by Eden Rose
I obliged and noticed that it said the same thing as my bracelet. I looked up at him and smiled. "I love you too."
"When did that saying start? Its kind of morbid, don't you think?" Anne asks as she takes her wedding ring set off. She looked sad until she examined her ring closer.
"In our family it means we support each other until their casket drops. However, when the saying is given out to a significant other, its similar to a vow," Ronnie answered Anne's question while putting the steaks on four different plates.
"So what are the plans for tonight?" I ask while cutting into my steak. I like my meat to be cut into very little pieces for some reason. Joel used to say it is because I have a baby mouth but the truth is, my parents used to cut my meat before they died. Dad always said that a lady eats little bites.
"Dang girl, you are going to town by cutting your meat up!" Ronnie is ridiculous. "What do you want to do, sweetheart?" He leans into Anne's dinner space.
"I would like to stay here and enjoy being at the beach," she replies to Ronnie.
"I agree," I chided in. "Hey, Vincent?"
"Yes?" He asks while in between bites.
I take a drink from my beer bottle and look at him from across the table. "Why do people call you Pop?"
He took a deep breath and took a drink from his wine glass. Vincent looked at my and Anne's face which probably looked the same because we were both wondering this. Ronnie gazes up to Vincent and mouths something to him.
"Well," he cuts into his steak again and dips the piece into a sauce, "This really isn't appropriate for a dinner conversation." He gives me a smug look and I have an inkling to punch him.
"Come on, man. She just agreed to marry your punk ass. The least you can do is tell her what your nick name is," Ronnie inputted into our discussion.
"Have you told Anne what your nickname is?" He counters back.
Another pissing match.
"Fuck off, man."
"Then don't pressure me," he turns from Ronnie and looks at me. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes. Why aren't you being forthcoming?"
"Because I'm afraid if I tell you, you will want to leave."
Anne looks from Ronnie to Vincent and then at me with a half hearted smile. I knew what she probably is thinking and that this is not a good conversation to be having right now.
But we are having this discussion.
"Really? That's what you think of me? That I would just leave because I don't like your nickname? I'm starting to get mad here." I'm proud of myself for not stabbing Vincent in the throat with my fork. And for not licking his throat.
Vincent takes another bite of steak and washes it down with a gulp of wine. He has the ability to look so natural. "The name refers to the fact that I'm an enforcer and the shooter. Pop refers to shooting someone and killing them. Now, Ronnie don't you have something to say to your bride?" Vincent raised his eyebrows at Ronnie and Ronnie falters and looks down.
Ronnie grabs Anne's hand as she went for her wine glass. "My nick name is Slugger."
I start to laugh. That is the most ridiculous nick name ever!
"It means when I go into a situation, I bring a baseball bat."
Um, maybe not as ridiculous as we originally thought.
"Holy shit!" Anne and I both scream as we get up from the table. I wanted to run inside or something. This is insane.
"Look, please sit down." Vincent reached for my hand but I didn't give it to him. I did sit though. "Our career has nothing to do with you two. The Family is the Family and my life with you," he looks at me with a half smile, "is with you."
"Anne, I can't do anything about my nick name. Its nothing for you to be concerned about."
Anne looks down at her plate while I'm staring down Vincent. "Ronnie, we just got married. You mean to tell me that you could die or end up in prison because of your unorthodox career?"
"Home girl has a point," I say and look away to the water.
"You just have to trust me. I can't leave it. I will get killed," Ronnie answers as his voice catches.
"This conversation is too heavy for the dinner table. On second thought, maybe we should go to the bar. Anne, let's go get ready." I get up from my seat and open the door to go inside. Anne follows me and as soon as the door is shut, she looked really nervous.
As we walked to our separate bedrooms, Anne looks at me and says: "We should go by ourselves tonight and leave them here. This is crazy!"
"Anne, you are so smart! Let's get ready to go."
I walked into my room and turned on the shower. After slipping out of my clothes, I climbed into the shower. Rubbing shampoo into my hair, I heard the door crack open. I knew who it is but I took my time anyways. Shaved my legs, gave myself a cream rinse and hummed to myself.
Vincent cleared his throat and sat down on the counter. After combing through my hair, I peel open the curtain. There he is, sitting on the counter with out his shirt and holding my ring in his hands since I took it off for my shower.
I looked up at him innocently and held my hand out for my ring. He placed my ring in my hand and smiled. While grabbing for my towel, I slipped my ring on. It really does feel good to have it on.
"So. I heard you were going to the bar with Anne tonight."
"Yes." I walked past him in a loose towel and out into the bedroom to rub lotion on me. He walked in where I'm at and sat across from me.
"By yourself?"
"Yes."
"Why don't you want me to come?" He sounded so sad but I'm too angry about his nick name.
