Page 5 of Legend
“Little Gio!” one of them exclaimed loudly as he went over and grabbed Legend up into a big bear hug. “We missed you, ragazzo!”
Legend actually laughed as the large man nearly hugged the stuffings out of him. “Rocky!”
Rocky was so big and beefy that he made a very tall Legend look almost small. Finally, he set him down as he laughed heartily. “You okay there, kid?”
Now the other guy came up. “He ain’t no kid anymore, Rocky. You grew up, little Legend.”
Legend smiled and grabbed his hand to shake it. “You and Rocky haven’t changed a bit, Tito.”
Tito snorted. “We gained some pounds though. Sophia still makes the best lasagna in the USA.”
Legend chuckled. “You know it. Best I ever had.” He smiled and looked happy for the first time during this visit. “Not to mention her cannelloni, homemade pasta and her Alfredo.”
“Dang, young’n. You are making me hungry,” Rocky teased.
“Molto bello.” Tito nodded. “The best. When she found out we were coming here, she told me to give you a message.”
Legend slowly shook his head and said, “I can’t wait for this.”
“She said that you’d better come see her,” Tito told him. “If not, she will come looking for you.”
“Of course,” Rocky added with a nod of his head. “Tito and I were not going to argue that she hasn’t left the estate in more than a decade.”
Tito nodded. “Nah, we wouldn’t dare tell her that. She would rant about our being disrespectful. We’ve been chased out of the kitchen with her brandishing a rolling pin before, ya know.”
“Never mind that.” Rocky scoffed as he snickered. “The frying pan bit was much scarier.”
Tito agreed, “Bene, that woman can be a true fright.”
The two large men both laughed loudly again.
Legend actually chuckled now as his eyes sparkled with amusement.
I wondered about this. Legend hadn’t smiled or looked happy to see his father or brother. Yet, he seemed to really like these two men.
Justice looked over at me and mouthed,“You are much scarier.”He then gave me a grin.
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared back at him. I had chased most of my brothers around with various weapons at different times in our lives. Baseball bat, tennis racket and even one of my shoes. They all knew better than to go up against me.
“Let’s go inside,” Zed suggested. “We can sit down at a table, away from the main reception.”
“Reception?” Stephano asked.
“Yes, two of my brothers got married earlier today,” Justice told them. “Let’s go. We can talk about this over drinks.” He waved everyone inside as he walked ahead.
Now both big men turned to look at Stephano and Luca. Their expressions had changed from jubilant to serious as they stepped back and looked around. The transformation was quite startling as they again looked like two Italian thugs. Very dangerous and protective.
Luca looked back over at them as he laughed. “Bene, you two jokers are a pair. Now you are gonna act like you gotta job to do.”
The pair of guards who were Legend’s cousins kept stoic as they stood on either side of Stephano. They did not alter their expressions now.
Heading away, they all went up the steps.
I grabbed Legend’s hand before he could leave. “This is going to be really interesting.”
Legend shook his head. “Interesting? No, it’s gonna be a pain in the ass.”
I smiled at him. “You’ve got a lot of splainin to do, Ricky.”
