Me: Fuck off. Can you come or not?
Nico: Be there in thirty.
I tossmy phone in my passenger seat with a grunt and pull off when the light turns green.
Once inside my condo, I get started on dinner. It’s not much and I’m not even sure I remember the way my mom made the recipe.
When I was a kid, she taught me how to make this dish that she said her mom always made her dad. “The way to a man’s heart, my sweet Declan,” she said as he kissed the top of my head, making me giggle, “is through his stomach. Whether you have a husband or wife, you’ll need to learn to cook to keep them in love.”
I smile at my mom’s progressive views. She always turned her nose up at the men in our family that didn’t tolerate gay people. Said it was backwards and stopped us from getting good men in our ranks. She’s right about that. I’m gay and Carter is bi and no one can fuck with us.
I think she knew, even when I was that young. Mother’s intuition or some shit. But she always told me how much she’d love me, no matter who I brought home to meet her.
She would have liked Nico. Not only is he loyal, but he’s good-looking, polite and isn’t shy with his compliments. He probably would have charmed her into getting her to make him dinner more than her own husband.
God, I miss her.
I stop chopping vegetables to lower my head and breathe through the pain. It’s been over fifteen years, and it still feels like yesterday. The pain is so acute, the scar on my side throbbing in time with my heartbeats.
After pulling in a few deep breaths, I get back to cooking, adding the veggies and getting started on the meat.
Just as I’m sliding the beef into the oven, my doorbell rings five times back-to-back.
“I should just get him a key,” I mutter. It would be more convenient than him always ringing my doorbell like a fucking weirdo.
Shit, I’m thinking about giving Nico a key? After only a few weeks? God, what is he doing to me? I’ve heard of men being dickmatized, but this is next level.
With my usual scowl pulled in place, I open the door and glower at him. “You only need to ring the bell once. I can hear it.”
Like the dick he is, he presses it a few more times in quick succession. “Where’s the fun in that, D?”
I grab him by his collar and pull him in, loving the joyous sound of his laughter. Smiling back at him, I plant my lips on his, tasting his sweet mouth.
Nico backs me against the door, one hand dropping to cup my ass as he pulls my groin flush against his.
I would stand here and let him kiss me for hours, but I don’t want dinner to burn. I nip his bottom lip, making him pull away with a hiss.
“Smells good in here,” he says, walking to the kitchen. “I didn’t think you knew how to cook.”
“My mom taught me.” I step up to the stove and stir the food. “I think I remember what I’m doing, but she died when I was eight. I might fuck it up.” I try to keep the pain from my voice, but I don’t think I succeed.
Nico steps up behind me, kissing the back of my neck. “I’m sure it’ll be delicious. If it tastes half as good as it smells, it’ll be good.”
I smile but nudge him away. “Go sit down before I burn us. Then we won’t be eating shit because we’ll be in the emergency room.”
He chuckles and kisses the back of my neck once more,then sits down.
“You know,” I say, checking the food in the oven, “my mom was a brilliant cook. She refused to let Dad hire anyone like most of the wives of mafia bosses. She said if her family was going to eat anything, it would be because she made it. Dad said she deserved to be spoiled, to be treated like a queen, and she said, ‘If I’m the queen of this castle, I make the rules. Rules say I cook.’” I chuckle after trying to imitate her heavy Jersey accent. “She loved telling that story. She was the best cook in the world.”
“And she taught you?”
“Yep. Carter had Dad. I had Mom. She was a beast, the best shot in the family with a few bodies of her own, so no one saw me hanging out with her as weak. More than Dad, she taught me a code for killing. Her biggest thing? Don’t be sexist. ‘Women aren’t always innocent. If they fuck up and need to be put down, you put em’ down,’she’d say.”
Nico whistles. “Sounds like my kind of woman.” I glare at him. “If I didn’t have you, of course.”
“Nice save, dick.”
He throws a napkin at me and I burst into laughter.
