At Peace

by Kristen Ashley

  Cal, the one grinning straight on and one of Vinnie’s kids. Maybe the murdered cousin, Vinnie Junior.

  If this was cousin Vinnie, it was true as Cal had said, they were definitely close. I knew this by the smile, the laughter, the casual, close, affectionate way Cal had the young man in his hold.

  The thought of Cal as a kid was startling, seeing it even more so but what was freaking me out was seeing his perfect, boyishly handsome face without the scars, carefree and absolutely happy.

  I’d never seen it like that, never, nothing even came close.

  “Is that you, Joe?” Kate asked and I tore my eyes from the photo to see both my daughters staring at it.

  “Yeah, girl,” Cal answered.

  Kate’s head swung around so she could smile up at him. “Wow, you were cute.”

  “Cute!” Theresa cried. “Every starry-eyed girl in a square mile radius had their eyes on my boys.” Theresa looked at me and jerked her head to the picture. “That’s my oldest son with Cal, Vinnie Junior.”

  Yep, like I thought, cousin Vinnie.

  “I guessed that,” I said softly and at my tone, she flinched. It wasn’t a big flinch but I caught it, I knew what it meant and I wondered if the pain ever went away.

  Considering my back-to-back losses of Tim and Sam, it sucked to see Theresa’s flinch and know, even after seven years, it didn’t.

  She held my gaze, hers getting soft as it swung to Cal then to me and I knew she knew Cal had told me about Vinnie. I also knew she read far more into this than was the truth because her face lost that hint of sadness and spread into a glamorous smile.

  “Sit down, sit down,” Uncle Vinnie urged and the girls scrambled in, both on one side as I slid into the other, Cal coming in beside me.

  Vinnie turned and yelled across the restaurant, “Bella! We need breadsticks here and antipasto, on the double, yeah?”

  “Got it, Vinnie!” Bella yelled back.

  “I’ll get drinks,” Theresa muttered and moved away without asking what we wanted.

  “We’ll get your belly full, Vi, you and your girls, just relax,” Vinnie promised, his eyes on me. I nodded, he nodded back and then he followed his wife.

  I was happy to eat, more than happy, especially if the food tasted half as good as it looked.

  But at that moment, I was in ecstasy to be off my foot, it was killing me.

  Manny pushed into the booth beside Kate and both Kate and Keira stared at him, goggle-eyed.

  “So, how long you stayin’?” Manny asked Cal.

  “Leavin’ after dinner,” Cal answered and Manny’s brows went up.

  “Shit, Cal, um… sorry, Vi, girls,” he nodded at me then at the girls then he looked back to Cal, “shoot, Cal, Ma’s gonna have a shit, I mean shoot hemorrhage you do a flyby for dinner and don’t hang.”

  “Gotta get them home, Man,” Cal told him.

  “Could spend the night, leave early tomorrow, let Ma at least make ‘em breakfast,” Manny urged.

  “Not gonna happen,” Cal told him.

  “She’s not gonna like it,” Manny replied.

  “Vi just lost her brother, Kate and Keira their uncle. She’ll get that they want to sleep in their own beds tonight,” Cal returned quietly and when he did, what he said, how he said it, the fact that he knew that, I felt it hit me like it did when his mouth touched mine before the service after I found out he’d warned off Mom and Dad. That feeling in my stomach, going warm, getting soft.

  “Well, I ain’t tellin’ her,” Manny mumbled and Keira giggled so Manny flashed her a super-white smile, Keira’s giggle died in her throat and her eyes grew dazzled.

  I stopped watching my daughter’s eyes grow dazzled when I felt Cal’s fingers bunch my skirt in a fist and pull it up. My back went ramrod straight, my mind went blank and my hand went down to curl around his wrist.

  Manny turned back to Cal and noted, “Sweet ride, Cal. The ‘Stang. You get rid of the ’68?”

  “Ride’s Vi’s. I still got the ’68,” Cal answered casually as if he wasn’t pulling up my skirt under the table and my hand wasn’t tight on his wrist to fight him in this insane effort.

  “Got good taste, babe,” Manny grinned at me.

  “Thanks,” I replied but my word was tight.

  Cal had my skirt up and he leaned a bit into me as his hand curled around the inside of my thigh and he pulled my leg up.

