“And speaking of, let’s get this damn thing going, shall we?” Grandpa said, rising from his chair. “The grandkids have had enough time playing around.”
“We should wait for Leo,” Grandma said immediately and in a tone that suggested she was not going to compromise.
“Be my guest; you’ll be waiting for him into the twenty-second century.”
The scowl my grandmother gave to that remark went ignored by Grandpa. He put his fingers up to his mouth and let out his trademark shrill whistle. It could cut through any level of conversation at any time; heck, I could hear it when he did it during baseball games. I couldn’t shift my eyes from the pitcher to look for him, but that whistle always gave me a boost of confidence and a little surge in performance; I would bet anything hearing that whistle increased my batting average at least ten percent.
“Dinner!” he shouted when the place got quiet. “Come on, don’t make this old man wait for his food!”
Grandpa didn’t have to say it out loud. We all knew the drill.
Within a matter of seconds, everyone had gathered at the long main table, with grandma and grandpa at the head, my parents and two uncles near them, and the three of us there. My grandparents also kept about five empty seats open, apparently under the premise that such visual cues would get us to hurry up and get married. The whole thing seemed a little ridiculous, but, then again, it wasn’t my grandkids trying to get married.
We said a quick prayer of thanks, my father gave a toast honoring all of us for making it, and like that, we were off to the races, starting with some salad before the kitchen staff brought out the main course, something that only Grandpa would know about.
“So, Nick, dear,” my grandmother began. “Tell us about last night.”
I didn’t bother hiding my glare for Layla, who pretended to be far too enamored with her salad to answer me.
“Well,” I said. “I met this woman at one of my speaking engagements. She is quite beautiful, works pretty high up in her marketing department—”
“Ohhh,” my grandmother said. “Does this mean one of my grandchildren is finally going to get married?”
I laughed, doing my best to make it seem more good-natured and less ridiculing.
“Well, it’s the first date, so we have to give it time—”
“You know, I didn’t even need a first date when I saw Mary to know I was going to marry her,” my grandfather said.
I swore that story had to be apocryphal, but it was said so often by now that no one really bothered to question it.
“In fact, we didn’t even really call it dating back then. We just knew we liked the other person—”
“He understands, Alf,” Grandma said.
“Well, if he understands, then he can go and marry this girl and give us some more children!”
“Oh, she’s already got…”
My voice trailed off, but it was too late. The entire table stopped what they were doing, including eating, and stared at me. Even Brett and Layla had concerned looks on their faces, although their likely came from knowing the shitstorm that was about to hit.
“She already has what, Nick?” my grandmother said, the judgment in her voice sounding like a nun who was about to get a delinquent student to confess.
The only thing worse than what I had just admitted out loud would be to lie about it.
“She already has a child.”
I could practically hear the winds go out of the sails. Just seconds ago, my grandparents had felt confident one of their grandkids had finally found love—and now, they had learned that, supposedly, that love was tainted.
“I see she makes wise choices,” my grandmother said. “I suppose women these days don’t know how to contain themselves.”
“Mom,” my father said, but he wasn’t defending me. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“Oh, we will,” she said. “But Nick, dear, do yourself a favor and find yourself a wholesome woman. Not one of these girls that thinks babies can be had without consequence.”
I bit my lip and just nodded. I didn’t agree at all with what they had said, obviously, and even if I had felt knocked back a bit by Izzy’s revelation, I would have seen the whole picture and understood Izzy was worth it.
I was just pissed I didn’t know more. I couldn’t defend her. If I tried, they’d ask even more questions, and with even more questions came topics I wouldn’t have any good answers to. My parents’ and grandparents’ judgment wouldn’t get me to change my mind about anything, but it sure would have been nice to at least have an explanation I could give them.
“Women have always been like that,” my grandfather said, continuing this awkward topic for as long as it seemingly took to get me to crack. “You just have to find the good ones. I happened to find the perfect one.”
“So—” Layla said, trying to change the topic, but absolutely no one paid attention to her.
“I just don’t understand girls today, they don’t know how to behave like women!” my grandmother continued.
I was more than a little surprised it was grandma leading the charge, but I tried to think of it as her protecting me rather than casting judgment onto Izzy. The Ferraris were ferociously protective of their own and did not let others in easily; my father had never outright said it, but he had hinted at troubles between Grandma and Mom more than once, suggesting that grandma made it very difficult for my mother to feel welcome into the family.
I supposed it was just her being old-school. I did my best to give her credit with her outdated beliefs.
“So!” Layla said, this time
