“I don’t think a squad can only be one person,” Cee replies when I say something to that effect, and it’s the first time I’ve seen her really smile since I arrived to help her pack, and to meet my baby sister properly. I turned down holding the kid just in case she spit up on me, which Celia rolled her eyes about.
Actually, it wasn’t the spit-up thing at all. I’m just terrified I’ll drop her.
“I was counting Bubbles in my squad,” I tell Celia. “You, me and Bubbles: we’re gonna rule the world one day.”
Celia stops mid-fold and her eyes fill with tears.
“Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” I say, panicky. “Cee, what’s wrong?”
She rushes over to me and throws her arms around my neck. “I’m going to miss youso much,” she sobs. “And I’m going to miss Frankto deathand I won’t have anyone with me that I know, and I thought I knew how to be a mom, but I really, really,reallydon’t.”
I rub her back in the same soothing movement I saw her use on Bubbles, and it seems to help. “You’re gonna have loads of people with you. You won’t be able tomove, there’ll be so many people around to help you.”
“But I don’tknowany of them,” she says again, although at least the crying has stopped. “They’re all strangers. And what if I get seasick on the way?”
“No chance. TheMaddalenasails like a dream. You won’t even know you’re on the water. And the weather’s clear right down the coast, and on to the islands. Plus, I had veto over who Luca hired to help out, and I only picked the coolest and nicest nannies and kid-carers. One of them’s a dude, even. Like, a manny or whatever they call ’em. You’ll thank me when you see him. Great arms, abs for days. Make sure you take Bubbles out to the pool a whole lot so he strips down to his swimsuit.”
“I’m a married woman!” she insists, but she’s smiling at least. “But thank you, Finch. If I can’t have you and Frank with me, he sounds like the next best thing.”
“Your mom’ll be meeting up with you in Florida before you go on to the islands,” I point out.
“Yeah,great,” she sighs, shaking her head. “Don’t get me wrong, I love her to death, but the woman drives me crazy.”
Celia’s mom is kind of religious. Like, even more than Cee herself these days, although nowhere near the Róisín end of the spectrum. I met Mrs. Esposito a while back and she didn’t approve of me, but she was also polite enough to hide it. She seems decent enough and I know she’s excited to see the baby. But I also know that Celia hates that she has to lie to her own mother about the origin of this baby.
“Promise me something,” she says, her eyes serious. “Promise you’ll go on Fridays to take my place at Our Lady?”
“Cee, come on,” I groan. “That priest hates me.”
“Don’t be silly,” she says briskly. “Priests don’t hate anything except sin and the devil. Plus, he’s not a priest. Please, Finch. Youknowthe other women just use the time to sit around and gossip. They just ignore the work and they won’t do itright.”
It’s as close as I’ve ever heard Celia say something bitchy about someone else. “I don’t do it right, either,” I point out weakly.
She takes my hands and makes me look at her. “You and I, we have so much, we’re so fortunate…it’s notrightfor us not to give back.”
Ah, for fuck’s sake.
“Okay,” I agree begrudgingly. “But only so my soul has a chance.”
“You don’t believe in souls,” she says, going back to packing. “But thank you, Finch. I know Aidan will be pleased to see you, too. He thinks you don’t like him.”
“Uh, I don’t.”
“Of course you do,” she says with a smile. “How could anyone not like Aidan?”
How, indeed.
* * *
Friday Date Night rolls around,and I spend the whole day primping although my heart’s not in it. Now that Celia’s gone, my social circle has shrunk yet again to…well, Luca, Marco, and the mobster wives. I go dutifully to their coffees and lunches, because it’s important to keep my ear to the ground, but I find them tedious at best and want to strangle them at worst.
Itotallyforget about Celia’s Friday afternoon do-gooding, and by the time I remember, it’s halfway through. Next Friday, I swear. By then I might even be in a mood to face that priest.
But tonight is for Luca and me alone. No bodyguards, if they even count. So much of the time I don’t notice them these days. Angelo in particular has this gift of becoming part of the wallpaper when he wants, and Marco doesn’t like to chat too much. He says it distracts him from his duty. His presence in my life feels like the weather or something: I notice it now and then, but most of the time I’ve got other things on my mind.
Thinking about the not-priest reminds me of something, though, just before Marco is due to go home. Luca has mentioned something to me about suspecting there’s a leak in the Family, although he’s been real vague about it. Like he doesn’t want me toworry.
“You don’t go spilling secrets in the confessional, do you, Marco?”
