“But he’s still around tonight,” she suggests, wagging her eyebrows up and down.
“Yeah, and a one-night stand with one of my brother’s best friends is a brilliant idea.”
“Suit yourself. But I, for one, am looking forward to the opening tonight. Hey, are you eating those home fries?”
I shake my head, not able to think about home fries. Or food. Or anything except the man whose name I can still hear being whispered around us.
“An interesting night indeed,” I finally agree.
5
Enzo
“Get out of the kitchen and go greet guests,” my father demands of me. Demands, because my dad has never onceaskedfor something in his life. And my brothers and I learned long ago never to question him.
I don’t start now.
“Just making sure he doesn’t screw up the sauce.”
Tris glares at me, like I can help the fact that his sauce isn’t as good as mine.
“Good thing Dad is back here to maintain quality control,” I tease.
My brother ignores my parting shot. Our father did something tonight I can’t ever remember him doing before—he closed the pizza shop. And to think I almost missed this . . .
“C’mon, pretty boy,” our brother Gian says. “The place is filling up.”
Gian’s twenty-seven, the youngest of my brothers. Only Lusanne is younger than him. Being with my siblings feels right in a deep way, and it makes me regret being away from home for so long. I’ve seen them, of course, but we haven’t all been together since the crazy family cruise I took them on in September. I was traveling for work over Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Lusanne and Tris visited me for New Year’s weekend, and Gian came to see me last month. I like wining and dining my siblings when they visit New York, but there’s something different about being home. About being together at the same time in the place we grew up.
Still, what choice do I have? Building a business empire is no easy task.
“What’s wrong?” Gian asks as we step out of the kitchen.
“Nothing,” I say. “Just happy to be here.”
He nods as if he knew it, and he probably did. Gian, the only other member of the family who doesn’t work for the family business, at least not exclusively, is also the best at reading my moods. Growing up I was closest with Lusanne, but Gian is the most sensitive of my siblings. He can read people like no one else.
The place really has filled up since I went into the kitchen. Mom and Lusanne stand by the door, greeting guests. They’re like carbon copies of each other, one just younger than the other. I scan the room.
She’s not here yet.
People start to notice me.
“Come on, let’s hit the deck,” I say to Gian.
It’s a beautiful property, the enclosed deck opening to a full view of Lake Shohola. A temporary bar is set up along one side, big white lights dangling from the ceiling.
I lead the way to the bar.
“Shouldn’t we greet guests?” Gian asks.
“They’ll find us out here. Trust me.” It’s fairly empty at the moment, but I know it won’t stay that way for long. I saw the stares, the whispers behind barely raised hands.
“I don’t know how you can stand it.”
Gian met us out the night before, plus he’s witnessed me being mobbed in New York and even on the cruise last year. My life can hardly be described as normal anymore.
Angel, Inc. started with a sophomore discovery in college, something I managed tinkering around in the lab. A tasteless chemical is added at the very end of the brewing process. Later, a pill antidote reacts with this chemical to reverse the alcohol’s effects on the body. Hayden pushed for us to patent and sell it, and his father gave us financing. Years of testing and licensing followed. FDA approval. Then finally, our first line of products, Angel’s Brew, hit the market. We started in the Northeast, but it quickly spread nationwide. Now, we’re going international. When we added wine to our offerings two years ago, things got even more out of control.