CHAPTER ONE
Milo
“Ma, can I call you back later?” I asked as I pulled into the parking lot of Famiglia.
“Oh, so busy. Heaven forbid you spare your mother five minutes of your precious time.”
“I’m gonna be at Sunday dinner.”
“You said that last week. And your setting sat empty all night.”
“I had—”
“Work,” she finished for me. “Haven’t we talked about the difference between making a living and making a life?”
“You just want me married and popping out babies for you to love on.”
“I want you settled and happy.”
“I’m happy.”
“You’re busy. Not happy.”
“Being busy makes me happy.”
“There’s more to life than money.”
“Would it make you feel better to know that all the money making is so I can give my future wife and kids a nice life?”
The pause let me know I had her.
“Slightly. But I still want you at my table this weekend.”
“I got every plan to be there. But Luca is waiting on me, so I gotta go.”
“Tell him I send my love.”
“Will do,” I agreed, hanging up the phone.
My sisters getting into relationships really screwed things up for me. Now my mom’s focus was on me all the time since I was the last one to settle down. Or even show any signs of it.
I hadn’t been lying, though it was important to me to be in a really stable place financially before I found a woman and started a family. So I’d been busting my ass since I got made.
So it was no surprise, as I climbed the steps up to the over-water restaurant that served as our boss’s headquarters, that I saw Domenico standing on the deck waiting for me.
Because we were the only two capos who hadn’t settled down and gotten busy making a life—and babies.
Dom was tall with black hair and eyes and the kind of frame that said he spent a good chunk of his time in prison working out in his cell or on the yard.
The general “fuck off” on his forehead meant that even outside of prison, everyone gave him a wide berth.
“Guess we got a job together,” I said when I saw him.
“The new dream team,” he agreed, heading to the door.
Inside, we found Luca in the party room, sitting with his back to the wall of windows that gave a view of the waves crashing below.
“Did you carpool?” he asked when we walked in, a small smile tugging at his lips.
