I smile back at him, “Yeah.” When I look back at Marco, he’s listening to Rebecca talk but watches me out of the corner of his eye. I give him a reassuring smile, too.
“Do you like sand? I have sand.”
“No sand in the living room, V,” Vinny calls over, walking into the room. “Hi, Cora. It’s nice to see you again.”
I stand to give him a hug and he crushes me. This is a thick man. All beef. “You, too, Vinny. Thanks for having us over. Your home is stunning.”
“Let me take you on a tour.”
“No, she’s coloring with me!” Viera whines.
“It’s okay, peanut, she’ll be right back. I’m going to show her the house.”
“I’ll help you, daddy.”
Vinny and Viera take me through every room in the house as he explains how they bought it last year and have been renovating it—him doing most of the reno himself. And I have to hand it to him, he’s done a great job. The tour takes much longer than I would have thought because he starts asking me what I would do in each room. I give him compliments on what he’s already done and suggestions to consider for future projects. Home renovation is incredibly personal, so I make sure to leave plenty of space for his own interpretations.
Naturally, Viera tells me her thoughts about each room, too.
It’s always cold in this room.
This door doesn’t shut all the way.
I tripped on this rug one time, so be careful.
When we make our way back down to the main floor, Marco is feeding Leo at his highchair—and I internally swoon—and Jay is setting the table for everyone. I help Rebecca bring out the food and we sit down, Viera sitting right next to me.
Rebecca’s made roasted veggies, a couple whole chickens, and pasta. I’m sensing a theme with this family.
She starts to serve up Viera’s plate. “Everything looks great, Rebecca. I take it the cooking gene runs in the family.”
“It is one of the few good things we got from our mother. When she was feeling up to it, she would cook these big meals and make us watch her, hand her ingredients, explaining everything as she went. It was like cooking was the one time she never got upset with us—so we took full advantage of that.”
“Now I take advantage of that,” Vinny says, patting his belly.
“Daddy, you make eggs and toast.”
“Thebesteggs and toast, peanut—don’t forget that part.”
I smile as we all start to dig in. “How did you two meet?” I ask before taking my first bite.
“At a Flyers’ game.”
“At aRangers’ game,” Vinny corrects.
“Semantics. The crowd was going wild because a fight broke out, all because some hotheaded Ranger wanted to throw down for a perfectly legal move,”
“Breaux slashed Nidec behind the knees and you’re calling that legal?” Vinny laughs.
“Shh, I’m telling the story. Anyway, this huge jerk next to me in a Ranger’s jersey got in my face about it, so I got in his. We got removed from the game for being too rowdy and he asked me out before we got kicked out of the stadium. We’ve been together ever since.”
I look over at Vinny and he gives me a shrug. “What can I say? I like ‘em feisty.”
Leo pushes his finger together, then rubs his belly while repeating, “More peez. More peez.”
Marco chuckles and hands him some more pasta. “Here you go, buddy. Good job using your words and your signs.”
“His vocabulary seems so…” I trail off, looking at Rebecca.
