5.
C ONSTANCE
“I can’t believe you invited me to bring all of those wild boys over. I’m not sure what that says about your mental stability, but I’ll take it. I have no idea how to entertain them while they’re here. Hell, I’ve barely figured out how to entertain myself!”
“I was kind of worried about your choices when we first met, but after you explained why you were behaving like that, I completely understood. We’ve all had times where we dealt with life’s turmoil in unhealthy ways. I’m just glad you managed to pull yourself together before it got out of hand.”
I smiled at my new friend, Dilly, and asked, “Have you ever gone off the rails like that?”
“Girl, yes, but I had a toddler at home when I did it. Luckily, I also had my family around to talk to sense into me. As annoying as that can be, it definitely came in handy for me and Landon back then.”
“Are you sure the kids will be okay out there alone?” I asked as I worriedly looked out the window and tried to catch sight of my brothers and nephews.
“I don’t know what my dad and uncle were thinking when they sent them to me for the week, especially since they did it without giving me any notice. ”
Charlotte, one of Dilly’s cousins and my new friend, laughed before she said, “If they give you warning, then you have time to come up with an excuse not to take them.”
“They’ll be fine out there, especially since their guards have the perimeter of the complex covered,” Natty said while staring at me. As much as I hated that I’d have to explain it to them, I knew that the information would come out eventually.
“I guess I should tell you that Sho and Avi aren’t just my friends.
They’re two of the three members of my personal security team.
My brothers each have a guard who accompanies them everywhere they go, and so do my nephews.
It makes traveling difficult because taking an entourage that large anywhere requires careful planning and plenty of vehicles, but our guards have amazing forethought and are really good at making arrangements. ”
“I know the world is a crazy place and things are much wilder in the big city than out here in the sticks, but why do the kids need guards?” Charlotte asked.
“Our father is a businessman, and there are people in the world who would like to see him fail. Getting to him through his children would be the perfect way to do that.”
“A businessman, huh?” Dilly asked without looking up from her phone. She held it out toward Charlotte and Natty before she looked at me and said, “Your father is a business associate of Bella’s old man, huh?”
“Yes. Matteo belongs to the Russo family, and my father is the head of the Romano family. Together, they’re part of The Four Families organization in New York.”
“Wow,” Charlotte whispered as she stared at the phone.
Natty’s eyes moved over the screen as she mumbled, “Holy shit.”
“My uncles are part of the business, too, so that’s why their children have their own security detail,” I explained. “I hope that doesn’t make you feel any differently about me.”
“Sho and Avi were fun to hang out with, but now I understand why you’re never without one of them.
At first, I wondered if you just swapped the two men for two women - and there would be no judgement if that were the case, but it makes more sense now since I never saw any of you show any signs of affection. ”
“Don’t get me wrong, I adore Sho and Avi, but we’re not attracted to each other.”
Natty was gazing out the window when she said, “It’s probably nice to have such good-looking men around all the time.”
I followed her line of sight and saw Gio and Gianno’s guards playing tag with the young children while Rory and Freddy’s guards sat under the gazebo, talking with the boys and a few other teenagers.
“I have to admit that they are all handsome. Of course, some of them are related to us, even if distantly, and the ones that aren’t family are close enough to be.”
“Is that how you met the two men you care about so much?” Natty asked. When I nodded, she asked, “You fell for your guards? How very romance novel of you.”
“I thought so at the time, but my story didn’t end with a happily ever after like the books always do.”
“That just means it wasn’t your happily ever after yet. You’ll get yours. It just won’t be the way you thought.”
I smiled at Charlotte before I agreed. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Well, now that we know we’re in the presence of royalty, I feel bad that we’re just having burgers and dogs for dinner.”
“I’m not royalty by any means, and I love a good burger. Although, I do expect the aioli to be fresh and the onion to be crisp. Oh, and I prefer Brunswick red onions. As far as the dogs go, I take mine with sauerkraut and spicy brown mustard. I’m sure that won’t be a problem, will it?”
The women stared at me in shock after my declaration. After at least thirty seconds, Dilly cleared her throat and then opened her mouth to speak, only to snap it closed again. That sent me over the edge, and I howled with laughter.
