Page 3 of Claimed By the Don

“She’s adorable! She already gained a pound since they came home,” she beams.

“I mean Molly. She gettin’ enough sleep or you think they need a baby nurse for a couple weeks?”

“She’s tired as hell. If he don’t pull it together I’m gonna kick his ass,” she says, nodding at Gino.

I grab a beer and stop by Gino’s station at the grill. “How many Italian sausages you gonna eat?” he asks.

“Two. Quick question, bro. How long you think Molly’s gonna put up with your shit?” I ask.

“What the hell?” he says.

“You gotta do nighttime feedings. No excuses. She pushed a kid out for you. Let the woman sleep, bro,” I say, keeping my tone half joking.

“It isn’t like she’s ever gonna let me near her again,” he grumbles.

“What did you think was going to happen? You had a kid.”

“It’s like she changed so much, Benny,” he says. He looks gutted.

“How much time do you spend with the baby?” I ask.

“What? Like altogether?”

“In a day, how much?”

“I hold her when Mol has a shower or whatever. I hope she don’t wake up when I’m holding her cause she’s just gonna cry.”

“You nervous about dropping her?”

“She’s so little! You see her? Them fingernails are the tiniest little thing I ever saw. Jesus, Benny, what if I go to pick up my phone and don’t hold on to her real good and she slips—” He sounds anguished.

I clap him on the shoulder, “You were the star running back when we went to state. You know how to hold onto a football. You got this, man.”

“Shit, I guess you’re right. I fucked up, huh?”

“You better get her some flowers. Make a mushy speech when we eat.”

“You think so?”

“If I was you, you bet your ass I’d be reading poetry to the woman that had my baby. Nothing would be too much or too embarrassing.” I say.

“You man the grill. I’m gonna go check on my wife. Tell her she’s doing a great job.”

I serve up the meat and make sure everyone’s fed until Gino comes back. I sit down to cool off in the shade and Gino’s mom sits by me.

“How are you doing? I bet you can’t get enough of that grandbaby,” I say.

“I hoped somebody would give him a kick in the ass before I had to,” she shakes her head.

“Gino? He’ll be okay. He just needed to get his head out of his ass,” I say.

“You can say that again. He went in and told Molly he wants to take her out to dinner tomorrow night and asked me to keep the baby. I’m excited to keep her, but mainly seeing Molly cry because she was so happy for the attention nearly did me in right there.”

“Well take it easy. Don’t let the stress get to you. We all need you around.”

“I don’t know what would’ve happened with them if you didn’t step in. Thank God we got someone with sense at the head of this family,” she says.

“Ah, that’s nice of you, Aunt Virginia, but my dad’s still the head of the family.”

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