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An hour and a half later, the grocery-store flowers had been arranged on the two headstones, and a short but heartfelt prayer had been said. I couldn’t lie, I got emotional standing in front of Sandro’s gravestone, but it was cathartic. It felt right to share our good news with them.
The calm and thoughtful mood shattered the moment we sat back in the car and my dad opened his mouth. I should have known they weren’t going to let it go that easy.
“You know, Rich, I’m glad that you picked such a good lawyer. Did you know she was good when you hired her or was your decision based purely on attraction?” I groaned, putting my head in my hands.
“Dad,” I moaned. My siblings snickered at my misery.
“Oh, come on, I’ve waited your whole life for this moment!” Dad joked, smiling mischievously. “It’s a rite of passage.”
“I could do without it,” I huffed, cheeks warm. Selene scoffed.
“Oh, no, no, no,” she said, waving her finger, “we had to go through it, and so do you.”
“I kinda thought it wouldn’t happen,” Fabrizio said casually. “I mean, by your sophomore year of college, I just assumed you were gonna be an eternal bachelor.” I lifted my head for the sole purpose of glaring at him.
“Fabri…” I said warningly. The rat just shrugged nonchalantly.
“What? You know it’s true. You’ve always been a casual fling kinda guy, nothing wrong with it.”
“I’d call it being allergic to commitment, but whatever,” Selene tagged on. I scowled. Okay, so maybe I was a late bloomer. I’d been a little busy learning how to run a mafia.
Before I could defend myself, though, my mom finally piped up. “Alright, alright,” she chuckled, “that’s enough. If we keep going, he’ll never tell us anything again.”
“I never told you anything in the first place,” I grumbled.
“You didn’t have to,” Selene deadpanned. Mom put her hand up.
“Aah! Kids!” she said. Immediately, we all fell quiet, for hell hath no fury like a mother ignored. She sighed at us, brows pinched. “Honestly. Now, what were you talking to Lauren about with that seductive look on your face?”
“It wasn’t seductive?—”
“It was,” Dad interrupted.
“I was just finding out how she plans to celebrate,” I defended weakly.
“And the answer?”
“A disappointing, lonely night in,” I pouted. Mom’s eyebrows flew into her hairline, and Dad blinked.
“What? No,” mom said, shaking her head in refusal. “That’s unacceptable. We can’t let her celebrate alone. Someone needs to go keep her company.” My eyes widened as I realized what my mom was doing, and I was immediately hit with the desire to volunteer—except…
“This is Dad’s first night home,” I pointed out uneasily. “It wouldn’t be right for all of us not to be together either.” Dad gave me a look.
“If you kids genuinely think my ideal night right now involves you over after dinner, you are sorely mistaken,” he said. “In fact, I don’t really want you hearing what your mother and I will be getting up to, so I’m afraid I have to demand you all go back home. We can do a celebratory dinner tomorrow night.” There was a chorus of ‘ew gross’, but inside I was dancing happily.
As much as I hated thinking of my parents like that, it did mean that I had nowhere to be. Nowhere, that is, except maybe watching Pride and Prejudice. I felt my lips stretch into an excited smile.
“Any chance we could go back by that grocery store? I think I’m going to need a few more flowers.”
Chapter Seventeen
LAUREN
Movie nights were nice. Movie nights were good.
Would it have been better if Jen had been there to celebrate with me? Of course, it would have, but she was safeguarding some European millionaire’s digital assets, and the money from that would have her set for years. I wasn’t going to get in the way of that when I knew we’d be going all-out when she got back.
Actually, she’d probably wake up to my voicemail and call me immediately, fuck the time difference. I figured I wouldn’t mind.
