The Promise (The 'Burg #5)(24)

He leaned forward, pulled it out of his pocket, checked the screen, and took the call.

“Yo,” he greeted.

“She at your place?” Cal asked, and Benny shook his head at the windshield.

“Yep.”

“She spittin’ fire?” Cal went on.

“Occasionally.”

“Recuperating,” Cal guessed as to the reason it was only occasionally.

“Yep.”

“You’ll get it when she heals.”

He f**king hoped so. “Yep.”

“Vi wants a visit and the girls wanna meet her,” Cal told him.

Ben’s cousin’s woman had two daughters, Kate and Keira. Gorgeous. Sweet. Just like Violet. So Benny was not surprised by this request. He also wasn’t surprised by the fact that it wasn’t exactly voiced as a request. That was Cal.

“She just got through the reunion with Ma. Pop’s chompin’ at the bit. And she’s still got considerable pain, cugino. Doesn’t get ’round too good. Give us a few days.”

“You got until the weekend.”

At that, Benny grinned at the windshield.

Pure Cal.

“Just to say, man, it’s Friday so it is the weekend, or near on it.”

“I’ll rephrase. You got until Sunday.”

Suddenly, Benny wasn’t finding this amusing and he didn’t hesitate to get into why.

“You comin’ up to let your woman commune with Francesca, or are you comin’ up to make sure I’m not f**kin’ that shit up?”

“Two birds,” Cal replied.

Yes, he was no longer finding this amusing.

“Reminder, Cal, you let your life stay f**ked for nearly two decades and it was only Vi pullin’ your head outta your ass that bought you what you got today.”

“Yeah, so, I learned. Now I’m makin’ sure a man who means somethin’ to me doesn’t waste as much time or more, and worse, lets the woman who should be in his bed waste her life waitin’ for him to pull his head outta his ass.”

Definitely not finding this amusing.

“I got this,” Benny said low.

“And I’m gonna give my woman time with the woman who kept her company during a serious-as-shit situation, let my girls meet the woman who kept their mother company and kept her alive, and rejoice in the fact that you got the other shit under control.”

Benny decided to shut this down. “We done talkin’?”

“Yep.”

“See you Sunday.”

Cal might have said something, but Benny didn’t hear it. He’d disconnected.

He parked in his garage and was walking up his back walk when he saw his mother come out the back door and down the stoop.

“Where you goin’?” he asked, his body tensing, hoping like f**k she wasn’t escaping because things went shit with Frankie.

“Frankie’s,” she answered, bustling to him, eyes to the massive handbag over her shoulder that she was digging into. She yanked out a sheet of paper and stopped just short of slamming into him, which was why he’d stopped one step earlier. She waved the sheet of paper at him. “I got a list. She needs to get back to normal, not be wanderin’ around in nightgowns. Gonna pick up some stuff.”

That he would allow. Frankie wandering around his house and lying on his bed in nightgowns was not conducive to him having patience through the delicate operation he was attempting. As was evidenced by his ludicrous overreaction to seeing her—all her hair, that body of hers, and her flawless skin—in his bed hours before.

“Right,” he said to his mother. “Her purse is in my truck.”

“Okay, caro,” she muttered, leaning up distractedly to kiss his cheek before she was bustling toward his garage.

“Ma,” he called. She stopped and turned back. “All good with you two?”

He watched her face get soft and she nodded.

Thank f**k. She wanted that and Frankie gave it to her.

That said a lot about Frankie. He couldn’t say he was in her shoes, he’d ever give that shit to anyone. They’d treated her like garbage, all of them, Benny especially, with Theresa not far behind. If it was him, he’d hold on to it until the day they died and then he’d spit on their grave.

It was good to know Frankie wasn’t going to put his folks through that. Fuck, it was just good to know she was the kind of woman who had that kind of forgiveness in her.

The tough stuff over, Benny got to the good stuff. “Cal and Vi are comin’ up on Sunday, bringin’ the girls.”

He watched then as his mother’s face lit with joy and Benny smiled at her.

After years of Cal’s distance that he took while he was nursing wounds most men would never recover from, having him back was good for his ma, his pop, him.

Having Frankie would be icing, a thick, rich layer of it.

But, hope to God, he succeeded in talking Frankie around to his way of thinking, Benny would be the one who’d get to eat it.

He watched his ma smile back.

The family all back together, healthy, happy, and growing with the addition of Vi and her girls. The only thing his mother ever wanted in her life she was going to get and Ben liked to see her get it.

“Good news,” she said.

“Yeah,” he replied.