  I couldn’t do much but clutch his wrist since he was stronger than me. I couldn’t exactly shout at him or wrestle him at the table, both of which I wanted to do.

  Luckily, Kate drew Manny’s attention by asking, “What’s a ’68?”

  “Cal’s Mustang, 1968 Mustang GT. The Bullitt car. Freakin’ awesome,” Manny answered and, as he did, Cal lifted my leg and I felt the side of his shoe against my ankle. Then I felt it slide down, taking my shoe with it.

  The pump fell to the floor and when the pressure released on my injured foot, the constant, nagging pain I’d had since putting the damn thing on subsided and my eyes rolled back into my head.

  Heaven.

  “What’s a bullet car?” Keira asked Manny while I experienced heaven.

  “Steve McQueen’s ace ride in the movie, Bullitt. The sweetest car ever built,” Manny answered.

  While this conversation went on, Cal lifted my leg further and hooked it over his knee, yanking it up his thigh so my skirt was hiked high, my calf and foot were dangling between his legs and then he leaned into me.

  Whispering, he ordered, “You let Manny go get your other shoes or I carry you out. Your choice, buddy.”

  I pulled my head back and glared at him, at the same time I tried to jerk my leg away but his hand was still at my inner thigh and it tightened so I got nowhere.

  When I didn’t answer, Cal asked, “What’s it gonna be?”

  I kept the pressure on his hand but he didn’t let go.

  “Vi?” he prompted.

  “Shoes,” I hissed.

  Cal grinned and muttered, “Good choice.” Then he turned his head to Manny, leaning back and reaching into his pocket. “Man, do me a favor. There’s a pair of shoes on the floor of Vi’s Mustang, can you bring ‘em in?”

  Manny looked at Cal then me and said hesitantly, “Sure.”

  “Mom cut her foot. She’s got stitches but she’s still wearin’ her pumps which makes her limp more than she normally limps. Joe doesn’t like that,” Kate explained helpfully.

  “Women are weird like that,” Keira chimed in, defending my position even though Manny, being male, would never understand but she was too young to know that. Though, I figured in about five, ten years, she’d learn. “We have to be wearing the right shoes,” she finished.

  Manny stopped looking confused and he grinned. “Then sure. We wouldn’t want Joe to get pissed, would we?” Cal tossed him my keys, Manny caught them and slid out of the booth, saying, “Be back.”

  I again tried to tug my leg away. Cal’s response was to slide his fingers into my stocking and push it down so I froze.

  “Would you show me your Bullitt car?” Kate asked Cal as he leaned forward and pushed the stocking further down my leg while lifting it to get to my calf and ankle (and I gritted my teeth).

  “Take you for a ride, girl,” Cal answered and I stopped gritting my teeth because my mouth dropped open.

  “Really?” Kate breathed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Can I drive it?” Kate asked.

  Cal grinned which took the sting out of his, “No.”

  “I like Mom’s Mustang,” Keira informed Cal.

  “I do too,” Cal replied and Keira glared at Cal then at me as if Cal being a lunatic by being sweet and thoughtful and sharing and nice was my fault but Cal leaned back and this was mainly because he had the stocking free of my foot.

  He dropped it in my lap, settled my leg on his thigh and I gave him a look which should have at least have set his hair on fire (but didn’t) and then I snatched the stocking up and tucked it into my p
urse.

  “Drinks!” Aunt Theresa shouted as she made it to the table with a tray of drinks. “For the girls,” she announced, setting two Shirley Temples in front of Kate and Keira, two girls that were beyond Shirley Temples but, then again, I would drink those Shirley Temples because the bottoms were filled with maraschino cherries, at least half a dozen of them, and they were more red than pink so I knew they were full of syrup. “Beer for Cal,” she went on, plonking a bottle of beer in front of Cal. “And Chianti, for cara mia,” she finished, putting a huge-bowled glass of red wine in front of me then plunking the bottle next to it.

  “Thanks um… Theresa,” I said.

  “Aunt Theresa,” she corrected on a smile. “Breadsticks are comin’ outta the oven, antipasto platter’s up, Bella’s gettin’ it. Gotta check on my customers but I’ll be back.” Then she bustled off and we all watched her, even the girls turned in their seats.

  Then the girls turned back.

  “Your family’s cool,” Kate told Cal.

