“We’re all old,” Anthony grumbles. “What the fuck happened to us?”
“We grew up. Shit isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either,” Thomas says. “Have kids, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. Biggest lie ever.”
“Dude, you have a boy. Shut the fuck up with your bullshit,” Joe says through gritted teeth. “I have daughters to worry about.”
“Sucks to be you.” Thomas smiles.
“Eh, I already have my bail money set aside for Lily’s first date,” Mike adds with a shrug of one shoulder. “I’ve accepted that I need to scare the piss out of the first one, and word will spread like wildfire.”
“Some little shit keeps calling the house for Tamara.” Anthony closes his eyes like he’s in pain. “I won’t even feel bad for scaring the life out of him if he shows up at my doorstep.”
“It’s only the beginning,” Joe tells them before he takes a swig of his beer. “Shit gets worse.”
“Izzy had all of us looking after her, but our girls don’t have four badass brothers to deal with and protect her,” Mike grumbles.
“I don’t think Izzy would look at it that way,” James adds. “She said you were all a pain in the ass.”
“Still are.” Anthony raises his glass. “But she wouldn’t have us any other way.”
“I think she’d have a different opinion.” James laughs. “She says you guys ruined her teenage years.”
Joe laughs. “That was our job, and we took that shit very seriously.”
“What’s so funny?” Ma asks as she walks down the steps with Tate and Brax at her side.
“Nothing, Aunt Betty,” Joe says as he looks at my two kids.
Ma raises an eyebrow. “Who wants to go to the zoo with us?”
Tate screeches, and Brax jumps up and down, filled with so much excitement. Tate runs behind the bar and clings to my leg. “Daddy, do you want to come?”
I kneel down, holding my little girl close. “Baby, I have to work, but I’m sure Grandma will spoil you.”
“I’m getting a cupcake from Mom first,” she says, and damn it, if my eyes don’t start filling with tears.
“It’s a hard pass,” Mike tells her, ignoring the fact that I’m crying like a pussy. “There’s enough animals around here to keep me entertained.”
“Just don’t get yourselves in trouble, boys. I remember how you used to be when you were young,” she says, giving us all a look I saw a hundred times growing up.
“Ma, we were ten. I think we have a little more sense now,” I tell her.
She chuckles. “Men never have sense, and by the time they do, they’re too old to put it to any use.”
“She’s rough,” Anthony whispers against his glass.
“She’s the only one who would put up with Santino’s shit all these years,” Joe adds, but speaking so quietly, my mother doesn’t hear over Brax running in circles, squealing like a monkey.
“Well, we’re off.” She turns toward the staircase. “Tino, are you coming or what?”
My father’s footsteps are heavy but slow on the stairs. “I’m coming, woman. Calm yourself.”
There’s silence in the room because everyone knows Betty Gallo doesn’t put up with being talked to like that, even from my father.
Her lips are twisted as his feet touch the dark tile floor of the bar. “Baby,” he says and tries to wrap his arm around her, but she moves out of his reach.
“We’re off. Don’t get in too much trouble today.”
“Bye, Daddy,” Tate calls out before running out the front door and turning toward Tilly’s cupcake shop.
