Falling for an Italian Mobster

Ch 6: Pt 1 - Confessions

I woke up to the sound of someone pushing open my bedroom door. I grunted and rolled over, pulling the blanket up over my head. I relaxed and was drifting back off to sleep when they jerked my blanket off my body with a chuckle at my shriek. Emeril; I'd recognize his voice anywhere.

"Time to get up. Your grandfather called the family down for breakfast, and you're on the verge of being late." I groaned as I rubbed my eyes. "And he apparently wants you looked over again. I tried to let you sleep in as long as possible."

"Suddenly he gives a shit about me, huh?" I teased as I sat up, watching Emeril dig in the duffel of new clothing to pull out a cute teal sundress I'd picked up at the beach. "You find anything out while I was snoozing?"

"What makes you think I was digging?" The smirk he threw over his shoulder at me as he dug through the duffel of shoes told me he'd found out something.

Ten minutes later, I'd brushed my teeth, dressed in the sundress and scandals, and was limping down the footpath from the cabins to the main house with Sal and Emeril. Hector had left this morning with his puppy, according to Sal. Our housemate, Micah, had been long gone by the time Sal woke up this morning for his workout.

When we got to the main house, everyone who'd already arrived was hanging out in the garden, waiting for Grandpa Sal I assumed. Emeril, Sal and I took a seat at a table near the wall of the garden so we could people watch. Grandpa Sal had designed the garden with the family in mind – he'd had countless tables set up so we could have meals out here.

We watched as handful of the stranglers slowly slinked in, glancing towards Grandpa Sal's table to see if he'd arrived yet.

"Hey, Micah, over here!" Sal called when Micah entered with his grandfather and paused in the doorway to glance around at the tables about twenty minutes later, looking for a place to sit no doubt. Grandpa Sal and Grandma Rosa still hadn't made an appearance, which was odd.

"Why are you calling him over?" I whisper-demanded, reaching over to pinch Sal on the arm when he ignored me.

"He knows what's going on. If we play nice, when shit hits the fan, he might be on our side." Sal whispered back as Micah picked his way through the tables over to where we were sitting. "Hey, man. You weren't in the cabin this morning for our round of wakeup shots." I chuckled at Sal's joke as Micah took a seat at the table diagonally across from me.

"Wakeup shots?" Micah asked curiously, glancing at me from the corner of his eye though he was facing Sal. "I'll try and remember that in the days to come."

"Business that bad, huh?" Sal offered with a sympathetic tone.

"Something like that." His words were vague, and his tone implied he wouldn't elaborate. We fell silent as the maids began coming around with trays of drinks, offering juice, coffee and water.

"Coffee." I answered when the maid turned to me after handing off drinks to the rest of the table. I was sitting in the chair closest to the wall, so Emeril passed me the cup she offered. "Could I get a glass of water, too, please?" She handed it over with a soft smile before heading to the next table.

"Breakfast will start soon." Sal observed as the garden began to fill with the rest of the missing crowd. "Oh, look – Duran is here with his pregnant girlfriend."

"Wonder how Grandma Rosa took that." I muttered into my cup of coffee, flagging down another maid to pass me another cup of coffee, water be damned. I'd have this one finished shortly and we were still waiting on Grandpa Sal to show face so the meal could be served.

"Heard she gave him a proper lecture on the art of proposing." Hector joked as he took his seat at our table.

"I heard he was only in it for the kid – something about a one-night-stand." Duran's brother and our other cousin, Roman, stopped by our table as Sal finished speaking, nodding in agreement to what he was hearing. "That's not a rumor, then?"