I Bought His Love, Then He Became the Don novel · Chapter 73 of 76
Chapter 73: Second First Date
"Yes," I said, under the streetlight. "On one condition."
"Down the middle," Damiano said. "To the cent."
"You remembered."
"I remember everything. Old men remember. I'm practicing."
It took us six weeks to go.
The first Saturday the yard had a frozen pipe. The second, Maddie had a fever and screamed at the thermometer.
The third, Pasquale wrapped the fig tree.
He did it the Saturday after Thanksgiving, in the side yard, on the stepladder, in his good cardigan.
Burlap this time, not white ribbon, and a lot of twine.
Damiano held the ladder. Rita handed up the twine.
Her brother sat on the back steps with his canes across his knees and told Pasquale he was doing it wrong.
"You know figs?" Pasquale said from the top of the ladder.
"I know my grandmother's tomatoes."
"Tomatoes are not figs."
"You wrap a fig like that, it dies in February."
Pasquale looked down at him for a long time.
Then he unwrapped the top three feet and did it again the boy's way, complaining the whole time.
Rita's green coffee cans sat in a row along the fence, empty for the winter.
On the first Sunday in December, Maddie bit my father.
He was at the long table with her on his knee, letting her chew his finger, the way he did every Sunday.
He yelped.
"She bit me."
"She doesn't have teeth, Dad."
"She has one." He held up his finger like evidence. "Bottom front. Sharp as a tack. She's a Morelli."
Everybody had to look.
Maddie sat on the table among the plates and showed it to us, furious, a tiny white edge in her bottom gum.
Pasquale crossed himself.
Damiano got out his sketchbook and drew it.
The date was the Saturday after that.
That afternoon I put a fifty-dollar bill on Pasquale's kitchen table for the babysitting.
He looked at it.
"What's that?"
"For tonight. For Maddie."
"Take it off my table."
Damiano came in from the yard, saw the fifty, and put a fifty of his own on top of it.
"Half," he said. "We're splitting it."
"You're both crazy."
Pasquale picked up the two bills and stuffed them into the pocket of Damiano's coat on the hook.
"You want to pay me? Bring me back the bread from that place. The little bread. In the basket."
"Nonno, they don't let you take the bread."
"Then steal it. You were a Don."
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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