He Bet My Life and Lost Me Instead novel · Chapter 28 of 32

Chapter 28: Sunday Dinner

Sam's mother arrived forty minutes early with a casserole dish in each hand.

She was a short woman in a good wool coat, with Sam's brown eyes and none of his patience.

"You're Nina," she said, and looked me up and down. "You're too thin."

"Hello, Mrs. Novak."

"Don't Mrs. Novak me. Take this. It's hot."

I took the dish.

She walked past me into my grandmother's front hall, looked at the banister, the runner, and the framed photograph of my grandmother in her church hat, and nodded as if all of it had passed inspection.

"Mama," Sam said from the stairs.

"Samuel. You didn't shave."

"I shaved."

"You missed a spot."

She went into the kitchen.

Marco was at the stove in his chef's jacket, with six pots going, and he turned around with a wooden spoon raised like a sword.

I waited for the explosion.

"Who is this?" Sam's mother said.

"Marco Ricci. I'm cooking."

"What are you cooking?"

"Braised short ribs, a polenta, and a roasted cabbage that will change your life."

"I brought pierogi."

"Ma'am, I respect pierogi."

"Good," she said. "They go on the front burner. Move your pot."

He moved his pot.

I had never seen anyone out-stubborn him in a kitchen, and I stood in the doorway with the casserole going cold in my hands.

Sam leaned in beside me.

"She's going to make him cry," he whispered.

"He's going to love it."

At five, the doorbell rang.

The chairman stood on the porch in his overcoat, with his cane in one hand and a white bakery box in the other.

He had never once come to my house.

"Ms. Doyle," he said. "I wasn't certain I should."

"Come in."

"My son is not with me. I want to say that at once."

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