11.
R IN
“Tell me about this woman your sister has been talking about,” Papa said as he baited his hook. He looked at me before he said, “She told me that you’re planning to take her out.”
“You want to know about her family.”
“I think that’s kind of important with her being Tana’s friend and your possible love interest,” Papa said simply. “Although I’m sure branches of it exist all over the place, it’s not often we come across the mafia here.”
“I’ve never really thought about it, but you’re probably right.” I cast my line and watched the bobber for a few seconds before I said, “She’s connected to the mafia through her father, so it’s not like she’s a boss or anything.”
“Like Bella’s fiancé.”
“Yeah, she’s also good friends with Matteo and his twin.”
“When Tana mentioned her name at dinner the other night, I thought your Uncle Creed’s eyebrows were going to get tangled in his hair.” When I laughed at that mental image, Papa smiled and said, “Obviously, he knows something about her family.”
“Even if he didn’t, all you have to do is Google her last name to find out plenty.”
“Have you done that?”
“I have. When I looked her up, I remembered that she has a connection to Lucky, so I called and talked to him about her.”
“What kind of connection?”
“I guess they ran into each other and the paparazzi had a field day. The mafia princess and the rock star.” Papa nodded, and I knew he was piecing it together just like I had. “She’s funny. I like her.”
“Funny is good.”
“She’s smart, too, which I know you appreciate.”
“Obviously.”
“You can tell by the way she holds herself that she’s got class and was raised with money.”
“Those don’t necessarily go hand in hand.”
“True, but they seem to in her case.”
“What’s her hang up?”
I chuckled before I said, “I don’t think she has one.”
“Son, you’re interested in her. That guarantees she’s got a problem, whether you know it or not. You’re able to sense a damsel in distress like a drug dog searching for cocaine.”
“Oh, now that’s not true.”
“Let’s take a walk down memory lane,” Papa suggested.
“Let’s not.”
“There was the girl in high school that you hooked up with when you started giving her rides to school and work. That was your sophomore year, wasn’t it?
” Papa didn’t give me time to answer before he said, “You met the girl who needed someone to protect her from the school bully at the beginning of your junior year, and then the girl you found during your senior year needed rehab, but you were convinced that you could help her with her drinking problem.”
“I wonder how she’s doing nowadays,” I muttered.
Papa cast his line and then leaned back in his seat before he glanced over at Dad and smiled. He reached up and tilted the canopy to give Dad more shade during his nap before he looked back out over the water.
“The young lady you met in art school was dealing with family issues that you thought you could solve, and then the next young lady had a drug habit, and the one after that had that crazy obsession with cats.”
“She’s a veterinarian now.”
Dad looked at me with a bored expression before he said, “And then you took a deep dive into meaningless one-night stands and floozies.”
“Floozies?Really?”
“The redhead you brought to dinner kept checking her phone, which made me curious. I finally figured out why.”
I knew exactly who he was talking about because her fixation with her phone had driven me nuts, too, so I laughed before I asked, “What did you come up with?”
“She had an alarm set every minute or so to remind her to breathe so she didn’t pass out.”
I burst out laughing and then slapped my hand over my mouth when I heard Dad snort and then mumble something in his sleep.
I couldn’t remember a time when we’d gone fishing that hadn’t ended with Papa and I catching dinner while Dad took a long nap.
Since he seemed to enjoy it so much, we always made sure to give him plenty of time to relax.
“Do you want to know why I think you always find a fixer-upper rather than a woman who has her shit together?” Papa asked.
“Probably not, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”
Papa ignored my sarcasm and answered his own question. “Because you watched us do everything in our power to help your mom, and then we lost her anyway.”
I sucked in a breath and looked at him in shock before I said, “That cut right to the bone.”
“Loving an addict usually does, over and over, until they find it within themselves to get help or lose themselves completely.”
“Do you analyze Tana and Ian’s love lives, too, or am I getting special treatment?” I asked.
“Tana dates men that she knows will fuck up in a way that means she doesn’t have to get too attached, which is something she also learned from living with your mother. Ian won’t get attached at all, because he’s positive that whatever woman he falls for will inevitably leave him.”