  “Yeah girl, they are,” Cal told Kate and he meant this, I knew it by the way he said it, deep, weighty.

  Kate knew it too because her eyes got soft as she looked at Cal then her soft eyes came to me.

  I didn’t need to know this about Cal. I didn’t need to meet his family, see how he was with them, how they were with him, how nice it was, even beautiful. Furthermore, my daughters didn’t need to see it.

  But I didn’t have any choice, Cal didn’t give me one and that pissed me off.

  I tried to yank my leg away again but Cal just kept hold as Bella swept through, dropping a basket of long, poofy breadsticks on the table, a little bowl of marinara sauce at the side and a huge antipasto platter full of salami, pancetta, olives, artichokes, mushrooms and slices of cheese.

  I decided to ignore Cal and concentrate on breadsticks. I grabbed one and found it was warm. Then I dipped it into the marinara sauce and took a huge bite. It was coated with buttery garlic, the bread light but doughy, the marinara tangy and spicy, the whole thing utterly delicious.

  It took effort but I managed not to roll my eyes in delight.

  “These are great!” Kate said through a full mouth then shoved her breadstick back in the marinara, double dipping like Cal was Tim or Sam and this was allowed. Then she took another huge bite.

  “They are,” Keira stated, her mouth full too but, even so, I could tell she didn’t want to admit this in front of Cal but she couldn’t help herself, that was just how good they were.

  During my last bite, Cal’s hand lifted my leg and he leaned into me, hooking it over my other leg so they were crossed. I looked at him to see he was looking at something across the restaurant, a small smile playing at his mouth and my eyes followed his.

  That’s when I saw a man, tall, not as tall as Cal, but taller than Manny and Vinnie. He was wearing a skintight white t-shirt, jeans and he had a long, white apron wrapped around his waist. The tee miraculously had no tomato sauce stains on it. The apron was covered with smears.

  And he was movie star gorgeous. Beautiful body as evidenced by his t-shirt and even the apron at his narrow hips; thick head of black, unruly hair; roguish, dark brown eyes rimmed with thick lashes; glamorous white smile, like his mother’s.

  He was looking at Cal and, as Cal slid out of the booth, his hand came up and his smile got wider, brilliant, breathtaking.

  “Cal, cugino,” he muttered as his hand took Cal’s in a fierce grip even I could see.

  Cal’s hand gripped his fiercely too and muttered back, “Benny.”

  They leaned into each other and each gave the other a powerful blow to their backs before pulling away but not dropping their grip of hands.

  I tore my eyes away from the two of them, both amazingly attractive in a way you didn’t often see, or ever see. Maybe one, if you were lucky, but definitely not a double bill like these two. That was a miracle the like it proved there was a God.

  Then I saw both Kate and Keira gazing up at them, Manny a memory, Benny, they’d never forget in their entire lives.

  Then my eyes moved and I saw most of the women in the restaurant also looking, some openly, some glances, some even had mouths open, all of them in some way awed.

  My eyes went back to the men as they detached, Cal came back to me, Benny, like Manny, scooted unceremoniously in beside Kate and Keira.

  Kate emitted a sound that was half-strangled scream, half-moan. Keira just stared.

  I looked back at the restaurant and saw that most of the women hadn’t quit looking and it was a wonder, with the raw, sexual magnetism being discharged at our table, how the lot of them didn’t fly straight at us, sticking to Benny and Cal like flecks of steel to a powerful magnet.

  “Hear you’re Vi,” I heard Benny say and my eyes went to him.

  “Yeah.” I reached my arm across the table when he stretched his to me.

  “Benny,” he said after he took my hand in a warm grip, not too firm, it was friendly firm. Then he let my hand go and looked at Kate and Keira.

  Kate visibly stilled. Keira swallowed.

  “Vi’s girls, Ben, Kate and Keira,” Cal told him.

  “Heard about them too,” Benny said, aiming his smile and hand at both in turn. Kate gulped as she took his hand. When Keira did, her eyes rolled back into her head.

  I looked at Cal and he was grinning at them.

  “Shoulda warned you, Benny’s a lady-killer,” Cal told the girls and both their eyes fluttered to him.

  “I didn’t think anyone could be hotter than you, Joe,” Keira whispered, forgetting she hated Cal for a second, forgetting everything in the presence of Benny.

