117. Riley
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN
”Where”s that magazine?”
Cath stops flipping through a thick binder of bridesmaid dresses that we”d borrowed from a local bridal store. ”Which one? The Knot? Brides? Or Vogue Bride?”
”Uhh, the one with that dress I liked. I thought I listed it in my planner but I guess not.” I scan through the special wedding planner I”d bought with the white vegan leather binding.
”You liked at least a dozen dresses. Let”s see.” She sets the binder aside and rifles through a stack of magazines. ”I think it”s this one.”
She pulls one out, which sends a stack of papers, pens, and post-it notes tumbling off the coffee table. It”s Saturday, and we”re at Gabriel”s house, in the living room.
But we aren”t just in the room, we”ve taken it over. Consumed it with wedding planning stuff. Made it our bitch.
Cath held out the magazine. ”Page 37, right?”
I quickly flip through it. ”Um, maybe. I like this a lot.” I smooth my hand over the page, admiring the flowing A-line gown with lace and crystal detail. ”Isn”t it gorgeous? I love the sweetheart neckline. I”m not sure if it”s showing too much skin, though. I have a feeling that Gabriel”s family might be a bit conservative. And my dad won”t want me showing the goods in church.”
”Mmhmm, Italian and Irish Catholics can be like that,” Cath mumbles, already buried again in the binder. ”Damn puritans.”
”What do you think for your bridesmaid dress? Blush pink or navy blue?” I hold up fabric swatches, trying to envision the colors on her. ”Or are these too boring for you? You”re the only bridesmaid so you can be as wild as you want.”
She looks up and adjusts her glasses. Usually she wore contacts, but today she was in an outfit that she dubbed ”Dark Academy.” It”s like something a sexy Wednesday Addams would wear, and the black-rimmed glasses and pigtails are nice touches.
”You don”t have anyone from home you want in the wedding party?”
I sigh and shake my head. ”My friend Lorna always swore she”d be in my wedding. But...”
My voice trails off. I can”t believe I”m planning a wedding without Lorna. Then again, I can”t believe that I”ve lived months, no, years, without her.
Cath leans over and squeezes my hand. ”Listen, let”s have a little tribute to her at the wedding. It”ll just be between us. What do you think she would”ve wanted to wear? I”ll wear that.”
Since I was sitting with my back against the sofa, I roll onto the floor, laughing at the though. ”She would”ve wanted to wear something sexy to show off her boobs.”
Cath, who is stretched out on the sofa, pokes my butt with her foot. ”I don”t have a lot in that department. But, I could wear a padded bra or those fake implants or something I guess.”
For some reason, that makes me laugh harder. Conversation then devolves into discussing a scenario where we both wore the sluttiest possible dresses. We”re pretending to walk down the aisle together, wagging our tongues and laughing hysterically, when Gabriel and his father walk in.
”Urp,” I grunt, and accidentally bump into Cath. I”m such a dork.
Gabriel is in the doorway, wearing a small smile, surveying the total destruction of his living room.
I try again and clear my throat. ”Hi sweetie. And, hello, Mr. Greco.”
”Is that you, Catherine?” Gennaro booms, tilting his head. ”You”ve turned into a beautiful woman. Just like your mother.”
Cath walks over and kisses him on both cheeks.
”I”m sorry I couldn”t be at your father”s funeral,” he says, holding her hands.
”It”s okay. I”m sure he understood.” Cath smiles tightly. As goofy as she can be, right now she”s a mask of stone. Huh. This is an interesting dynamic, the two of them. An old-world Italian mafioso and a Mafia princess who looks like an overgrown gorgeous goth girl.
Yikes.
”We”re just doing some wedding planning here,” I say, trying to straighten a pile of magazines. An empty Red Bull can falls onto the carpet. ”Crap,” I whisper, scooping it up.
Gabriel chuckles as he steps over a pile of receipts and fabric samples. ”Wow, it looks like a bridal store exploded in here.”
His dad surveys the chaos, eyebrows raised. I flash him an embarrassed smile while trying to subtly nudge a package of Twizzlers under the sofa with my foot.
Gabriel crosses the room and reaches for my hand. ”Don”t worry about the mess, blondie. I”m sure this is only the beginning of the insanity.”
I glance around, taking in the chaos. ”Yeah, sorry about this. I swear we”ll clean it up later.”
”No need to apologize.” Gabriel tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. ”Seeing you like this, so happy and excited...it makes me fall more in love with you every day.”
