Page 79 of Love It or List It
The day left Austin buzzing with warmth in a way he hadn’t experienced since the death of his great-aunt.Joe’s family didn’t question Austin’s presence, just accepted that he was there and deserved to be treated with the same welcome and affection as anyone else in the house.
Austin found himself happily engaged in conversation with Joe’s uncle Luca for nearly an hour once he learned that Luca was the owner of the Ferrari Roma Spider in the driveway—Austin cried inside about him driving it in the snow—and Luca learned that Austin was a mechanic.They even tramped outside so Luca could show her off and Austin could drool over her engine.Austin might not have made his whole personality about cars, but he couldn’t resist the power of this engine or the classic lines of a Roma Spider’s body.
They probably would have stayed outside even longer if Joe hadn’t come out to drag them to the dinner table.
If Austin had thought the spread at their place was incredible, Nonna’s offerings overwhelmed him completely.He couldn’t identify half the dishes, but he tried every one of them anyway.Joe had obviously gotten his cooking abilities from Nonna, and he also obviously had a way to go to catch up to her, and when Austin voiced that thought out loud, Nonna beamed at him and cupped his cheek like Austin was one of her own grandchildren.
“You’re a nice boy,” she told him.“Not like that Paul.”She tutted and turned her attention to Joe.“Giuseppe, you keep this one around.”
Joe went scarlet as Younger Female Cousin Number Seven snickered.Austin got a slightly envious look from what’s-his-name’s pregnant girlfriend, who was apparently going to be persona non grata until either her particular Romeo Romano put a ring on it or the kid entered the world and became eligible to be showered in Nonna’s love.He couldn’t blame the girlfriend.
He couldn’t blame her baby daddy either.What kind of insanity would a wedding in this family even look like if Christmas was an event of several dozen people?He didn’t imagine Nonna would be satisfied with a small affair.
But it was too early to get anxiety about that.That would be putting the cart firmly before the horse.Austin had plenty of time to panic about nuptials later.
But he couldn’t help thinking about it as dinner ended and people dispersed to various regions of the house.There was a pool table downstairs, and ping-pong, and the youngest kids—children of Joe’s cousins—took over the TV room to play some kind of board game.Austin volunteered for kitchen cleanup with the mom-to-be, thinking maybe they could help each other out, but Uncle Marco—possibly her baby-granddaddy?—shushed her and sent her off to have a nap, saying he’d take her place.She did look exhausted, and she thanked them both profusely as she snuck off, presumably to one of the many guest bedrooms.
Cleanup promised to be a long, terrible job until Austin got a proper look at the kitchen and realized Nonna hadtwo dishwashers, which was the most over-the-top rich-person thing he could think of but for which he was immediately grateful.Plates and cutlery went in one, serving dishes in another, which left Austin and Marco just a football field length’s worth of pots and pans to hand-wash.
“How’d your man get out of this?”Marco teased as they started rolling up their sleeves.
“I think someone dragged him off to play pool,” Austin admitted.“But I don’t mind.Uh, I need a minute to decompress, really.”
“We are a lot,” Marco agreed.“I heard you’ve been fixing up the house?”
They chatted easily as they blasted through the dishes, first about renovations, then the Romano family construction business.“You let me know if you ever need anything.Tile, fixtures, whatever.Rich people arealwayschanging their minds after their shit gets ordered,” Marco said.
“Definitely let me know if anybody decides they don’t want their dishwasher,” Austin answered before he could help himself, and Marco cackled.
They got halfway through the mess before Maria and Uncle Luca came to spell them off, and Austin went downstairs to watch Joe finish wiping the pool table with Older Male Cousin Number Five.
It wasnice, Austin thought, this kind of wild, affectionate family affair, even if it was boisterous and overwhelming in a hundred different ways.But maybe his favorite thing about it was that dinner had been scheduled for three so everything could wrap up early to get the wee ones and their great-grandmother to bed at a decent hour.Uncle Luca saw everybody off at the door with a bottle of his homemade red wine—Austin caught Joe’s eye as he accepted theirs and felt heat lick up his spine—and then they were free, sent off into the night together.
For the first few minutes into the drive, they didn’t say anything.Austin used the time to recalibrate; he was half sure he’d been shouting all night to be heard and just hadn’t noticed.His ears hurt.
But once the noise in his head quieted, he started thinking instead—about the Ferrari in the driveway… and the Lexus, and the Land Rover, and Uncle Marco’s Escalade.Joe’s mom had a Cadillac too, but a car, not an SUV, several model years old.
Obviously, none of those uncles were driving their fancy sports cars to their job sites, except maybe Marco if he was picking up a crew, so those weren’t their daily drivers.But Joe just had his work truck, steady and reliable, no frills unless you counted the heated steering wheel and seats, which when Joe’s work sometimes included removing icy fallen trees, Austin did not.
“Hey, Joe,” Austin said without engaging his brain.
“Mm?”
“Are you the family poor kid?”
Joe barked a laugh.“God, probably.Why, you thinking about leaving me for Uncle Luca?The way he looked at you when you were talking about the Ferrari, I thought he might propose.”
Speaking of heated seats, Austin flipped his on and snuggled back against the headrest.“How dare you.You’ve seen the car I drive.My affections cannot be bought with money or automobiles.Only houses and house pets and asshole teenagers.”
He felt more than saw Joe’s eyes on him as they passed under a rare streetlight on a back country road.“Bullshit,” Joe said.“You’re also a slut for homemade dinners and red wine.”
God, Austin liked him so much it felt like he might burst with it.It was a heady feeling and a terrifying one.Austin had never had a boyfriend before, but he’d never had a family either—never had so much to lose if this went sour.
Please, please don’t let it go sour.
“Tell you a secret,” he said, a handful of tire rotations before they reached the driveway.
“Mm,” Joe said again.
