Page 141 of Married with Mayhem

This has to end. My life is with Sabrina now. The rest of the bullshit is just noise.

“I went to high school with him,” I tell Ethan Krull. “Must have bumped into him in the hallway once upon a time.”

The man isn’t dumb enough to believe this but there’s nothing he can do about it. He might be an ex-cop but that’s still a cop and I’m giving him nothing. He gets a calm stare and that’s all.

He knows it and shakes his head with a smile. “How’s your wife doing?”

“She’s hurting and will be for a while but the surgery went well and she’s resting.”

“Glad to hear it,” he says.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll be getting back to her now.” I walk away without giving him time to answer.

If he needs to talk again then he’s capable of hunting me down. I’ve got a call to make before I check on Sabrina.

My dad answers immediately and I’m quick to say, “She’s fine,” before he gets anxious.

“Thank god,” he breathes. There’s a mix of voices in the background. The jukebox is playingFortunate Son.

“I’m sure the lunch crowd is about to hit,” I say. “And I won’t keep you for long. I just wanted to ask if your offer to join the family business is still open.”

He pauses. I can just picture his jaw dropping.

“It’s always open,” he finally says. “You know that’s my dream, for you and your brother to take over the place one day.”

“I can’t speak for Nico but I need a new line of work. One that doesn’t have a body count and keeps me close to home. I’ve got my wife to think about now. So what do you say? You want a partner?”

“Hell yes,” he says. “You don’t know how long I’ve been hoping for this.”

Yes, I do know. He’s only been saying it since I was a kid. I’m only sorry it took me so long to get here.

“I’ll let you get back to the lunch crowd,” I say. “And we’ll talk more when Brina and I get back to the city.”

“Love you both,” he says. “And do me a favor. Give your mother a call when you get a chance. I know you two aren’t close but she’s still your mother. She and your Aunt Kiki have been worried.”

“Will do. And love you too, Pop.”

Sabrina is awake when I return to the room. Someone finally found her a plate of pancakes. She’s having trouble cutting into them with one hand so I cut them up for her and feed her one bite at a time.

“You take such good care of me,” she says. She’s smiling but every now and then she winces with pain.

“Get used to it.” I hold up a cup of orange juice for her. “This is my number one job.”

She drinks her juice and then settles back on the pillow. “What kind of wedding should we have?”

“Whatever you want. We can get married right here in the hospital if you like.”

“No, I want a New York wedding. Soon. Not a big fancy one. Just us and our families.”

“You got it.”

Keeping my promise to my dad, I call my mother. We never got along when I was growing up and don’t often speak now. But he’s right. She’s still my mother. And she’s happy to hear my voice. I’ll call her more often.

She wants to talk to Sabrina. The two of them have a short but sweet conversation and Sabrina even extracts a promise for a visit to New York. When I take the phone back, my mother cannot stop gushing about what a wonderful girl I married.

No one needs to tell me that.

Speaking of mothers, they seem to be crawling out of the woodwork all of a sudden.

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