It didn’t take me long to finish. Poppa had asked me not to tell the rest of the family or contact any neighbors. It wasn’t a problem since I hadn’t been in touch with anyone from home for so long. I nibbled on the baklava, licked more honey off my fingers, then peeked at Wills’s list. It had already reached thirty, and that was just the adults in his immediate family. There were still second and third cousins, once and twice removed.
“It’s too bad about your other grandparents. Are you going to send them an invitation?”
“I don’t know.” He sighed, and his smile was filled with regret. He’d called them that morning when he assumed they’d have gotten home from church, but had wound up talking—if it could be called that—to his uncle instead. “I wish Uncle Tony hadn’t objected to Grandma and Grandpa being there.”
That fuck had done too good a job putting up a barrier between his parents and their grandson.
“Y’know what? We can still go down and visit them. Your Uncle Tony isn’t likely to slam the door in your face, is he?”
“No.” But I could see Wills wasn’t certain about that. “Well, at least Aunt Maria said she would come to the wedding. That kind of surprised me.”
It surprised me too. She was a nun, and I would have thought her order frowned on same sex relationships. “She does know I’m a guy, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, I made sure she understood…she’s the oldest, you know. She wasn’t happy when I told her Uncle Tony didn’t want Grandma and Grandpa there, but she won’t say anything to him about it.”
I understood. His uncle was to all intents and purposes the head of the family now. I ran a palm up and down his back. “The next time we go to Florida, we’ll stop in Naples. And if you think it would be better for me not to go with you…”
“Never. If I go, you go.”
“Okay, but if you decide it will be easier to tell them I’m just a friend who came along on the trip, that’s fine with me.”
“Is it, Theo?”
It wasn’t, but he didn’t need added stress. “They’re old people, and for a couple of days, I can fake it.”
“Fake what?”
“That I’m not head over heels in love with you.”
“Theo, I’m not ashamed of what we have together.”
“Ass. I know that. I’m making a sacrifice for you, hotshot,” I teased, not wanting him to realize I was serious. I cuffed his shoulder. “Accept it gracefully.” I glanced further down his list. “Who’s Angelina? Oh, your Uncle Tony’s wife. Do you think she’ll come if he won’t?”
“I don’t know. Aunt Angelina is still on Long Island.”
“She’s not with him in Florida?”
“No. She wanted to be close to her children and grandchildren—they all live on the Island—so she kept the house out in the Hamptons. It would have been nice if we could have been closer, but after my Mom died…I ran into Cathy a couple of years ago at the Smith Haven Mall. She’s the cousin who’s my age. We had lunch, and she caught me up on all the family news.”
“You recognized her?” I remembered him telling me his uncle had basically cut off all contact with Wills and his father after his mother had died.
“Yeah. It was like looking at a picture of my Mom.” His smile was filled with nostalgia.
“Are you inviting those cousins too?”
“And their husbands, although Cathy wasn’t married at that point. Yeah, that’ll probably be another ten. The worst they can do is say no.”
I toyed with the hair that grew at the base of his skull. Why let them use distance as an excuse? “Y’know something, Wills? We could have the ceremony and reception on Long Island. What do you say? That’ll make it easy for Grandma and Grandpa Matheson.”
“Really? You wouldn’t mind, babe?”
“Nah. It’s gonna be mostly your family anyway.”
He leaned into my touch. “I’m glad your father is coming to the wedding.”
“I was sure Ma and Acacia would come, but it really surprised me when Poppa said he’d be there.” What he’d actually said was, “Of course I will be there, Teodore. But give you away, my son? This I will not do.” “I’ll fly them in.”
“Sounds good. Um…Do we want the little ones coming?”
“Your cousins’ kids? Your call, babe, but I don’t have a problem with them.” Not the Matheson ones, at any rate. They’d been cute and fun when I’d met them the year before, and although I’d never had the opportunity to interact with kids before, I’d enjoyed spending time with them.
“Okay. We’ll invite them and let their parents make the final decision.”
“We could always have the ceremony earlier in the afternoon if you like. This way they wouldn’t be all worn out and out of sorts. Or maybe we can find a reception hall that has a room where they can crash if they need a nap.”