“That’s . . ..” I let my voice trail off because there were more than a few ways to describe Papa’s insights - harsh, deep, and very astute.
I thought about the different men and women my sister and brother had dated over the last ten years or so and realized he was right.
When I considered my past relationships, I had to admit that Papa was absolutely right.
“Holy shit, Papa. I think you’re onto something. ”
“You seem surprised. You should know by now that I’m always right.”
I looked over at Dad, wishing he was awake to hear this, before I looked back to Papa and said, “Will you repeat that when Dad can wade in?”
“That’s an argument I’m not willing to start,” Papa said with a grin. “But he’s sleeping, so I can say whatever the hell I want.”
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, I said, “I don’t know Stan well enough to be able to tell you if she’s got issues, but now that you’ve pointed out this affliction I have, I’ll be more aware.”
“It’s not an affliction, son; it’s a gift. Your heart is so big that you can’t seem to help yourself from diving in when you find someone with a problem.”
“I’ll admit I’ve made some bad dating choices in my life, but they’ve all worked out okay. Mostly.”
“Son, all three of my children have had to get restraining orders against at least one of their exes. You’re not the only one in the family who has made bad choices.”
“That reminds me: it’s almost time to renew.”
Papa hooted with laughter and then slapped me on the shoulder before he said, “Let’s just hope this one doesn’t give you a first class seat on the crazy train.”
“I don’t think she will, although, as beautiful as she is, I may just punch that ticket anyway.”
“Well, either way, I’m excited to meet her. Tana speaks very highly of her, and from what I understand, she is going to start working at the hospital soon, so I’ll probably be seeing her around.”
“You probably will.”
As the fire chief, Papa had encouraged everyone in the department to take an active role in community service, and he was definitely the kind to lead by example.
He’d been sitting on the board of the hospital with my Uncle Thorn for years because it was good for the community and because the hospital had been instrumental in the recovery of some of our family members when they’d been injured in one way or another.
Uncle Thorn had lost his leg and needed help learning how to walk and speak again after a debilitating head injury caused by my, thankfully dead, grandfather.
Uncle Fain’s wife, Jenna, had lost part of her leg after a car accident and spent months in the same hospital.
Over the years, another handful of our friends and family had received care there, so it was very important to us, and we did everything we could to help support the patients and their families.
That was why I volunteered my services to customize braces and AFOs and the reason I was more than happy to paint murals whenever they wanted.
That reminded me that I needed to talk to Papa about the latest request from the hospital’s marketing department.
“I guess I’ll see you at the next board meeting. I’ve sketched out some plans for the mural they want in the children’s surgical waiting room, and I’m ready to put them to a vote so I can get started as soon as the remodeling is finished.”
“I’ve got to go up there to take care of some things tomorrow, so I’ll let them know they should put you on the agenda for the next meeting.”
“We’ve been out here for a few hours, Papa. It looks like we’ll probably have to buy dinner.”
“That’s fine. It will be my treat.”
“No way. Let me buy tonight. It’s the least I can do for all the free advice you give me.”
“Smartass,” Papa said with a grin. “I’ll let you buy us dinner, but I’ll have you know that the real gift is getting to spend time with you. Neither one of us can ever get enough time with our children, no matter how old you get.”
“I may be getting older, but I’ll never be quite as old as Tana.”
“That’s a double-edged sword, and you know it. That’s why you point it out all the time.”
“She loves to rub it in that she’s older and supposedly wiser, but I have just as much fun reminding her that she’s on the downhill slide to thirty. Every time I do, the look on her face brings me immense joy.”
“I guess you’ll never stop arguing regardless of your age.”
“You’d worry about us if we did.”
“It would terrify me.”
◆◆◆
I leaned back in my chair and looked at my phone while my family finished their meal. I was happy to see that I had an email from the mother of a little boy I’d spoken to at the hospital with information about what he’d like on his next set of braces.
I smiled when I saw his request and knew this would be a fun project. I took a minute to text the boy’s therapist to ask her when I could pick up his AFOs and was excited when she texted me back almost immediately to let me know they were in her office waiting for me.
“See? He’s already off in la-la land with his pretty girl,” Dad teased.