I watched them go. Then I gave jubilant smiles to people I barely knew, who returned them just as jubilantly, and I went right to my purse.
I grabbed my phone and called Benny.
Only when I heard his deep, easy, sweet voice saying, “Give me good news, baby,” did I start crying.
But my tears were jubilant.
* * * * *
Benny parked in Frankie’s guest spot, shut down the Explorer, and jumped out, turning toward Frankie’s apartment only to see her hustling his way, hair big, makeup heavy but sweet, wearing a bright orange sundress that showed skin and cle**age. This was paired with some sexy, high-heeled sandals. She was carrying a huge basket covered in cellophane that had a massive pink bow and looked to be filled with a gigantic mound of baby clothes, all pink. She was holding it awkwardly to the side so she could see him.
“Please tell me you didn’t dress that way for work,” he remarked when she was ten feet away.
She gave him a look.
It was two days after Vi had Angela. Two days too long for Frankie, who had wanted him down immediately. But Vi had had Angie on a Tuesday, so he waited for Thursday when he could push it into a long weekend with his woman.
And anyway, his folks went down first and left Brownsburg to go back to Chicago this morning so they could help out at the restaurant while Ben was away. It was also so his pop could get Theresa away from Angela because, as reported direct to Benny from Cal, “You’d think the woman pushed her out herself, she’s hoggin’ her so much.”
This Ben read as Cal not getting enough time with his woman and girls, especially the new one.
Now it was near on six o’clock, Frankie was done with work that day, and Benny was there to stay.
For three days.
Which was not near long enough.
Still giving him a look, Frankie ordered, “Ass back in your truck. We’re goin’ directly to Cal and Vi’s.”
“No welcome to Brownsburg kiss?” he asked as she veered to the passenger side.
He in no way liked it when she didn’t turn her ass right around to give him what he wanted.
Instead, she opened the back door to his truck, dumped the basket, slammed the door, and climbed right in the front seat.
He angled in the driver’s seat and turned to her to tell her precisely how he felt about her non-greeting. The minute he did, she latched onto either side of his head, yanked him to her, and laid a hot, wet one on him.
She broke away but didn’t let go as she whispered, “Welcome to Brownsburg, Benny.”
He grinned at her and replied, “That’s the way I like it, Frankie.”
Something even more crazy-beautiful than the crazy-beautiful she always was lit in her eyes before she kept whispering, “She’s so beautiful, you would not believe.”
He knew what that crazy-beautiful was and he wondered, when she gave him their babies, how much more crazy-beautiful it would be.
“Then let me go, baby, so I can meet her,” he whispered back.
She grinned and let him go.
Ben turned to the wheel, started her up, and put her in gear.
He was backing out when she declared, “By the way, that gift’s from you and me.”
“Good, seein’ as I’m never shoppin’ for a girl baby. When they have their boy, I’ll kick in. Though, sayin’ that, I’m not kickin’ in in a way I’ll go shoppin’. I’m kickin’ in in a way where you call me and get my approval before you buy anything.”
To that, he got silence and this silence lasted until he was at the gate to her complex.
So he called, “Frankie?”
Her voice was soft when she said, “That’s a deal.”
He’d stopped to make the turn on the main road so he turned his head and looked at her.
Her gaze was directed to the side, but he saw that smile on her face. He liked all her smiles, but that was the one he liked the best. It was the one that said she had a secret.
And it was a good one.
But Frankie didn’t have any secrets, except the ones buried deep inside, planted by the whackjobs who were her family.
“What you thinkin’, cara?” he asked and she looked to him.
“I’m just glad you’re here, Benny.”
That wasn’t it, but he’d give her that play. He had a cousin to meet and he was hungry. But also, he knew she’d give it to him when she was ready.
So he just gave her a smile, checked the street, and made the turn when it was safe.
He parked in Cal and Vi’s drive, got out, and made his way around to grab the basket. He held it in one arm, Frankie’s hand in the other, and they headed to the front door.
Frankie knocked, but she barely quit doing it before the door was open and Cal stood there, his arm lifted. In it was cradled a little bundle with a tiny, light green cap on her head, her baby body wrapped up tight in a soft, pink blanket.
For a second, Benny couldn’t move. This was because this wasn’t the first time he’d seen his cousin holding a baby just like that. The last time was nearly two decades ago with Cal’s little Nicky, a beautiful baby boy that Ben was pretty certain Cal had convinced himself the world revolved around. A beautiful baby boy that Cal’s junkie ex-wife let drown in the bathtub.
His eyes went from Angela to Cal and he whispered, “Cugino.”
Cal grinned a grin Ben had never seen before from him. He’d seen it though. It was the kind of grin his father aimed at his mother. The kind of grin he was starting to see from Manny.
It was the grin of a man content in the knowledge he had everything.
“Get your asses in here,” Cal offered as an invitation and stepped out of the door.
Ben pulled Frankie in and was accosted directly by Keira, then Kate. Keira took the basket from him after hugging Frankie. Kate went in for hug from Francesca and Ben moved to Vi, who was lying on the couch.
“I’d get up, but I’ve had kind of a long day,” Vi explained, lifting her arms to curl them around his shoulders as he bent into her to brush his lips against her cheek and round her with his arms for a quick, light squeeze. “Theresa and Vinnie left and Joe practically threw Dad out. I had to intervene.” Her voice lowered. “Joe doesn’t know, but Dad’s at a hotel by the highway, giving us some space.”
“You don’t have to get up for me and I won’t say a word,” he said in her ear and straightened, feeling her arms slip away while letting her go, all this smiling down at her as she beamed up at him.
And there was the look of a woman who had it all, lost most of it, and found herself again having everything.