His dad makes a grumbling noise and launches into small talk with Cath. Or tries to. Gabriel ignores him, his dark eyes fixed on me.
”I can”t wait until I can call you my wife. And I”ll gladly deal with a thousand messy living rooms if it means seeing that beautiful smile of yours.”
I melt against his chest, previous embarrassment forgotten. Cath makes fake retching noises behind us.
”You two are nauseatingly cute,” she snarks.
”They are, aren”t they?” Gennaro chimes in. ”Cath, maybe I should take you to lunch instead of Gabriel. I think you”d be a far better companion and we could catch up. It”s been so long. I can”t get over how beautiful you”ve turned out. Even with those silly clothes.”
I look over and Gennaro is eyeing Cath”s legs, which are covered in black fishnet stockings.
”Ah, yeah, no. I”m not in the market for a man. Thanks, though, Don Gennaro.”
I glance at Cath, then Gennaro, then Gabriel. We stare at each other as if to say, holy shit.
Gennaro chuckles. ”I think your mother turned me down in much the same way, Catherine. But if you”re ever looking, I”m a free man and available.”
I wrap my arms around Gabriel and whisper into his ear. ”Is he serious?”
”I think so, but I can”t be sure,” Gabriel whispers back. ”I”ll get him out of here so you two can continue having fun, okay?”
He brushes a kiss over my lips. ”Have a good day, ladies. We”ll be back in a while, I”m going to show my father that new condo that”s under construction downtown.”
”And we”re meeting with Antonio Martinez?—”
”Dad,” Gabriel says sharply. ”They don”t need to hear every detail of our day.”
Gabriel kisses me again then tells me he”ll be home in a few hours. It”s only when they”re gone that I realize Cath”s demeanor is quite different. She”s sitting in a chair, staring at a magazine with a sober expression.
”What? What is it? See what I mean about Gennaro?” I”d told her all about the tense dinner. ”He”s weird. Abrasive. Says the most inappropriate things. I”m so sorry?—”
”Riley.”
”What? What”s wrong?” My stomach clenched. ”Gennaro is going to be a problem for our wedding, isn”t he? Ugh. What am I going to do?”
”Do you know who Antonio Martinez is?”
I shake my head. ”Never heard of him. Is he local?”
Cath takes a deep breath, her expression hardening. ”He”s a notorious drug trafficker from Spain. He”s built an empire of crime and illicit activities that stretches across all of Europe. Has a home in Miami.”
My heart starts racing and I can feel my palms start to sweat. I don”t know what to think—or how I should respond.
”That”s a pretty common name, right? Antonio Martinez. Lots of people have that name. Wait, I think I have heard of him, he”s an attorney in town, right?”
Cath stares at me with a mixture of pity, sympathy, and fear. ”Oh, girl.”
”How could this be? Gabriel told me he was trying to go legit. Trying to move money into more legitimate businesses.”
She blows out a breath, her cheeks puffing out. ”Do you know how many times I heard my father tell my mother that?”
Cath shakes her head. ”Riley, I watched my parents for decades, and I know one thing—being a mafia wife isn”t easy. You need to accept that you”ll never be able to completely understand what Gabriel does or why he does it. You”re his family, but he”ll always have another family.”
I let out a little noise of fear. Or maybe it”s sadness. I”m not sure which.
”It”s important to remember that you have a choice: You can either stay in this world or leave it behind.” Cath gives me an intense look as if trying to make me understand something very important. ”And if you decide to stay in this world, then you must take responsibility for your actions and decisions—no matter how difficult they might seem at first.”
I sink into the sofa, not wanting to believe what she”s saying. But in my heart, I know it”s true.
When my phone buzzes with a text, I dive for it, grateful for the interruption. I half expect it to be Gabriel, apologizing for his father. But it”s not him.
”Oh, God, just what I need,” I groan.
”Who is it?” Cath says, moving to sit next to me on the sofa.”
I hand my cell to her, shaking my head. ”It”s the creepy guy from my building. The bookstore dude. God, I wish I”d never hung out with him.”
She reads the text aloud. ”Hey, it”s Beckett. I”m sorry about the other day, I wasn”t feeling my best. Do you think we could get together to talk? I miss you.”
Cath looks up. ”That guy needs to watch his fucking back, because if Gabriel finds out about this, stalker boy won”t have any fingers left to text with.”