Page 93 of 7+Us Makes Nine

“Yeah, all right. Bye.” Dad hung up the phone and eyed me. “All that nervous jittering you’re doing—you better have good news for me, Gio.”

“I visited your boy, Tommy. He says he’ll have your money next week.”

“Good. Because that little weasel owes me far too much. I’m done playing around with him.”

“Speaking of being done—” I said, standing up and beginning to pace the room, “—don’t you think it’s about time that I should be done with all those kinds of errands?”

Dad folded his arms across his chest and leaned back, narrowing eyes that were the exact same shade of amber as my own. “What do you mean by that, son?”

“Dad, I’ve been the capo for how long now? It’s time that I should get a higher role, don’t you think? What else can I do to prove myself? I feel like you’re stalling and just don’t want to give me more responsibilities. I’m your son, for crying out loud! I should have a higher role in our family business. I’m twenty-seven years old now. I don’t want to be stuck in the same position by the time I hit thirty.”

Dad sighed. “I keep you where you are because you’re good at what you do. That’s a compliment, by the way.”

“Yeah, but I can be even better at something else. How will you ever know if you won’t even give me a try?”

“You’re so damned impatient, Gio. I wonder where you get it? Must be from your mother, since you even sport her hair style these days.”

“Ha, ha,” I said. I untied my hair from its ponytail, partially just to annoy him. “You’re just mad you can’t grow hair like this, old man. Look at you—you’re balding. One foot in the grave already. All the more reason you need to pass on some more responsibility to me. It’s about time for you to start thinking about who you’ll leave the family business to. I am your firstborn son, remember?”

“Oh, I remember, all right. Firstborn and the most hard-headed.”

“I certainly know where I get that from.”

Dad sighed. “Listen, Gio—do you want to know how you can really help out?”

“I’m all ears, Pops.”

“Get into the Marino family.”

His statement hung in the air for a long time. A stretch of silence passed between us. I raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was implying what I thought. I cleared my throat. “Oh yeah? And how do you suppose I do that?” I asked although I suspected I already knew the answer.

“Through their daughter, of course,” Dad said. “You get in good with the Marino girl. Work your magic and charm and whatever else it is that you do. Hell, the marriage doesn’t have to be like, you know, a real marriage. It just needs to happen so that you can secure our family ties with the Marino fortune. Got it?”

I swore under my breath, but I definitely understood my father’s logic. The Marino family was loaded, and as the firstborn son, it made sense for Dad to want me to be the one to do such a duty.

He also knew that I was the one who would always do anything for my family, no matter how unpleasant. And it certainly didn’t help that I was so desperate to prove my worth within the family. Fuck.

I sighed. “Consider it done, Dad,” I said dejectedly.

He smiled broadly. “That’s my boy.”

I left his office, deciding that the sooner I set to work on my task, the better.

I also knew though, that for tonight, I was going out to party as hard as I could before I set my focus on the Marino girl.

After all, it was potentially my last night as a single man.

CHAPTER 3

Arianna

“You did it, Lee!” I said, clapping my hands together.

Lee gasped, his eyes widening in shock. He was eight-years-old, and long division had been giving him trouble ever since I’d introduced it to the class. But being the hard-worker that he was, he stayed after school whenever he could to get extra tutoring, determined to catch up to the rest of his classmates. Finally, his hard work had paid off.

“I actually got it right?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“You most certainly did,” I said, smiling and ruffling his hair.

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