I’d been alone my entire life, with no brothers or sister to tease or have my back. I missed my ma, but I’d never admit it. And if I was being entirely truthful, I wished Race were here with me.
“What’s wrong?” Joe asked.
I blinked a couple of times and focused on him. “Me?” I asked, scrunching my nose.
“Yeah, you.”
“Nothing, man.”
“Something’s on your mind, cousin. Spit it out,” Joe said, running his finger across his lip.
I sighed and scrubbed my hands across my face. “Just thinking about how lucky you are to have each other.”
“Dude, it must’ve sucked being an only child,” Mike chimed in, shaking his head as he winced.
I shrugged. “At times, it was great. I didn’t have to share shit with anyone, but then at other times…”
“Yeah. It has to be lonely,” Mike said.
“I call bullshit. I’d love to be an only child,” Izzy blurted out. “I’d want all the attention. Plus, I wouldn’t have had to put up with your asses my entire life.”
“Izzy,” Anthony said as he gave her a nasty look, “please stop with your crap. You’ve been treated like an only child for years. You’re a girl, and that’s afforded you a pretty charmed existence.”
“That’s such a crock of crap.” She rolled her eyes.
In the other room, the older kids played in the new playroom Auntie Mar had made for them. The Gallos were creating a small army. Izzy had twin boys about six months before her wedding and named them Rocco and Carmello, but everyone called him Mello. Thomas and Angel had a little boy, Nick, who was just learning to walk. Anthony, Joe, and Mike each had little girls named Tamara, Gigi, and Lily respectively.
“I better go get Nick up so he’s ready to eat, baby,” Angel said to Thomas before kissing him on the cheek and heading upstairs.
“James,” Izzy said, glancing at him.
“What?”
“I need help carrying those two beasts you helped create.” Izzy stood and put her hands on her hips.
“I got ya. I’ll get them both, love. You rest.” He pulled her back down onto the floor and nuzzled his face into her neck. “I love waking the boys up,” he mumbled against her skin.
“Nah. I want to help you,” she said with a giggle as she climbed to her feet and pulled James with her.
The living room thinned quickly. I took it as a cue to go see if Auntie Mar needed any help. The least I could do was pitch in, since she had been gracious enough to invite me.
“Hey, Auntie Mar.” I walked into the kitchen, finding her spooning the meatballs into a giant bowl. “Let me help you.”
“You’re such a dear, Morgan.” She turned and gave me a magnificent smile. “Can you finish this while I get the gnocchi ready?”
“Hell yeah,” I replied, because gnocchi were my favorite. Shit sat in my stomach like a ton of bricks, but it was amazingly soft.
She handed me the spoon. “You’re really a good man. You’ve changed so much since you were a teenager.”
“I hope so. I was a punk back then.”
“We all have to grow up sometime. You just took the harder road.” She bent over and pulled a strainer that could fit at least three pounds of pasta in it without a problem out of the cupboard.
“Joining the army was the best thing for me. My mom would disagree, but I don’t know if I’d be alive today if it weren’t for them.”
She placed the strainer in the sink and turned toward me. “Morgan,” she said, placing her hand on my shoulder, “your mom knows it was the best thing for you. She just likes to complain. Plus,” she added as she turned her attention back to the pasta, “it’s the job of a mother to make her children feel guilty.” She was surrounded by a cloud of steam as she dumped the boiling water and pasta into the sink.
I dropped the last meatball in the bowl and watched as she shook the water out of the pasta. “You’re all crazy.”
