Gregory
The meeting with my mother goes surprisingly well. Allison’s intimidated and quiet at first, but Mother draws her out, and they end up chatting for a couple of hours. When it’s over, as a condition of her acceptance and blessing, Mother makes me promise to do one horrible thing: have dinner with my brothers and their wives.
Which is how I end up sitting at the bar of a Callahan-owned restaurant in the center of Boston’s historic Beacon Hill, flanked by Finn and Nolan.
“Going to be honest with you, Gregory. I never imagined you’d get married.” Finn salutes me with his glass of whiskey. “Out of the four of us, I assumed you’d be a bachelor for life.”
“He’s right about that,” Nolan agrees.
It’s only the three of us. Carson claimed he was too busy, which I assume really means he’s pissed at me for getting the family involved in a war on the other side of the continent. Oh, well.
“My relationship with Allison is only a business expedience,” I say, not ashamed of that fact.
Finn and Nolan exchange a look. “Yeah, right, sure bro,” Nolan says, trying not to smile. “Just business.”
“That’s what we all say at first.” Finn sighs, glancing back at the table behind us. His wife, Dara’s sitting with Nolan’s wife, Keely, and Allison, all three women dressed in designer clothes and sipping expensive wine. I’m impressed how quickly Allison acclimated to having unlimited money, though she was never exactly poor.
“If the two of you are implying that what happened to you will happen to me-” I give them a flat stare. “Disabuse yourselves of that notion.”
“It’s funny,” Finn muses, staring at his whiskey as he rolls the ice against the glass. “We always think we’re too busy for love. Too hardened against it.”
“Then love comes and fucking batters you over the head with a sledgehammer.” Nolan mimes smashing something. “Then boom, you’re married, you got kids-”
“I’m not interested in children,” I say, barely managing my temper.
Again, my brothers share a look. “Kids are great,” Nolan says.
“Helps when you have money and unlimited nannies,” Finn adds. He has two: a four-year-old girl named Chloe and a two-year-old boy named Patrick.
Nolan has only one, a little boy named Cillian, though I hear there’s talk of him expanding his little brood.
The idea of reproducing isn’t repulsive in itself. I understand how important making children is to growing the Callahan organization and cementing our control over the East Coast underworld for generations to come. Only, the thought of myself as a father is terrifying.
I’m not an emotional man. I know my reputation-hardened Gregory, strange Gregory. They think I’m a robot running around following my programming to further the interests of the family above everything else. I do things my way, but I never get attached, not to friends or to women.
Children could change that.
No, I’m not so naive; I know children would change that.
I’d love my kids, whether I wanted to or not.
And that’s a risk I don’t want to take.
Though the more I watch Allison laughing with Dara and Keely, the more I’m impressed by her. I keep thinking about our night together, about that sweaty, beautiful sex we had, fucking like we’d never fucked before, grinding and moaning, getting her off over and over, leaving her sore and wanting more in the morning. That was more than business. I can’t pretend as though getting her off does anything but complication our arrangement.
And yet I’m already thinking about doing it again.
“Look, Gregory, we believe you when you say this thing with Allison is purely business. Obviously, we both understand how marriages and business can align in our world.” Nolan clears his throat, leaning closer. “But I’ve known you my whole life, and I’ve never seen you look at a woman the way you look at her.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “And how’s that?”
“Like you actually give a shit about another human behind for the first time in your life.” He lets out a startled laugh. “My god, it’s unthinkable. Gregory Callahan, caring about a person.”
“The girl’s worthwhile, that’s all.” I grind my jaw, glaring at my brothers. If my mother hadn’t all but forced this little social outing down my throat, there’s no way I’d be putting up with this garbage right now. I have plans to make, contacts to tap, soldiers to gather. I don’t need to hear my brothers talk about emotions as if their pathetic love means anything.
Except I look over my shoulder again, and this time Allison’s looking back. She tilts her head, her thick hair falling over one shoulder, and she smiles at me.
It’s simple, a nothing gesture. She probably doesn’t even realize she’s doing it.
But it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
She sparkles. She somehow glows like the room was built with her as its lighting. Everything around me fades, and there’s only Allison, her white teeth, her startling eyes, and that laugh of hers.
Everything about her, drawing me in closer.
“Come on, let’s rejoin the girls before they start talking too much shit,” Finn says with a groan as he gets up from his stool. “If you’re not careful, Keely and Dara are going to scare Allison away.”
“Nothing is going to scare that girl,” I say. “She’s got too much invested in what we do next.”
Finn’s jovial smile fades away and I sit back down in my chair beside Allison. The girls keep on chatting away about family politics, about all the different captains and lieutenants, while Allison mostly smiles and nods politely. Keely drives the conversation while Dara adds the color. Finn and Nolan both get involved, adding their own opinions to the mix, while I stay silent.