and I met.
“So that’s why you were giving him the third degree,” I said.
“Third degree,” he scoffed. “I was just making sure you wasn’t bringing home a mamaluke like that one did.” He nodded at Anthony.
I was too nervous to laugh, but I probably would later.
“Anyway.” Pop twirled a finger and got serious. “Bring the boy over for dinner once he’s stopped calling youse ‘just friends.’” Ouch. But I hadn’t expected Gideon to call us anything else. “He seems nice—maybe a little uptight, but you can’t be picky anymore, son. You ain’t twenty no more, and you wanna find a good man before your balls start sagging.”
“For chrissakes!” I hollered.
“What?!” He widened his arms. “I’m just sayin’!”
“Can I turn thirty first?!”
“Ay, both’a yas!” Anthony called.
I growled under my breath and tried to reel it in. My temper, not my pre-sagging balls.
“I give you two love and good advice,” Pop argued, speaking with his hands, “and what do I get in return? You stomp on my heart.”
“Oh, for—you’ve been spending too much time at Nonna’s,” I told him irritably. “How about you take care of your own sagging balls? Go meet a nice lady who didn’t change your diapers as a baby!”
“Why the fuck would I do that for?” He frowned. “If I sell the cow, the neighborhood women won’t bring me casseroles when I dangle the milk in front of them.”
I groaned and scrubbed my hands over my face. “I give up.”
“Might as well. And go talk to the boy!” he ordered.
Madonn’, if Gideon thought it was funny when I called him baby, it had nothing on when Pop called him boy.
“I will, ’cause you’re givin’ me a headache.” I jabbed a finger at my temple and dumped the last cords in a hardcase box. “All the fuckin’ drama all the fuckin’ time.”
“Easy,” he bitched. “This is still a house of God. Don’t curse.”
I shot him an incredulous look.
He grinned and scratched his nose. “What?”
I just shook my head and walked off the stage.
Gideon was standing some twenty feet away, close enough to have probably heard most of that exchange, and the closer I got, the more I thought he looked troubled. His worry wrinkles were in full effect in his forehead.
He was holding a glazed bear claw in one hand and a bunch of napkins in the other.
“Hey, you.” I came to a stop before him and told myself to keep my cool. For all I knew, he was still worried about his dog.
He waved his pastry at the stage. “No one even reacted when you fought with your father.”
I frowned, confused. “Fought? That wasn’t a fight.”
“It looked like a fight. It sounded like a fight.”
Aw, fuck. I rubbed the back of my neck and glanced at Pop and Anthony over my shoulder. They were shooting the shit and stacking boxes together.
“That’s just how we talk sometimes, hon. We can be pretty loud, I guess.” I turned back to Gideon again. “We’re good, but I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to warn you about Pop. I underestimated the power of rumors, and now they think we’re dating.”
“Oh.” He dropped his stare to the ground, or the pastry in his hand, and nodded slowly. “I apologize. You were… I can’t find the words. The way you performed tonight—I felt it everywhere. It was overwhelmingly beautiful.”
“But something’s wrong.” I took a step forward and tried to make eye contact, and if I didn’t find out what was up with him soon, I’d flip my fucking shit. “Talk to me, Gideon.”
He winced and clutched his side. “I am incredibly nauseated. I had six hot dogs. Can you take this?”
Mother of—!
I quickly accepted the bear claw, then ushered him toward two abandoned lawn chairs near a wall. “Why would you eat that much? Now you’re gonna have a stomachache. I swear—you make me worry, papito.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” he argued weakly. “I’m a nervous eater sometimes. Specifically when I don’t know protocol and there are no known social cues to pick up on. I-I didn’t know what to say to your father, and then there was the lady selling the hot dogs. She looked so happy when I bought the food. She was raving about the charities some of the proceeds go to.”
Christ. My sweet man. I shouldn’t have unleashed him on his own, smack-dab in the middle of a Catholic community. We had our ways of making people open their wallets.
I helped him sit down before I took my seat next