  “Ben, you’re killin’ me,” Cal murmured but there was a timbre of suppressed laughter in his voice, “lost my position.”

  “Sucks, but you’re used to it,” Benny returned on a grin.

  Cal shook his head and Benny looked at me.

  “Dad’s got your pie in the oven,” he informed me then his eyes went to Cal. “Freakin’ kitchen’s crazed. He’s got my kids in a tizzy. He’s been retired from the kitchen a year and I just got them settled, it took that long. Now he’s taken over, fifteen minutes back to drill sergeant and the place is pandemonium, boys are droppin’ shit, burnin’ shit, nuts.”

  “Kick his ass out,” Cal advised.

  “You try to kick Vinnie’s ass out when he’s got an apron around his waist,” Benny replied then looked at Keira and Kate and, for some reason, asked, “Your Mom do somethin’ good, somethin’ better than anyone else you know?”

  “Her garden,” Keira chimed in instantly.

  “Her seafood risotto,” Kate told him the second Keira’s last word was uttered.

  “Her pork chops and spiced rice,” Keira put in.

  “Her chocolate chunk cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting,” Kate added.

  “When we were kids, she told the best bedtime stories,” Keira went on. “All my friends wanted to stay over at my house because of Mom’s bedtime stories. She was famous for them.”

  Benny’s eyes slid to me and I felt Cal’s on me too. I also felt my face get hot.

  There was silence then Benny murmured, “All that sounds good.”

  “The best,” Keira agreed and I watched as Benny forced, with visible effort, his eyes back to the girls.

  “Makes my point asinine. Was gonna tell you, she tries to teach you that stuff, you should run the other way.” He looked back to me. “But, thinkin’, that shit, you should let her,” Benny told them, his eyes still on me and I felt my face get hotter.

  “I’m guessin’ Uncle Vinnie shared the secret of his pies,” Cal saved me by remarking and Benny’s dark brown eyes released me from their magnetic hold and he looked to his cousin.

  “Yeah. He taught me, said he wanted to retire from the kitchen. Now he’s ordered a new sign, gets installed next week. Vinnie and Benny’s Pizzeria. Screwed now, cugino, my name’s gonna be on the building, I’m fuckin’ stuck.”

  I couldn’t tell
if this was a complaint or considered an honor and Benny didn’t let on which one it was.

  “Mom doesn’t like it when we hear the f-word,” Keira butted in before I could figure it out or Cal could comment then I watched her face get pink and she looked at the table.

  “Good Mom’s usually don’t,” Benny told her then leaned in and noted, “but bet you hear it all the time at school.”

  Keira looked at him and nodded.

  “Bet you say it too,” Benny teased, Keira bit her lip, avoided my eyes, in fact, she avoided everyone’s eyes and she looked so hilariously guilty, Benny burst out laughing.

  So did Cal

  And so did I.

  On the day of my brother’s funeral.

  Then again, if Sam got a look at Keira’s face, he would have laughed too.

  “How’d you two meet?” Benny asked, sitting back, settling in, ready to stay awhile even though his kitchen was pandemonium. He stretched an arm along the back of the booth which stretched his tight tee across his chest and his ripped bicep, his arm spanning both girls and both girls’ eyes shot to me, their faces set to identical looks of joy.

  “Violet’s my neighbor,” Cal answered and Benny threw his head back and burst out laughing again.

  When he finished, he shook his head, eyes on Cal. “Jesus. Only you could have the beautiful mother of two beautiful girls fuckin’ move right next door. Shit.” Benny looked to me again and said, “You got a sister, Vi, she’s lookin’ for a place, the one next door to me’s for sale.”

  I smiled at him, feeling his compliment settle deep but informed him, “I don’t have a sister. Just a brother.”

  The humor faded from his face as the smile faded from mine and, like his Dad, his eyes got soft, his expression turned gentle and he murmured, “Cara.”

  I bit my lip. He’d heard about that too.

  Then I watched in fascination as his head turned and he looked at my girls. Then his hand curled and he slid the backs of his fingers along the now-reminded-of-her-grief Keira’s jaw. Then his arm curled around Kate and he pulled her into his side for an affectionate squeeze before his arm went back to settle on the booth.

  Yes, Cal’s family was cool.

  In fact, they could be the coolest.