EPILOGUE
The backyard at his parents’ house was filled with so many family members from all across the country that he could hardly walk two feet without being hugged or congratulated or high-fived or hair-ruffled. Carmine Gabrini was having the time of his life. But it was his mother he was after.
When he finally saw her over at the grill talking with his Uncle Tommy, he hurried over to her and gave her a huge hug.
“Thanks Mommy,” he said heartfelt. “For you to give me a do-over birthday party and every single person in our family shows up, I still can’t believe it.
Even Uncle Mick and Auntie Roz showed up.
Even Bobby Sinatra and Tony Sinatra showed up.
Every single family member showed up just to celebrate my birthday.
And all the gifts they brought for me. It’ll take me days to open them all. Thank you so much, Mommy. Thank you!”
“I love that you’re enjoying yourself, baby,” Trina said as they stopped embracing. “But don’t thank me. It was Daddy’s idea.”
“Daddy? Really?”
“For real,” Trina said. “He wanted to make it up to you.”
“Where’s Daddy anyway?”
“Now that’s a good question,” Trina said as she and Carmine began searching with their eyes in the sea of family members from the Gabrini and Sinatra clans as they clogged up the pool and the tennis courts and the basketball courts and even Sal and Jimmy and Big Daddy Sinatra were further out on the golf course.
But then Trina spotted Reno, all the way over by the kiddie swings, seated in a swing all alone. “There he is,” she said, and Carmine looked too. “Why don’t you go over there and give him a hug and a thanks.”
Carmine saw his father swinging slowly on the swing set, dressed in a suit like he always was, and very much wanted to go and thank him. But instead of running to him the way he wanted to, he hesitated instead. Tommy and Trina both noticed his hesitation.
“What’s wrong?” Trina asked him.
“Nothing’s wrong. I just don’t want to hear his Florence Nightingale bull-crap today,” he admitted. Then he exhaled. “I’ll thank him later,” he said instead.
Before Trina could urge him to thank him now, some of his older cousins were grabbing him and asking if he’d teach them how to play chest. He gladly said yes and took off with them.
Tommy smiled and shook his head. “Reno has some work to do with Carmine. I know he’s a handful,” Tommy added, “but what genius isn’t?”
Trina chuckled at his joke, but her eyes were still on Reno. Everybody were having a blast. Yet he was all alone on a kiddie swing. “I’ll be back,” she said, grabbed two bottles of Heineken’s twist-top beers out of the cooler, and made her way to Reno.
Reno’s already slow swinging on the swing set eased up to barely moving as he watched Trina walk his way.
His heart swelled with emotion as he watched his wife, in her cute little shorts and her Las Vegas Aces tucked-in t-shirt and her thick hair in a bouncy ponytail.
She looked like a fresh-faced teenager to him.
But that was always Trina since the day he met her: High energy all the way.
When his energy, on that day, couldn’t be lower.
Trina handed him one of the bottles of beer.
“Thanks.”
“Carmine thanks you for pulling this all together.”
“He thanks me, hun? Funny how he didn’t thank me.”
Trina never believed in bullshitting. “He’ll get around to it,” she said.
“He just doesn’t want to hear your Florence Nightingale cracks anymore.
He’s getting older, Reno. It’s affecting him now as he tries to figure out who he is in the family and where he fits in.
You’ve got to change your tune with him. ”
Reno nodded. “Yeah I know,” he said as he opened the beer and took a big gulp.
Trina watched him as he drank. “So what’s with the separation way out here all alone?”
Reno had no ready answer. “I just . . .”
“You just what?”
“I just . . .”
“It’s over Reno. It’s all over. Bud Seagram was exposed for the fraud he was. He and his cousin and everybody who participated in that breach are locked up. It’s over.”
“I know it is, but . . . When I look at all of our family members out here all happy and full of life as if nothing never happened, it does something to me. Even the guest house is almost refurbished. The guard booth and the gate looks perfectly fine now. What I did is unforgiveable, Tree. It’s unforgiveable.
” Then he looked at her. “Don’t you see that? ”
“I see that you’ll never be able to forgive yourself,” Trina responded. “And you shouldn’t forgive yourself. I can’t forgive you because you didn’t do that shit to me.”
“Then how do we go on?”
“One day at a time, Reno. Like we’ve always gone on. All that shit we’ve had to deal with down through the years? Gotdamn, Reno. This is just another piece on the pile. Is it piling up? Yes. But that’s what piles do. They pile up.” She looked at him. “We’ll be just fine.”
Reno smiled and shook his head. “You have all the answers, don’t you?”
“If I may say so myself, yes I do,” she said, Reno laughed, and then he pulled her into his arms. “What on earth would I do without you, Tree?”
Trina didn’t have to think about it. “You’ll figure it out.”
Reno held her tighter. “What on earth would you do without me?” he decided to ask her.
She didn’t have to think about that either. “I’ll laugh. I’ll love. I’ll be my authentic self. I’ll live my best life ever. I’ll be happy,” she said.
Reno leaned back and looked at her as if she was insane. He was highly offended.
But Trina started to grin. “I’m just messing with you boy,” she said.
Reno laughed too, held her tight again, and shook his head. “You’re one of a kind, Trina. One of a kind.”
Trina never saw herself that way. But she was thrilled to know that Reno saw her that way. “What on earth would I do without you?” she asked him so heartfelt that it touched him deeply.
He leaned back and looked at her again. “As tough a broad as you are?” He nodded his head. “You’ll figure it out.”
They both smiled, looked deeply into each other’s expressive eyes as if they could see the world in each other, and then they held onto each other as if they were holding on for dear life.
And they knew they were going to figure it out together.