"I think I need to think about this all." I quickly rubbed the lotion on and stood up to my suitcase to slip on a thong.
"Are you leaving me?"
"No." Why does it always come to that?
"Well, please be careful." He stood up and left the room. I felt horrible. But he needed to know what it felt like to feel pushed around.
*Chapter 29*
I met Anne in the hallway. She and I were both wearing tight shorts and a tank. I'm wearing high heels while she wore flip flops.
"We should walk, that way we don't have to worry about driving," I say as we walk out the door. I yelled outside to Vincent, "Bye!"
We walked to the bar and I instantly felt more relaxed. The bouncers let us right in after we flashed them our licenses.
"Looks like we are known here as well," Anne says as she takes a seat at the bar.
I sit next to her and flag the bartender. "I guess so."
The bartender served us our cocktails and we stood up to dance. Music is blaring and I'm having a great time dancing.
Anne tapped my shoulder and pointed to a man in a suit. I recognized him as one of Vincent's friends. He is talking to a woman. She is blonde, like me, but taller.
I smiled at Anne and made my presence known to show his friend that I'm fine by myself. We were now two drinks in and we both are feeling flirty.
She grabbed my hips and I danced back into her. "Hey! This is so much fun!" She screams in my ear as I dance my booty on her stomach.
"Yes! We should have more date nights!" I say back to her as I turn to dance more.
"Hey, Savannah! Anne! What are you doing here?" The man in the suit comes up and air kisses us both. "Where is Rossi and Moretti? I can't believe they let you come in here." The blonde woman walks up to us and sticks out her hand to me.
"You must be Savannah. Hi, I'm Mary Hawk." She introduces herself as I shake her hand and give her a weird inquisitive look. "Yes, I'm who you think I'm ."
Holy shit! That's Vincent's ex wife! I smile at her and take my hand back. Mary is stunning. Absolutely beautiful with her perfect short hair and a tight dress that showed me everything. Her brown eyes looked dreamy and I could tell that she isn't too happy with my presence. "Nice to have met you. This is Anne, she just married Ronnie. What brings you to the Hamptons?"
"I have a vacation home around the corner from Vincent. I seen you two together." Well, what a small world.
Stalker!
"Okay," this is so odd. What does she want from me.
"I assume you know about their careers?" She just stood there for a while staring me down.
"Yes. Is there something I can do for you, Mary?" I felt someone come up behind me and grab my waist. Anne smiled and nudged my shoulder.
Vincent's facial expression is very stony. "Mary. I seen you met my fiance. This woman is going to be my wife," he kisses my cheek and gives her a cold stare through me. "Baby doll, let's go dance."
"Wait, Vincent!" She yelled as he took my hand and fingered my engagement ring. "May I speak to you?"
I tensed up and dropped my hand knowing how crazy I would look by telling her to jump off a bridge. "You can go if you want to. It doesn't bother me," I say as I start walking away. Those two talking does bother me but the last I want to do is to look like the jealous girlfriend who consultants at the mouth when someone looks at Vincent. In the animal kingdom, I would have to pee on him to mark him as my own.
"No, don't leave me." His hand grabs my hand harder as he pulls me into his chest which I'm relieved about. "What do you want, Mary?" Words can not express how great it feels that he wants to be close to me while talking to his ex.
" I'm sorry. It seems like I'm too late. I hope you guys are happy together," she walked away and Vincent smiled as she left.
"Are you drunk, my love?" He whispers in my ear as we stood in the middle of the dance floor.
I threw my arms around his neck and danced on him. "What do you think?"
"I think you are drunk." He dances on me more. " I'm sorry."
"About?"
"Everything. Mary and my nick name. I'm sorry."
What is he even saying? Ah! The booze is flowing through my veins. "Its okay. Just if we are going to be together, tell me everything!"
"We should go. I want to talk to you."
"Do we have to?" I ask as I turn to put my ass on his groin.
He grunted and gripped my waist with a dead lock fingers. "Yes. Anne and Ronnie are going to stay here." We walk out of the bar and he holds me up as I stumble. "I want you to know everything."
"What's everything?" I slur and stop to adjust my shoe.
"Ask me how many people." He holds my arm as I slide my shoe back on.
What is he talking about? "Okay, okay. How many people?"
"Twenty seven."
"Twenty seven what?" I stand back up and start to walk.
"People."
I stop walking and try to sober up so maybe I could understand what he has to say. "Stop playing with me. I'm kind of drunk here."
He stops and looks down then looks back at me. "That's how many people I have popped. I'm not happy about it. You are such an amazing woman and I want you to know everything."
I sat on the curb and took my heels off. What is he talking about? "You have killed that many people?"
"Yes."
