Ma looks away. “I know. I am working on my relationship with her. But we have different…boundaries.”
“Don’t I know it,” I mumble under my breath, but Ma doesn’t miss a thing.
“Hey, I can take this food home.”
“Don’t be mean.”
Ma wags her finger at me. “Don’t be a smartass. If you decide to find a good woman and give me a grandbaby, I’ll give you boundaries. Until then, go wash up and sit your butt down at the table for dinner.”
“Yes, Ma, but can you do me a favor?”
“Always,figlio.” Her steel-gray eyes meet mine.
“I need you to try harder with Talia and Cam. I underestimated him, and you can’t hold my anger against him. It’s all in the past. Cam doesn’t deserve the coolness. He’s a good man.”
“You’re right. I should try harder. I do like him. I just…” She bites her lip to stop from finishing her sentence.
“You worry about me,” I finish for her. Ma nods, confirming what I’ve suspected since our family dinner. “You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I hate that I’m going to say this, but I like Cam, and I really do trust him with Talia’s heart. I would not have walked her down the aisle if I didn’t think he was going to love and take care of her.”
Mom wipes tears from her eyes. “I really needed to hear you say that. I’ve felt so disloyal to you for liking him.”
Fuck.
“Please don’t cry, Ma.” I’m out of my chair and wrapping her in my arms in less than a second. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I feel awful, Nico. I’ve been so rude.” She sniffles, and the sound tears at my heart.
“I’m sorry we didn’t have this conversation sooner. The good news is Cam is a teddy bear. He won’t hold the past few months against you. And neither will Talia,” I assure her as she steps out of my hold.
“I hope you’re right, Nico. Maybe I should take this lasagna and drive it over to their place tomorrow.” She wipes her nose on the dishtowel in her hand and points to the casserole dish on the stove.
“Whoa, don’t get crazy. That’s mine.”
“Fine. You can keep it.” Ma chuckles as she smacks me on the shoulder and orders me to go shower before dinner.
After I get cleaned up, I spend the rest of the evening catching up with Ma. I tell her about what went down with Damien. She isn’t happy to hear about his betrayal but not surprised by his true colors.
I don’t know what bugs me more—that everyone saw who he was before me or that I trusted him so implicitly. That piece of shit. I should trash his fucking Lambo for all the fucked-up things he said about Talia. Fucking prick.
“What’s that face for?” Ma asks.
“What face?” I ask with a voice of pure innocence.
“The face that says you want to go scorched earth on Damien.”
I laugh. I really do want to go scorched earth on his ass, but I won’t unless I have to. “Nah. It’s all good.”
“Good. I don’t want you wasting your time on him.” Ma looks at her phone and sighs. “I’d better get going. We have food deliveries scheduled for tomorrow morning, and inventory calls…”
“And it waits for no one,” I finish my mother’s sentence.
We grin at each other knowingly, both of us recalling similar memories of a teenage me helping at the family restaurant. I’ve offered to hire someone to manage the inventory so she could have more free time, but she refuses.
My mother worked her ass off to provide everything for me. She never missed a game, and I never went without. I do my best to return my gratitude, but she’s a stubborn woman. She’s in her fifties and still has a full tank of gas for running the restaurant.
As Ma and I exit my apartment, the elevator dings. I hold my breath as the doors slide open and Savannah steps out. She’s wearing dark-blue scrubs, and the way the fabric stretches tightly across her tits makes my mouth water.
Fucking hell.
