it over. This is family time.”
Gigi doesn’t sass her grandmother as she types furiously on the tiny screen while we all watch. Within seconds, the phone is in her grandmother’s hand and everyone seems happy except Gigi.
My eyes move beyond Joe and Suzy to the largest cousin, who’s holding his wife’s hand like it’s a lifeline.
He makes everyone in the room seem ridiculously small, as if they could be part of the supporting cast of the Wizard of Oz.
“Mia and I are over the moon for you two.” He smiles, and I melt a little.
“This is our daughter, Lily, and our son, Stone.”
I try to memorize the names and faces, but Lord help me, there’s so many of them. I know I’ll never get them all right. At least not today. The hangover is too strong, even after downing more pills than I care to remember.
I hug Mike and then Mia. “It’s a lot to process, sweetie. I know,” Mia says like she’s reading my mind. “We’re like a small army.”
I laugh at her words and the truthfulness in them. One by one, I’m reintroduced to every cousin from Florida along with their children. There’re more than twenty of them, and my head’s almost spinning as their names are rattled off so quickly, I almost want to ask for them to wear name tags.
“You’re staying in the city the entire week, right?” Angelo asks Anthony.
“All week, man. We want to show the kids where we grew up. Show them our old stomping grounds.”
This puts a smile on my husband’s face. “I’m happy you guys are sticking around. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
Thomas pulls Angel tightly against him in typical Gallo fashion as they step forward, and Mike and Mia wander toward the bar. “This is our son, Nick.”
I bend down, coming eye to eye with the spitting image of his father. He has the same intensity in his eyes. “It’s wonderful to meet you.” That’s a phrase I’ve repeated more than once tonight, and based on the length of the receiving line, I’m not done saying it either.
“You too,” the boy says, reaching for my hand and kissing it because he’s a Gallo and was raised to make every woman swoon, no matter how young or old.
“Ma’am,” James says, dipping his chin but making no moves to embrace me like the rest of the family. “Congratulations and welcome to the family.”
“Thank you.” I move closer to Angelo and wrap my arm around his back. “You’re a lot to take in.”
Izzy laughs. “We travel as a pack. Add in the children, and we become a small horde.” Her gaze moves to the three younger men standing near her side. “These are our children, Trace—” she points to the smallest boy for a moment “—and the twins, Carmello and Rocco.”
They’re clones of their father, only smaller. Handsome in their black suits with perfect posture and an air of power about them even at their young age.
Max is standing at Izzy’s side with Anthony on one arm and her children in front of her. “This is Asher and Tamara, our bundles of joy.”
The kids look up and wave, their beautiful faces covered in smiles.
“Well, aren’t you just the cutest darn things.”
They glow at my praise. All the kids, every damn one of them, is more beautiful than the next. Perfect mixes of their parents’ genes and somehow more stunning.
I’m not sure the world is ready for the next generation of Gallos.
“Your dress is on point,” Max says to me. “It’s absolute perfection on your body.”
“Thank you.”
I will never confess I tried on at least fifty dresses before finally settling on this one. I tried not to go over the top since this is my second wedding. I tried to keep things simple, but everything I put on my body looked too plain. Betty and the girls convinced me to “go big or go home.”
“Let’s find our tables and let the newlyweds finish greeting the guests. We have all week to catch up,” Sal says as he stands off to the side with Maria on his arm.
Angelo leans over and places his mouth near my ear, “Overwhelmed?”
I turn my face, and our lips are so close, I have to stop myself from kissing him. “Just a little,” I whisper.
“By the end of the week, I swear you’ll have everyone memorized.”
My head is swimming with names, and if someone quizzed me right now, I’d go down in flames.
“You’re truly blessed,” I tell him.
I never grew up surrounded by a mass of people who shared my DNA or old stories about the past. I had no connections or ties that bound me to anyone or anything else walking this planet.
“I don’t know if they’re a blessing or a curse.”