“My eyes are not wonky orbs.”
Ma rolls her eyes. “Your prescription says otherwise.”
Pops swipes his hand through the air before he collapses in the blue pleather chair across from my bed. “Whatever.”
“So, I have a nursery to shop for and some field trips to plan.” She smiles. “I’m going to show you everything. We’re going to have so much fun. Just you wait, Ethan.”
“Can I come sometimes?” I ask. “Or are adults not allowed to go on the field trips?”
Ma looks up with her eyes big. “You want to come?”
I raise a shoulder, feeling weirdly left out. “I mean, I like the museum and stuff too.”
Ma smiles. “You’re always welcome to come. You’re my baby too.”
And no matter how old I am, I know it’s true. I’ll always be their baby. Their little girl. After laying eyes on Ethan, I can’t imagine the protective feeling that’s buried in my gut ever going away.
“How about a family field trip once a month? There’s plenty to do around here,” Ryder adds because he clearly wants to go too.
“I like that,” Ma says. “I’ll ask Franco and Chloe if they want to come too. Vito and Benny, though…”
“They won’t come. Don’t bother,” I tell her.
“I’ll invite them. Maybe eventually they’ll feel like they’re missing out on something.”
I pull the blanket up over my chest and wiggle my back against the world’s most uncomfortable bed. “That’ll never happen.”
Ma walks around the bed and sits opposite Ryder with Ethan in her arms. “Your uncles are fuddy-duddies.”
“Someday they’ll settle down,” Pops says, but there isn’t a person in this room who believes that.
I busy myself with the extra-large water container they left with me, telling me I needed more hydration after labor. Which sounds great in theory, but that also makes me have to pee more than usual, and nothing about that is fun after pushing an abnormally large human out of that general area.
“Maybe your uncle will marry a different stripper this time,” Ma says to Ethan. “One who wants to settle down and have a baby.”
I choke on the water, and it dribbles down my chin as I quickly wipe it away. “Ma, that’s awful.”
She shrugs with a shitty smirk. “Well, where’s the lie?”
“Lucia, you’re rotten sometimes.” Pops shakes his head and purses his lips.
“I’m always rotten, Mario. You know this, especially when it comes to my boys. They go where they let their penises take them, and it’s never anywhere good.”
“Ma, they may change.”
“I’ll be dead before that happens, Gracie.”
“Two out of four isn’t bad,” Pops adds, trying to help, but Ma isn’t having it.
She gives my father a wicked look. “I won’t be able to rest until I know all my children are settled and happy.”
“They’re happy,” Pops tells her.
“That they are,” I say. “And they’ll settle when they find the one person who makes them want to settle down. And if that never happens, if they never get married or have kids, I think Vito and Benny will still find ways to be happy. We all have different ideas of happiness, Ma.”
She busies herself with Ethan, cooing over him as he sleeps in her arms. “At least I have you,” she says to him. “I have four wonderful grandchildren to fill my life. What more could a woman want?” She stares down at Ethan like the sun rises and sets on his very presence.
Ryder scoots until his back is next to mine. He takes my hand in his as our arms are nestled between us. “Life’s good,” he says softly as my parents talk to each other about their two sons and their inability to find stable relationships.