When they still looked confused and uncomfortable, I said, “You guys are too much! I’m from New York City where there are thousands of hot dog vendors.
You can find one on almost every corner.
Believe me, I’ve eaten some very questionable dogs in my life, so I’m sure whatever you’re serving is perfectly fine. ”
“You really had me going there for a minute,” Charlotte said warily.
“I’m going to have fun with all of you if you’re that gullible. For your own sanity, I hope Sho and Avi don’t find out, because the tricks will be merciless and often. They are ruthless.”
“That wasn’t very nice at all,” Natty said primly. She wasn’t as good at keeping a straight face as I was, though, because she lost it almost instantly and laughed along with the rest of us.
“Is what I brought okay?” I asked once the laughter had died down.
“Obviously, you know what it’s like to feed teenage boys. Everything you brought is perfect. They can plow through a bag of chips in seconds, so we might have enough bags to get a few chips for ourselves now that we can add in what you brought.”
“That reminds me. I need to go grocery shopping if I’m going to have them in my house for a week. Otherwise, they may start eating the furniture.”
“They’ve hit it off, so my guess is that they’ll either be here or our kids will be at your place most of the week. We can plan a few outings . . . Maybe we could go to the zoo,” Dilly suggested.
“That sounds great! I bet they’d love that,” I assured her.
“How will that work?” Charlotte asked.
“Generally, you buy a ticket and walk through the gate,” Natty answered sarcastically.
“No, I mean, if the boys decide to spend the night here, what happens then?”
I frowned because I really wasn’t sure. I’d never considered that problem before.
When I was a child, I had much more freedom than my brothers since Dad took over the family while they were still young.
But Rory and Freddie lived in an entirely different world now, and even though he’d tried to keep it from me, I knew why my father was so adamant that they be protected, if only because they looked so much alike.
“I guess we’ll have to make sure that they have their sleepovers at my house.”
“Is your house big enough to hold that many kids?” Charlotte asked.
Sho and Avi were walking into the room when Charlotte asked her question, and they both laughed before Sho replied, “I think we’ll be able to squeeze them in.”
“I guess if they really want to stay here, we can station a man at the front door and another at the back,” I mused, wondering if that was even reasonable. I shook my head and said, “No, they’ll have to stay at my place.”
Sho and Avi sighed in unison, already exhausted from all the havoc the boys had wreaked in the few hours that they’d been in town.
“Did you try to quit this week, or is it my turn?” Sho asked. When I glared at them, Sho just shrugged and said, “It was worth a try, right?”
“They’re not here against their will, are they?” Charlotte whispered.
I rolled my eyes before I answered, “No, they are not captives unless you consider them being slaves to the good life captivity .”
“The bathtub in my suite is big enough for me to float in,” Sho pointed out, not for the first time. I guess that was a big draw for her.
Avi, on the other hand, said, “You should see the gym we’ve set up. And the pool is pretty great too.”
“Sounds like we’ll have to take a tour when we drop the kids off,” Dilly slyly suggested. “We may even need to stay over . . . for safety reasons and all.”
Without even thinking, I blurted, “Let’s have a cookout at my place this weekend. Your whole family can come.”
“Honey, you don’t know what you’re offering. Let’s just keep it to our little circle for now, okay?” Charlotte asked.
“We’ve got a really big family,” Dilly added. With wide eyes, she reiterated, “Huge. Very large.”
“Okay, then. I’ll be glad to meet them, but I won’t send out a mass invitation just yet. How’s that?”
“That’s for your benefit, Stan. Believe me.”
◆◆◆
RIN
“Could you at least try not to be a cave dweller for five minutes?”
I looked at my sister over the top of my book and asked, “Is that a rhetorical question?”
“Let me give you a life lesson, little brother.”
“Please refrain.”
Tana ignored me and said, “When you bring a dish to a cookout, it’s bad manners for it to be missing a portion.”
“How do you know that whoever brought that potato salad didn’t have some first?” I asked.
“If they did, they were hopefully nice enough not to eat the food directly out of the dish and leave their germs there to share with the world! There are fork marks in the fucking cake, Rin!”
“We’re family. My germs are your germs and vice versa. Also, if I were really a cave dweller, I wouldn’t have used a utensil.”