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“You knew all of that right away?” he says quietly, his voice full of awe.
“Instantly,”he says. “I haven’t doubted it once. When I think about the future, the life I had before seems shallow. Pathetic. I worked sixteen hours a day, doing tasks I could easily delegate to give myself an excuse not to live. Now, I want to live with my woman. My Scarlet.”
Luca lets out a long breath. I glance at him. He tilts his head, looking like a little boy again, trying to make sense of his older brother. “I can’t say I’ve ever experienced anything like that,” he says, “but I know you. You’re serious about this.”
“I am,” I say passionately.
“Then you should tell her,” he says.
“Just like that? I thought you’d call me nuts.”
“Who cares if you’re nuts? Who cares if she’s half your age? Who cares if you’ve known each other for less than a week? Whocares, bro? If this life teaches us one thing, it’s that everything can end likethat.” He snaps his fingers. “So you can spend your time umming and ahhing over it, or you can do something about it.”
“Very wise,” I tell him.
“Are you being sarcastic?”
“No, I mean it. You’re right, but what if I scare her away?”
“If she knows what’s good for her, she won’t let you.”
“What does that mean?” I say, my voice edged with aggression.
“You’re Elio Marino. You’re richer than God. You’re going to be don one day. Any young woman with a head on her shoulders would leap at this chance.”
“That’s not what I want, though,” I growl. “I don’t want a woman with me only for my name. I want a woman who’d be with me even if I was dirt poor, even if we only had each other and were living in a tent because that’s how badly I want her. I don’t care about anything else. Just being together.”
“If you want a woman like that, you’ll be searching your entire life,” Luca replies. “There’s no such thing as a woman who’ll be with a man no matter what. They want security. It’s not a bad thing. They need somebody capable of taking care of them and their children.”
“True,” I admit, “but I don’t want her to choose me just for my name. I want her to feel how I do.”
Luca sighs. “So you want her to have known that you were her future husband the second she saw you? That she was going to be the mother to your children? You want all that?”
I grind my teeth, saying nothing. I get his point. It’s an unrealistic expectation. Luca must sense my mood because he doesn’t say anything else. We drive in steely silence.
* * *
“Boys,” Mom says, rising from her chair in the living room when we enter.
I was going to see my woman first, but clearly, Mom has other plans. She has a frantic expression on her face, flustered, as though she’s been waiting for us. Dad sits in his wheelchair, hunched slightly forward, eyes slowly pulling shut as though he’s barely keeping himself awake.
On the armchair facing away from us, a man sits, but I can’t tell who it is from here.
“Mom,” I say, taking her hand and kissing her cheek.
“Hey, Mom,” Luca says, doing the same.
“Look, our new business partner is here,” Mom says with forced excitement.
Russel Greene stands, his hair slick with product, his grin wide and implying a lot. He’s alone, surrounded by our men, in the presence of the Marino brothers, yet he looks confident and happy to see us.
“Fellas,” he says, walking forward and offering his hand.
“Russel,” Luca replies in an unreadable tone, shaking his hand.
I shake it too, reluctantly, to keep up appearances, but I hold on to his hand for a moment longer before letting go. He tilts his head at me, a real shit-eating grin on his face.
“Shall we go into the dining room?” he says as if he’s in charge.
