“And I want to be around you until I’m old and gray likeprozio.I want to have the honor of witnessing you grow old too, to learn the different seasons ofyou.
“I want to know you as a mother, an aunt, a grandmother, a great-aunt. I want to learn each facet of your nature because the fire in you makes me feel alive and I’ve been coasting toward death for too long not to embrace that with my whole being.
“I love everything that you are, Kitty, and I’ll never let a day pass without ensuring you know that deep in your bones.”
Any other day, I’d have burst into tears at such a declaration.
But itwastoday and he’d fucked up again, so I only dipped my chin in a sharp nod.
Inside, though, I melted.
Inside, I thought about that little boy I’d Seen.
Inside, I knew those red flags of his would be my shroud, but at least I’d leave this world wrapped up safely within its folds…
FIFTY-THREE
STAN
Playlist recommendation:
Goodbye - Spice Girls
Every argument with Kitty felt like I was fighting for my life.
Because I was.
And she didn’t let up.
God, how I needed that.
Someone who wouldn’t let me get away with shit. Who’d get in my face. Who didn’t fear me.
Who doled out consequences like her mother made sandwiches.
Proof, once again, that I needed my angel.
Her gaze scrutinized me more than an MRI scanner but eventually, she glanced away, patted the headstone, standing respectfully to the side as she did so.
“Rest, Evangeline. Rest. I have his back now.”
The flood of emotion that triggered in me was something I’d admit to no one, not even her. But I bowed my head as shereturned to my side and, with a huff, slipped her arm through the crook of mine.
She was still furious with me.
Together, in seething silence, we walked through the cemetery. That silence continued as she tugged me in a different direction.
I’d go to the ends of the earth for her, so what did a short detour matter?
Her father and brother shared a grave, but the plot was half the size of Evangeline’s—Green-Wood cost a fortune so I got it.
A bunch of flowers sat in the small metal holder in front of the headstone. Rory’d probably know the names. I just knew they were white and pink and fresh, so someone visited regularly. It made sense it’d be Patricia, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn one of the girls brought them.
I cringed as she greeted, “Da, meet Stan. You’d hate him. You’d think he was all kinds of bad news for me, and that’s without him being Sicilian, but then you never did have any taste. That’s why Ma, to this day, wonders if you and Aunt Marge got it on.
“Stan won’t cheat, though, because he knowsI knowhow to castrate a man.” I didn’t even flinch. Because, yeah, ‘perks’ of her being a nurse…. “You might not have screwed around with Aunt Barf, but I know you weren’t true to Ma, so I don’t want any crap from you. So,ta da, your soon-to-be first son-in-law.
“A part of me hopes you’re rolling in your grave because I love you and miss you like mad, but you didn’t deserve Ma.” She wiggled her shoulders. “Man, I really needed to get that off my chest.” Her eyes popped up to meet mine. “Don’t tell Ma I said any of that.”
