Page 32 of In the Shadows

Thank fuck, I thought as we got up. “Joey.” He turned at the sound of his name. I pulled him to me. “I love you.”

He kissed me. “I love you too. Now stop worrying, papa Stoli,” he laughed, picking up his towel and wrapping it around his waist before leaving the room.

When he came back in the room, I was still sitting naked on the edge of the bed.

“Not sure my dad will appreciate you coming down to dinner naked. But I know I won’t mind and his girlfriend might not mind seeing your hot ass either.”

“Cute,” I told him, taking the clothes out of my bag and getting dressed.

We entered the kitchen to knowing stares from not only Diamond and Joe, oh no, it couldn’t be that easy for us now could it? But to my mother, Brett – who couldn’t keep a straight face – and Brandon who thankfully was sitting at the table coloring. Joey’s dad eyed us and shook his head, my mother’s mouth was hanging open and Diamond and Mickey both had looks on their faces that said we would never hear the end of this. Had Brandon not been there, I’m sure the heckling would have been unbearable.

“Um, how can we help?” I asked, nervously toying with my dog tags.

“Think you have already,” Joe piped up, “My boy over there looks thoroughly fucked.”

That was all it took for the entire room to fill with raucous cackles. Fucking hell, my face was on fire and poor Joey had his hidden behind his hands and hair.

“Uncle Joe said a bad word,” Brandon added.

That seemed to be Joey’s cue to bail as he bolted up the stairs like an Olympic athlete.

Just as everyone started settling down, the doorbell rang. Joe became frantic. Mom moved nearer to calm him. “You look great, Joe, everything will be fine.” Then turned to us, “You boys had better be on your best behavior,” she warned.

Having heard the doorbell, Joey came back downstairs as Joe let her in. She was a cute little thing, about my mom’s size with auburn hair and brown eyes.

“So, um,” Joe began, “this is my son Joey,” Joey exchanged handshakes with her, “his boyfriend Ricky,” her eyes widened at that introduction, but her smile never faltered as I shook her hand. “These are their friends Mickey and Ethan,” they too shook her hand, “and these are our friends and neighbors Mary and Brett and their little guy Brandon. This is my family,” he proudly announced.

“It’s nice to meet all of you. But why do you boys look so familiar? A bit intimidating, I might add, but familiar?” she asked, eyeballing the four of us.

“You listen to hard rock?” Joe asked her.

“Sometimes, but my son—” The look that crossed her face when the realization hit was one of an epiphany. “That’s it, you’re in that band Social something or other.” She looked embarrassed, “Sorry, names are my nemeses.”

“No worries, but yeah. We’re the band Social Sinners.”

“Holy crap, my son will blow a gasket when I tell him.” We couldn’t help but laugh at that. If her euphemisms consisted of car parts then she was perfect for Joe.

“We’ll grab some merch tomorrow when we meet with our manager and sign it for him,” I told her. We were always happy to meet fans unless they were storming us like the gates of Normandy. No idea why that popped into my head, history was never my strong suit.

“Dinner and drinks are in the kitchen,” Joe said, guiding her toward it.

Diamond leaned over whispering, “He picked up dinner from the Olive Garden while you two were going at it like rabbits.”

Ugh, this will never end.

Everything was set up buffet style. We loaded up our plates, and I do mean loaded – piled high with food and took our seats at the table.

“So,” I began, trying to break the annoying silence, “how did you two crazy kids meet?”

Joe’s face flushed as he looked over at Maggie, visibly smitten with her.

“I took my car into his shop to be fixed after the last guys screwed me over.”

“They did a real number on her Mustang,” Joe added.

I knew that would catch Joey’s attention, he and I were huge Mustang fans. “What kind of Mustang do you have?” he asked her.

“These boys here have a love for the breed,” Joe informed her.

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