The reality of this matter is that this lifestyle believes in blood for blood. "What happens if you get killed?" I'm given the introductory course on how I would feel if he were to pass and I never want to feel that way again.
He sits down next to me and takes my hand. "I want to think that it won't happen to me."
"We just got engaged. What happens if you die or go to prison?" I rest my head against his shoulder and breathe him in; man, my head feels heavy. He smells fresh like the ocean.
"I won't take part in any more of the hits. I can promise you that."
"Can you really promise me that? I don't want to be hurt again." Now I'm really about to cry.
"I love you. Can we just leave it at that?"
I really didn't want to leave it at that but there isn't much more I could do about it. "Yes. I love you too."
"Come on, baby, let's go home." He stands up and picks up my shoes. I jump on his back and he gives me a piggy back ride home.
"I like that. Let's go home and plan our wedding."
"Till the casket drops."
*Chapter 30*
We got back to the beach house in about twenty minutes. I'm getting hungry from drinking and I'm about to start pillaging for food..
"Do you want something to eat?" He asks as I walk to the couch.
I lay my head on the couch and say: "Yes, please." He is a mind reader.
"Okay, love." He goes into the kitchen and I close my eyes on the couch.
"Oh no!" I scream and sit up.
Vincent comes running into the room with a pan. "What?" He is breathing really hard and looks as if the Devil himself were chasing him.
"I never paid my bar tab!" This is bad, so bad. I never forget to pay for my tab!
"Really, Savannah? Its been covered." I thought it is a legitimate thing to be worried about but he didn't act as if it were something I shouldn't be even thinking about.
I smelled eggs and bacon and then a few minutes later, the front door opened. The cold ocean air whipped through the living room and I trembled a little.
"I love this place!" Anne yells as she is laying across Ronnie's shoulders. "We should come here all the time!"
"Rossi, is she going to need eggs?"
"Oh shit, yes!" He puts her down next to me on the couch and she smiles at me.
" I'm not ready to go to sleep, Vans! I'm having too much fun!" She pouted and then licked her bottom lip.
I couldn't help but laugh at her craziness. "Stop!" I say while laughing. "You are making my sides hurt! Vincent! Baby! My girl and I need booze!" I sit up from the couch and look over my shoulder at Ronnie who is shaking his head. "Please baby? I want more!" I give a pouty face and pretend to cry. "Pleassssseeeeeeee?"
"Eat first. Then we will talk!"
"You are trying to kill my vibe." I flick him off as he brings my food over to me. "You are no fun!"
"Yeah, I know this!" He sits down and feeds me a forkful of eggs.
"We didn't want to be done!" Anne says while she takes a bite of eggs.
"Party poopers! No sex for any of you!" I scream at them and push the food away and walk to the fridge. The task is a lot harder because I had to push through Vincent in order to get up.
"No, no! No more!"
Ronnie is muttering under his breath about intolerable women and Vincent actually spoke. "Yeah, sure, baby."
Smug bastard. "Hey, Ronnie, did you know that I met Mary tonight?" I say as I walk back to the couch with two beers.
"I heard that you met her."
"She is kind of mean. Approaches me out of no where! I would never approach any of Joel's new girlfriends!" I slur. "Oh wait! I would! I would give her that stupid ring he gave me and let her know what she will get!"
"Savannah!" Anne warns.
"Then I would tell her what to expect on her wedding night! A night full of tears and bull shit! While he is out boinking everything in a skirt!" Man, I worked myself into a frenzy.
"Vans! Seriously, quit!" Anne yells at me while I stumble back to my couch cushion.
"You know," I start and take off my tank top, "I think," I unbutton my shorts and start slipping them off, "you are right." I conclude my statement by throwing my pants at Anne and walk off to my room. " I'm going to quit! Quit everything!"
I could hear Vincent saying something to the others.
"This is getting old. I don't know what to do anymore," Vincent claims.
"Vincent," Anne starts, "Savannah is really hurt. By your ex wife approaching her and everything she found out tonight, probably really upset her."
I barge back into the living room, yes, naked, and throw my bra. "Stop talking about me! I'm fine! Vincent, quit backing out! You are frustrating me!"
By turning out of the room, Vincent comes up and grabs me. "Time for bed, baby doll." We walk to the bedroom with him holding my waist guiding me. "It's okay." His hands stroke my hair as we walked into the bedroom.
"Just tell me one thing..." I request as I collapse on the bed.
"Anything."
"Is this all for real? We are gettin
g married for real? You aren't going to do something to jeopardize our marriage?" My eyes start to close and I hum as I pass out.
"Its real for me. I love you baby doll." He climbs into the bed and slides me over. "I would marry you tomorrow if you let me."
"Yes. That sounds amazing," I doze off and dream about a wedding.