Page 74 of Rock Chick Bonus Tracks

“Would you? If she has time, wanna take my woman to lunch.”

“Love to, darlin’.”

He nodded to her, lifted his chin to Tex, then he headed back to his office.

When he got there, their new receptionist, Sarah, who was quiet, pretty, in her mid-forties, and very good at her job, immediately said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Zano. I tried to stop him.”

Shit.

“But your uncle is here. He’s in your office,” she finished.

Fantastic.

“I really did try to stop him,” she went on.

“It’s okay, Sarah,” he assured. “He’s unstoppable if he wants to be.”

She appeared relieved he understood.

Ren headed to his office.

Vito didn’t get up when he hit it, just turned in his chair and watched as Ren walked to his desk.

He sat behind it and didn’t get a word in before Vito spoke.

“Father Paolo says Ally’s takin’ Catholic classes.”

Ren nodded. “She is.”

“Good,” he grunted.

Vito said no more.

Neither did Ren.

They hadn’t spoken since the big blowup. Even though Vito was sitting right there, Ren knew it was going to have to be him who officially extended the olive branch. Vito was too damned stubborn to do it. It just pissed him off it had to be him.

But family was family.

Vito taught him that.

He opened his mouth.

Vito beat him to it again.

“You know,” Vito began, “before we got married, Angela and me named all our kids.”

Ren felt something tighten in his chest since he knew with this opener it was story time from Vito, he just wasn’t going to like this story. He also knew, when Vito was in the mood to tell a story, he had no choice but to sit back and listen.

So he did that.

“We picked eight names. The middle name and everything,” Vito shared. “Not that we wanted eight kids. We wanted four. But, you know, you never know what a kid’s gonna come out like. We figured we’d have to have alternates just in case an Antonio turned out to be a Massimo.”

“Right,” Ren said quietly.

“We gave it time in the beginning. I just wanted Angela. She just wanted me. But we knew when we were gonna add on. We had it all planned. We had years, we thought, to make our family.”

Vito and Angela were childless.

---