All I Believe (Firsts and Forever, #10)(84)
“I had my man acting as my spotter,” she said. “Ollie wasn’t gonna let me fall. He cares about me, not like you. Keeping an old lady prisoner! You should be ashamed of yourself, Dante! These are sub-human conditions!” She marched over to the wet bar, grabbed an open bottle of high-end champagne and chugged it down.
“It’s just temporary,” he told her. “I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret. We’re working on a way to deal with Jerry and we hope to have a resolution soon.”
Nana put her hands on her skinny hips, still holding the champagne. “I’ll tell you how to deal with him! You march over to his house with thirty men, you tell him you’re taking the family back, and then you ride him out of town on a rail! What’s so complicated about that?”
Dante changed the subject by saying, “Nico’s here, Nana.”
She looked around and her face lit up when she finally spotted me. “Nicky!” She rushed over to me, pulled me down to her height, and kissed both my cheeks. “Are you okay, Sweetpea?”
“I’m fine. How about you, Nana?”
“A prisoner in my own home,” she said dramatically, then looked around and asked, “Where’s Luca?”
“He’s waiting in the car.”
“Actually,” Dante said, “he’s downstairs in the living room. We sent him inside when we had to go after Bonnie and Clyde.”
“Why’d you make him wait in the car?” Nana asked.
I said, “I wasn’t sure if he’d be welcome here, now that you know who his father was.”
Nana pointed a bony finger at me and said, “Let me tell you something. My father was a mean drunk. He’d smack my mother around. None of us were all that heartbroken when he died suddenly. I know better than anyone that you don’t get to choose your parents, Nicky. You’re dealt a certain hand and you make the best of it. That sweet, beautiful man of yours took a bullet for you! And you think he won’t be welcome here? Bullshit! Call him and tell him to get his ass up here!”
I had to grin as I pulled out the burner phone Dante had given me at the airport and selected one of three numbers programmed into it. “Come on up,” I told Luca when he answered. “We’re on the top floor. Follow the noise.”
Jessie said, “I’ll go get him,” and bounded from the room.
Nana produced her glasses from a pocket of the jumpsuit and put them on before grabbing my shoulders and pulling me down again. “Let me look at you.” She squinted at me through the thick glass, then announced, “You look good!”
“I feel good.”
“You need to tell me all about Johnny and Zan and how they’re doing.” Gianni’s old nickname had been given to him by his younger brother as a toddler, and Nana still insisted on using it.
“They’re terrific. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two happier people. Gi is writing a book, a gay romance, and Zan’s writing dozens of new songs.”
She let go of me and clapped her hands together. “That’s what I want to hear! Now we just need to fix everything for you and your honey, and you can be just as happy.”
When Jessie brought Luca into the room, Nana charged at my boyfriend with open arms, then stopped short and said, “Where were you shot?”
He pointed at his shoulder, and she grabbed his other arm, pulled him down and kissed his cheeks. “Don’t you worry, Luca,” she told him. “You’re a part of my family now and I’m going to take care of you. Come and sit! You need to not overdo it after getting shot. I know all about this stuff. I watch a lot of them detective-type shows on TV.” She made him comfortable on an antique fainting couch near the senior rockers, who took a break from their music lesson to rush over and dote on Luca. One of them tucked him in with a crocheted afghan (and felt up his biceps a little) while another brought him a spiked cup of hot chocolate.
When Andreo arrived a few hours later, he got a cooler reception. Nana crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. “I don’t approve of you pulling a gun on my Nicky,” she said. “That boy never did you harm. I understand you’ve come around since then and have been trying to help him and your brother so they can be together. Is that right?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said contritely.
“What your father did to my family is unforgiveable, but I’m not going to take that out on you. Like I was saying earlier, we don’t get to pick our parents. We do get to choose our actions though, and if you really have chosen to support Nicky and Luca, then you’re welcome here.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Andreo looked at the floor.
“Now look. You and your brother and my boys, you need to sit your asses down and figure out how to solve this situation with Jerry. If his mother was still alive, she’d put him over her knee for what he’s doing! But his father wants no part of this situation.” She clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. “I tried to raise good boys, I really did. Maybe they had too much of my rotten ex-husband’s influence, I don’t know. But at least I got a do-over with my grandsons. I think I did alright by them.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Nana said, “I’ll leave you to it. My friends and me will be downstairs, I’m going to show them how to make this drink I invented called the Flaming Titanic. Make sure all of you join us when you finish here.”