Page 50 of Unforgivable Ties

“Yeah,” I muttered.

“Don’t be nervous.” She reached her hand out and covered mine. “Everything is going to be fine.”

Her hand was so small and soft compared to mine. As she pulled it away, I wanted to grab it and bring it back. Instead, I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the car.

“It’s starting to snow,” Stephanie said, touching a small snowflake that landed on her shoulder.

“Winter is the worst,” I said as we walked to the doorway together.

I rang the doorbell, my stomach twisting in all kinds of knots. This should be easy; it was the woman who raised me after all. But I hadn’t seen her in so many years; the most we did was talked on the phone around holidays. We were completely different people now.

The door creaked open. My mom looked older than I remembered, her hair more gray, her face more lined. But her eyes were still the same—bright and full of life.

“Vincenzo!” she exclaimed, her hands flying to her mouth. The sound of my name in her voice was a wave of nostalgia that made me stiffen. “Oh, it’s been so long,” she breathed, throwing her arms around me.

“I know, Mom,” I said, still stiff as a board under her hug.

“And you’re Stephanie,” my mom said, smiling at her.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Stephanie said, her midwestern accent really coming through.

“Call me Mary.”

She gave Stephanie a hug too and then gestured for us to come inside. We entered into the warm embrace of her home, the smell of baking bread and cinnamon wafting through the air, mingling with the pine scent of a real Christmas tree in the corner.

“Don’t do that!”

We didn’t even have to turn the corner before I heard my sister. Alessandra had always been a loudmouth. Right now, it sounded like she was reprimanding my nephew for god knows what.

She came around the corner, holding a squirming two-year-old, his mouth smeared with the unmistakable remains of chocolate chip cookies. Her eyes widened as they fell on me.

“Vinnie?” she gasped before her stern face melted into an excited grin. “You actually came?”

“Yeah, Alessandra,” I said, shrugging my coat off. “I came.”

“Oh, you remember my name. Color me shocked,” she teased.

She set the toddler down, and he immediately bolted for the Christmas tree, yelping with delight as he knocked an ornament to the ground.

“Well, that’s your nephew, Graham...I’ll introduce you to him later.”

“Sit down,” my mom gestured to Stephanie and I.

We complied, easing down onto the plush velvet of the overstuffed couch, our shoulders just brushing. An electric zap went through my body at just the slightest touch, and I wondered if Stephanie felt it too.

“How did you and Stephanie meet, Vincenzo?” my mom asked.

Shit. The bullshit story about me being on campus and us sharing an umbrella wasn’t going to fly here. My mom and sister knew there was no reason for me to be on a college campus.

“I had some injuries, and Stephanie patched me up,” I said, skirting around the grittier details.

My mom knew not to pry when it came to injuries and my line of business.

“Oh...that’s nice. Stephanie, Vincenzo told me you were a medical student?”

“Ah, yeah! I’m in my second year,” she said, giving them a small synopsis about her time in medical school.

“So you’re a quite a bit younger than Vincenzo, then?” Alessandra asked.

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