At Peace (The ‘Burg #2)(94)
Author: Kristen Ashley

“Aunt Theresa.”

She wagged her finger in his face. “No, none of that ‘Aunt Theresa’ business. Chicago isn’t on the moon, Anthony Joseph Callahan, it’s four hours away!”

Cal’s arm went back around my shoulders, he pulled me to his side and he said, “Shut up so you can meet Vi.”

She went statue still again then only her eyeballs came to me.

I didn’t think she’d like Cal telling her to shut up, she seemed tightly wound, so I decided not to pull away from him or make any quick movements. She was already looking at me with her eyeballs, I didn’t want too much of her attention.

“And these are Vi’s girls, Ma, Katy and Keirry,” Manny added, shoving Kate and Keira close in front of Cal and me, way too close to crazy Aunt Theresa and Aunt Theresa’s eyeballs moved between all of us, fast.

I wrapped my arm around Keira’s belly and pulled her to the left side of my front, not a good enough distance from the frozen, but unpredictable, Aunt Theresa, but at least she wasn’t standing right in front of her anymore. Cal wrapped an arm around Kate’s chest and pulled her to his front right.

When Cal did that to Kate, Aunt Theresa started moving again, doing that hand to the forehead and shoulders thing, calling loudly, “Oh, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Sweet Mary, Mother of God!”

“Jesus, Ma, you’re freakin’ them out,” Manny muttered, she stopped calling out to Mary, turned and whacked him one, hand open, up the side of his head.

Good Lord, the woman was every Italian-American stereotype in the book.

“What in the f**k’s goin’ on?” a loud, booming man’s voice shouted from behind Aunt Theresa, she whirled and there stood a man, a good-looking one, older, a bit of a pot belly, definitely related to Manny (thus Cal).

“Vinnie!” Aunt Theresa yelled. “Cal’s here, with Vi and her daughters Katy and Keirry.”

But Vinnie’s face, like his son’s, had split into a huge grin. He took us all in, giving us that grin and he walked by Aunt Theresa toward Cal, his arms wide.

Cal let me and Kate go and suffered another back pounding hug while Vinnie muttered a bunch of stuff in Italian. Vinnie ended the hug with his hands tight on Cal’s neck.

“Cal,” he whispered.

“Uncle Vinnie,” Cal replied.

“Good to see you, f**k, son, good to see you.”

I stared at him seeing he meant this, it came from somewhere deep. In fact, he was nearly overwhelmed with emotion. If he burst into tears, I wouldn’t have been surprised. He missed Cal and it was obviously good to see him.

Vinnie let Cal go and his eyes moved through us all. “Who do we have here? Honored guests? Why aren’t their asses in a booth?”

“Table five’s gettin’ bussed, Vinnie,” Bella put in.

“Well, help ‘em bus it girl, family don’t stand around at the freakin’ hostess station,” Vinnie replied.

“Right,” Bella muttered then took off as it was clear Vinnie’s word was law, as it would be at Vinnie’s Pizzeria, and Vinnie turned to me.

“Vi?” he asked, hand out.

“Yes, Vi, Violet,” I answered, taking his hand.

“Vi,” he said firmly, his squeeze of my hand just as firm, his happy grin still in place.

“These are my daughters, Kate,” I reached out and touched Kate’s arm. “And Keira,” I indicated Keira with my head, she was still in the curve of my other arm.

Vinnie shook Kate’s hand then Keira’s then looked at Cal.

“All beauties, Cal, you got an eye.”

I looked up at Cal to see his response was to tip up his chin.

“We’ll get you seated, soon’s we can,” Vinnie said, his eyes swept through us again, stopping at Cal, giving him a top to toe and then locking eyes with him. “What’s with the getups?”

“Funeral,” Cal murmured, “Vi’s brother, Sam.”

Vinnie’s face froze, Aunt Theresa sucked in breath and I felt Manny’s eyes on us.

“Cara,” Vinnie whispered.

I swallowed, Keira pressed into my body, Kate shoved under Cal’s arm so he slid it around her shoulders.

“Vi hasn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, Uncle Vinnie, she needs some food,” Cal ended the silence but he did it quietly.

Vinnie’s body jerked then he clapped. “Right, table five. Food. A big pie. Specialty of the house. I’m makin’ it myself.”

He turned and we followed him through the heaving restaurant, every table and booth with people at it. The tables were covered with red and white checked tablecloths and the floors were wood, dark with age and use but still shining. On the tables there were wicker-wrapped wine bottles with candles at the top and wax dripping down. The food on the tables I passed looked fantastic and seeing it I realized I wasn’t hungry, I was starving.

Then my eyes caught on the walls. They were painted a warm, buttery yellow and covered in pictures, some small, some large, some medium-sized, looking thrown up randomly but I knew it was random like my terracotta pots on my deck were random. They’d been hung with care.

All were black and white. And, on closer inspection, they all had the same group of people in them. Some pictures of just one person, others one or two, others whole crowds. Most were candids, a very few were posed.

But they were all of family, I knew this just by looking at them.

They’d been taken over years. There were babies, toddlers, kids, young adults, a family growing up, its history covering the walls of Vinnie’s Pizzeria.

I could see Theresa in them, Vinnie, Manny.

And I could see Cal, from little boy to full grown man.

Vinnie led us to the only empty booth in the place and ordered, “Pile in, we’ll get you drinks.”

He ordered it and Vinnie was the kind of man you listened to but the photos had captured me, especially Cal in them, and I didn’t move. I was staring at the eight by ten black and white picture that was hanging on the wall over the booth.

They were in the restaurant, standing by the hostess station. Two young boys, maybe thirteen, fourteen, around Keira’s age, dark-haired, tall, already showing the promise of the handsomeness that would soon be theirs. They were standing side by side. One, his eyes lighter gray in the black and white photo, was staring straight into the camera, grinning huge but wicked. He had his arm slung around the shoulders of the other boy, who was partly bent forward and turned, his face in profile and the camera caught him laughing.