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“I know,” I said glumly.
I sat down heavily in the chair. We were in the special room of Sergio’s birthday parties and bachelorettes sometimes used, and where rumors had been for my entire life that the mafia met on a regular basis. To be fair, though, a bunch of “Family” did meet there once, back when Desiree had some issues with her ex. But even Desiree’s family, who came into town every once in a while, rarely ever sat in there. They preferred the patio outside.
“Where are the boys?” Wendy asked, sitting down across from me and filling my glass with the jug of ice water. I had been chewing ice for three days, almost nonstop. It was cold as hell outside, a typical Tennessee early spring, but I was chewing ice almost constantly.
“Still at the new place,” I said. “Finn is helping install the kitchen equipment. Kieran bought some state-of-the-art fryers, and they’re over there geeking out over them.”
“Sounds like Finn,” Wendy said.
“Do you need anything?” Helen asked. “I can get you something from the kitchen.”
“No, that’s okay,” I said. “Papa said he has some special dinner planned. I’ve already eaten my weight in bread today, so I just need to wait for him to finish up whatever he’s doing in there. I just hope the boys make it in time.”
“How did he handle the news, by the way?” Wendy asked. “When you told him you were going to get married after the baby?”
Wendy and I had only recently hit it off but had become very close. The three of us—Wendy, myself, and Helen—were almost always together the last few weeks in some combination. They had taken the responsibility of doting on me and checking on me constantly, making sure I was prepared as I nested. Wendy especially had taken a keen interest in making sure I was properly pampered, which meant she was giving tips to Kieran on a regular basis. He loved it, though, taking every suggestion and turning it into luxurious baths and getaways for me.
“Honestly, he was so happy he was going to have a grandbaby that I didn’t get the marriage lecture at all,” I said. “He casually mentioned once or twice about how nice our wedding will be, and I’m sure he’d have rather it happened before the baby came, but he hasn’t said anything about it.”
“And he gets along with Kieran fine?” she asked. “I mean, I see them talking together, but you never know.”
“They get along great,” I said. “Papa likes him a lot. He respects firemen. Even before he came into town and the department was a joke, Papa still contributed to their fundraisers and stuff. He said when he was a boy, there was a big fire in an apartment building he lived in, and a fireman rescued his neighbor by going into the flames to pull them out. He never forgot that.”
“Oh, wow,” Helen said. “I never knew that.”
“Papa says Kieran is a good man who does good work. Coming from Papa, that’s like giving him sainthood. Papa never likes any boy we date.”
“Wasn’t he critical of how you ended up single, though?” Helen asked.
“Only because he thought I should have chosen a better boy to begin with. He was afraid he was getting too old to have a grandbaby. Papa loves babies.”
“All grandfathers seem to,” Wendy said. “I think it’s because they share similar hairlines.”
I laughed.
“There they are,” Helen said, peering out of the blinds of the long windows on one wall of the room. They usually remained closed for privacy, but I casually mentioned that it was dark, and Wendy jumped into action, opening the blinds.
I grinned as Kieran, Finn, Tony, and Everett all came into the restaurant, making a beeline for us. I made to stand up, and Kieran put his hand out to stop me. Leaning down, he kissed my cheek and pulled me tight to his stomach in a hug. It was not lost on me how close to his groin I was, and even as miserable as I was, part of me desperately wanted to pull him into the bathroom and rip his clothes off.
“You don’t need to stand up,” Kieran said. “You are the queen of the day. You stay seated.”
“How will a baby be born if she doesn’t walk, eh?” Papa’s voice said, coming into the room from the kitchen with the flair for the dramatic that only tiny little Italian men with giant mustaches possess.
“We will let the baby decide when he wants to come out,” I said.
There was silence in the room. I looked up into the shocked faces of my father and Kieran.
“He?” they both said at the same time.
“Oh shit,” I said.
“Surprise!” Wendy exclaimed.
Kieran had decided he didn’t want to know what the baby was going to be until it was born, and Papa, ever the traditionalist, joined him. I had no such desire and had gotten the ultrasound months ago. Still, I had sworn Helen and then Wendy to secrecy about it. Still, neither Papa nor Kieran seemed upset. Instead, the smile beaming on their faces became so wide, so bright, I thought their heads might split in half.
