I Bought His Love, Then He Became the Don novel · Chapter 76 of 76
Chapter 76: The Family Voted
The old men outside the restaurant on Taylor Street didn't stand up when I got out of the car.
One of them lifted his cup. Another one nodded.
On the bench between them sat the man from the waiting room, in a good suit, with an espresso.
He lifted his cup too.
"Lucia," he said.
"Don," I said, and he laughed, and went back to his coffee.
Damiano came around the car with Maddie on his hip.
She was fourteen months old and walking everywhere, mostly away from us.
She had four teeth and Damiano's eyebrows and a green dress I'd made her from the crepe ends.
She looked furious at the awning.
"You're wearing it," Damiano said to me, low.
"I'm wearing it."
The green wrap dress from a year ago. Tied at the side. One string.
I'd let it out an inch at the waist on Thursday. I hadn't told anybody, and I wasn't going to.
He kissed my temple and steered me under the red awning, and his hand on my back wasn't careful at all.
He'd booked the front dining room.
The same long table by the windows. The same white cloth.
Everybody was already there.
Pasquale at the end, with his napkin tucked in, eating the good bread.
My father next to him with his cane hooked on the back of his chair, eating the good bread faster.
Rita, in the green crepe she'd worn to my wedding and Maddie's christening and every good night since.
Her brother by her, in the navy suit, with my father's mended cane leaned against the window.
The baker in her feather hat. The bride and her husband.
The pants lady, who'd brought her granddaughter's boyfriend to carry nothing at all.
I put Maddie in the high chair next to my place at the table.
A year ago that chair had held her carrier, with her asleep in it and her fist in her mouth.
Tonight she banged a spoon on the tray and screamed for bread.
Pasquale passed her a heel of it down the whole table, hand to hand.
"The boss is hungry," Dad said.
"The boss is a Morelli," Rita said.
"Santangelo," Pasquale said.
"Morelli," said Dad and Rita and the baker, all at once.
The pasta came.
Damiano sat close, his knee against mine under the cloth.
There was graphite on the side of his right hand, and plaster dust in his hair from Loomis Street.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–32 of I Bought His Love, Then He Became the Don are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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