Luca looked at me, “And that’s why he will stay home.”
In truth, the real reason was his fear of the outside visitors from California. Luca was set to fly out in a few days, and leaving Antonio behind, I knew, was hard for him to deal with.
“Can Stacey at least come over?” Antonio asked.
Luca shot him a look.
“And some other people,” Antonio followed up with.
“Fine,” Luca replied, “B calls the shots, though.”
I gave Antonio a wink, and he got up from his seat, “Thanks, Dad. I’ll see you when I get home. Brady is here—his mom is driving us to school. You want to come say hi?”
“No,” Luca replied un enthused.
I couldn’t help but laugh. Since Antonio was a little boy, all the moms at school would always try to speak to Luca as a chance to flirt with him once they knew he was a widower. They all fawned over him—the married ones the most. The less attention he paid to them, the harder they would try. Antonio ran off, leaving Luca and I at the table.
“Hopefully, you didn’t have plans this weekend,” Luca said.
“You know if I did, I’d cancel them.”
“I asked Alfie to keep an eye on you while Emilio and I are away.”
“It’s unnecessary. I’ll be here; it will be fine.”
“He mentioned you’ve been pushing him to do something different with his life,” Luca sipped his coffee.
Shifting in my seat, “I tell him that all the time.”
“It’s his choice, B.”
“Well, you don’t make it easy to turn away.”
“I’ve offered to pay for schooling to become anything he wanted. He refused.”
“It’s a shame,” I huffed.
“You did get him to voice what he did want.”
“What’s that?”
“More responsibilities.”
Luca didn’t need to go into specifics on what that meant. Alfie was set on this path by his own accord.
“He’s just a kid. Not even old enough to drink.”
“He turns 21 tomorrow. You and your friends should take him out.”
Being closer in age to Alfie, I agreed. “Under one condition.”
Luca already didn’t seem thrilled. “It being reasonable.”
“We take your Bugatti 16C Galibier.”
Chapter 4
Club Chaos was on the south side and was always a hot spot in Chicago. Everyone from all over the city would go; it was the one place where it didn’t matter what part of Chicago you were from. The place was blasting music you could hear whenever someone opened the door. Walking up to the bouncer with my two friends, Natasha and Tiffany, I smile and give him a wink. Times like this being a DeCarlo was worth it. Waiting in a line wrapped around the building wouldn’t happen in 5-inch heels. We were let in, and the first stop was the bar.
