“Nine,” he said with a laugh.
“The place looks good,” I told him.
The casino was hopping, despite how early it was.
Remo had offered to shut the whole place down for our wedding weekend. We’d decided that half the fun of a casino wedding was the thrill of it actually being open. So while we reserved the ballroom for the ceremony and reception, we all filed in and out of the pit to have some fun between dancing, drinking, and eating.
The photographer had some great shots of Roe at a blackjack table in her wedding gown, her arms thrown in the air when she won.
“It’s been good. People are responding to the renovations.”
“And they let you up the prices of the rooms.”
“Exactly.”
I knew the money had been good. I’d been getting my monthly kick-up and watching it increase month by month.
The overhead and payroll on places like this were insane, and Remo had to kick up to Luca and me, pay Roe, and cut in his brothers. Even so, with the casino alone, he was doing well for himself. Add in the mob shit? He was creating something generational for himself.
Suddenly, all the work he did to get the place made a lot more sense.
“You two still heading out tomorrow?”
Roe was doing a set later that night.
Then in the morning, we were off on a two-month honeymoon across Europe.
I think we both knew that as soon as we got home, we were planning on starting a family, so we decided to do it up, soak everything in, then go home and start on the baby-making.
“How are things going here?”
“Good. I mean, you know how shit goes. Money is good. Stress is high. But we keep ending up on top, despite the odds being stacked against us at times.”
“It’s all worth it if the books balance at the end of the month,” I said, shrugging.
“Yep. Heard the new house is nice,” he said. Which he’d heard from Santino, who’d visited us a few months back to personally bring the kick-up to Navesink Bank.
We’d had him over for dinner.
I’d cooked.
Roe was, yeah, still… learning.
Shealmostdidn’t turn the pasta to mush the week before. It was an improvement.
“You oughta come up sometime. From what I hear, you haven’t left this town in two years now.”
“Love it here,” he said with a shrug. “But when your woman pops out a baby, I’ll come up for a cigar. Shit,” he said when there was a loud song and an even louder cheer.
“What was that?”
“That was your mother getting a fucking jackpot,” he said with a bemused smile. “Get that woman to bed before she bleeds us dry.”
With that, he walked off.
I got my mother up to her room before going back to my suite, just as Roe did a whole body stretch in bed, the blankets falling down, her rings catching the morning light.
“Hey,” she said, shooting me a sleepy smile.
