“Hey kiddo.” She smiled, tilting her head up and looking at me. “Morgan, my dear, you just want to eat my food. I haven’t forgotten,” she said as she rubbed my stomach.
“True, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t miss you too.” I sighed, rubbing my stomach where her hand had just been. “But your sauce is something that can’t be explained, and based on my Ma’s cooking, it can’t be replicated either.” I waited for Ma to slap me again.
Scanning the yard, I noticed that Ma was too far to hear or reach me even if she had.
“You’re lucky she didn’t hear you,” Aunt Mar said as she wrapped her arms around my waist and rested her head on my chest. “I’m so happy you’re home safe. We were so worried about you.”
I hugged her back, feeling a bit warm and fuzzy inside. I’d always loved Auntie Mar the most out of any of my relatives. “I made it out alive.”
“You’re the last thing your Ma has,” she said, peering up at me. “If something were to happen to you, she’d lose it.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes. “Thanks for more of a guilt trip, Auntie Mar.”
“It’s a family thing.”
“Yeah, and something I could do without.”
“Let’s get some food in you and maybe you won’t feel so grumpy.”
“Couldn’t think of anything more perfect,” I said as I kissed the top of her head.
We headed up the driveway along with my cousins and their other halves. The crew had quadrupled if I counted the kids.
Suddenly, I felt behind in the family department.
Oh God, was I going to be stuck with Ma as my plus-one for an eternity?
Icollapsed on the couch. Why hadn’t I worn sweat pants? I had known I’d overeat, but I hadn’t wanted to greet my family looking like a slob. Let’s be real. If I’d shown up to the airport in sweats, Fran would’ve had a conniption.
Being in the living room, looking around at my family, I felt genuinely happy. When I was a kid, I used to beg my parents to let me stay with Auntie Mar for the summer just so I could feast on her amazing cooking, but Ma always said no. She claimed that they had enough children to worry about without having to feed me every day.
“So, what are you doing with yourself now?” Joe asked as I yawned.
Joe had always been a tough-lookin’ guy. Even as a teenager, he had the look that had others cower around him. His tattoos, his wide torso, and fuck-off look that had become permanently etched on his face made him even more intimidating.
“Trying to digest. Other than that, not a damn thing,” I replied as I closed my eyes.
“Must you always be a smartass?” Anthony asked. He was the oldest of the Gallo kids. He’d always been artsy, interested in music at a young age, and had shied away from the bullshit Joe and I had found ourselves in as kids. He was an old soul, but he wasn’t the touchy-feely type. The one thing he had a talent for besides music was women. His cup overflowed with pussy, and he made no apologies.
“That’s ripe coming from you.” I could feel the food coma starting to grip my body.
Anthony had always been the biggest smartass. He’d never been as physically big as his brothers, or as athletic, but he used his words as weapons. His calling me a smartass was the funniest damn thing in the world.
“Have you found a job?” Thomas asked as he sat down next to me.
The wear and tear from Thomas’s time undercover lined his face. He looked older than the others now, the stress permanently etched on his tanned skin.
“Nothing yet. I haven’t even bothered to look, really. I’m just trying to settle back into civilian life.”
“It’s freaky shit, isn’t it? Nothing feels right anymore. Happened to me when I finished working undercover for the DEA. It took me a good year before things felt normal again.”
“Yeah,” I replied, too tired to say anything more. I stretched, trying to wake myself up. I needed to sit up to stay awake. This was utterly ridiculous.
“What did you do in the army?” Izzy asked as she sat down next to her fiancé James.
James was the perfect partner for her. I could tell. I’d always thought I had a knack for reading people. James obviously didn’t put up with her bullshit. She needed a man more overbearing than her brothers or she’d eat him alive. James and Thomas had become best friends when they’d worked together in the DEA, and they’d started a business together a year ago.
I leaned forward and took a deep breath. “I was a cavalry scout and did recon work.”
