Yeah, should have seen that coming.
“Look, I get it,” I said, turning to face him. “It’s easier. It’s easier just to jump from one criminal empire to another. Someone else tells you what to do. You don’t have to think too hard about what you genuinely want. But easy doesn’t mean right.
“It’s been six months, man. You’ve barely had time to come to terms with what happened. You don’t need to be thinking about your future yet.”
“I can’t live off my sister forever.”
“You’re not living off of Cammie, Nicky. That was… found money,” I told him. “It’s just as much yours as it is hers. But if it’s really bothering you not to be making your own money, I can fix that. In a legit kind of way,” I clarified. “Someone is always looking for workers.”
“What? Delivering pizza?” he asked, frowning.
“Hey, a job is a job. I delivered pizza. And I bussed tables. And I swept floors. Work is work. But if you want, we can sit down and figure out what would suit you best and go from there.
“But, while I’m not the boss, Nicky, I am telling you right now, you’re not going to get made. So my advice is to take whatever job makes you comfortable, then spend some time figuring out what you want to do with your life. Go to school. Open a business. But, first, help me with the goddamn ring, would you?” I asked, waving toward the jewelry cabinets.
Six months was maybe soon for some people. But Cammie and I had been living together almost since the beginning. We both knew it was a forever kind of thing. There was no reason to wait.
And Cammie had let it slip to Valley that she saw herself as an autumn bride, so I needed to get a ring on her finger, so she could start planning for the following fall with Josie.
She’d settled into the family just like I told her she would, just like I knew she would.
She went out with Valley to get her nails done, and showed up at my mom’s place to take cooking lessons. She fussed over the kids and got confident enough to give some of the guys a little shit.
She’d become family.
And, like I thought, she’d blossomed with all that love and affection.
I’d known I was going to marry her since the first week she was in my house.
But I wanted to make sure she felt like she belonged because of who she was as a person, not because she thought my family had to like her because I planned to marry her.
It was time.
I just had no damn idea what ring to get her, since she almost never wore any kind of jewelry, so I hadn’t gotten a chance to learn her style preference.
“You should have brought your sister,” Nicky said, looking as lost as I felt as he looked over the seemingly endless number of rings. “Oh, maybe this one,” he said, waiting for me to walk over.
And there it was.
The ring.
It was a pointed clear stone with a sort of smoky green swirling inside.
“Ah, yes, that is a great choice,” the lady helping us declared. “Geometric moss agate with diamond accents. It is one of a kind. And it has a matching wedding band that accommodates its unique shape.”
So I had the ring.
Now I just needed to ask her the question.
Cammie - 1.5 years
Whatever you think an Italian mafia family wedding might be like, you could go right ahead and multiply the number by five and the volume by about two-thousand.
I loved every second of it.
It was more like a party than a wedding, after the whole vow part was over with.
Technically, we had hired Matteo’s party planning business to do the event. But that was really just a way for us to rent tables and have access to the best bands, because all the decor was planned by Josie and Sofia.