“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“When Vinnie came to see Eddie in the hospital, Isabella was up there giving birth to her twin girls.” Tears sprouted to my eyes. “Oh, Sal. Those poor babies.”
They were going to grow up without their mother. I couldn’t imagine a worse fate. I knew I got aggravated with my parents pretty much on a daily basis, but I loved them. I’d be lost without them.
I needed to call my mother.
“What I can do to help?”
“God, I love you, Lany.”
I blinked. “I love you, too.”
Why were we discussing this?
“The police are here now. Your uncle is going to shit purple kittens when he finds out I was here before the shooting started.”
Yeah, probably.
“Want me to head him off?” I asked.
“No.” Sal’s sigh was heavy, resigned. “That would just delay the inevitable.”
I slapped a hand over my lips when a giggle escaped. I felt like a heel. Someone had just died and there I was laughing. Sal must think I was horrible.
“Sorry,” I said after I felt as if I could control myself.
“Baby, don’t worry about it. I think I set Vinnie up on a date with my cousin Gino while we were sitting there next to Isabella’s dead body, waiting for the authorities to arrive.”
My jaw dropped.
Hell, it practically came unhinged.
“You didn’t.” I plopped down on the couch.
Sal chuckled. “I did.”
“Wait.” My brain moved off of how weird it was to set up a date with a dead body in the room—not to mention in poor taste—and moved to the whole Gino thing. “Gino is a guy, Sal.”
They were related. How could Sal not remember what sex his cousin was?
“I know.”
“Vinnie’s a guy.”
“I know that, too.” There was a tone in Sal’s voice as if he was waiting for me to buy a clue.
“When two guys go out on a date,” I carefully explained just in case Sal didn’t understand what I was saying, “it usually means they are interested in each other.”
Duh.
“Does it?” Sal asked, amusement coloring his voice.
Oh, now he was just playing with me.
“Sal.”
“Lany,” he countered.
