Knowing she wouldn’t talk until everyone had a plate and coffee in front of them, I waited.
“Can you please tell me what’s going on?” I nudged Aaron. “Did they give you a hint?”
“Nope. I’m as curious as you.”
“So,” she said. “Nonna’shouse.”
I scrunched my brows together. “You got an offer? I didn’t even know you were showing it.”
“Yeah. Rose asked me the other day if it was sold yet.” Aaron took a bite of cake. “Oh, this is good.”
“Thanks, honey. No. We’re not putting it on the market. Me and Daddy want to give it to you and Aaron. To live in.”
Aaron started choking and grabbed his coffee to take a drink. Shocked and uncertain I’d heard her correctly, I didn’t say anything.
“Frankie? Whatsamatta? You don’t want to live there?” Her brows knitted together in confusion.
My head spun. “Wait, what? You’re seriously telling me you wanna give usNonna’shouse? Like for us to live in?”
“Far as I know, that’s what you do in a house.” My father finished his cake. “Lemme have another piece of cake.”
“Oh, stop it.” She pushed the pan out of his reach. “Yes. Just so you know, Valerie will get whatever our house sells for after we die. But you get to haveNonna’shouse. Everything you did for that house made it obvious, to me at least, that you belonged there.” Her gaze fell on Aaron, who still sat with a stupefied expression on his face. “Both of you do. Mama would have wanted that.”
“I can’t believe this. We get to live in that beautiful house?” Aaron shook his head, and I swore I thought I saw his eyes fill with tears. “I never thought…excuse me.”
He got up and hurried out of the room, and with a, “Hold on a sec,” to my parents, I jumped up and followed him into the bedroom, where I found him sitting on the bed, tears on his face.
“What, babe? Is everything okay?”
First wiping his cheeks dry, Aaron managed a smile. “Sorry. I got overwhelmed, ya know? A year ago I was in jail, hopeless, jobless, with nobody or nothin’. Now?” He shook his head and drew in a stuttering breath. “I got a job, friends. Your parents accept me, and most of all, I got you. Now a house? It’s too much.”
I joined him on the bed to give him a hug. “It’s not too much. It’s called life working out. You don’t recognize it ’cause it never happened before. Sometimes things really do work out.”
“I didn’t have a chance to tell you this yesterday.”
“Tell me now. What is it?”
I swore I could see his heart in his eyes, and my own beat fast and furious.
“I’m gonna look for my sisters. That woman from ACS? She said now that I have a steady job, I’ll have better luck. And if we’re living in that house?” Wonder filled his face with dreams he planned to achieve. “It would be a place they might come visit me. If I find them. Maybe that talk of it being magic was right. That house brought me luck.”
“I’ll do everything I can to help you.” I smoothed his hair and held him tight. “Last year you were so broken, but today? You’re stronger than ever. And you’ll be the most amazing big brother.”
He rubbed his hands on his thighs. “We’re really gonna do this, right? Build our future. You’re on your way now. You love what you’re doin’. I can see it in your face. I knew it was the right move for you.”
“I do. And I love who I’m sharing it all with. Let’s go back outside to my parents and tell them we accept the house.”
Hand in hand, we rejoined my parents in the little dining area.
“Sorry,” Aaron said. “I got a little overwhelmed.”
“Aw, honey. You know you deserve it. We gave you a hard time because it takes a lot for me to trust, especially if it’s been broken. I didn’t think it could be done. But you made me love you.”
For the second time that morning I saw tears from Aaron, but this time he chose not to hide them.
“I love you too.”
My mother got up and hugged Aaron, and tears stung my eyes.
