Friends & Forever (6 page)

A smile tugged her lips as she
wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning her head over to kiss him. "You
swear?"

"You know I do."

Laughing, Haven pushed away from him
when he set her back on her feet. She knelt down to tie Maura's shoes when
Vinnie ran over to his parents, tossing the ball to his father. "Dad,
Uncle Carmine's good at football! He throws much better than you."

Carmine grinned smugly as Dom's gaze
bounced toward him. He'd come to like kids because of their lack of filter.
Didn't matter what it was—they said whatever the fuck was on their mind,
propriety be damned.

"Yeah, well, your uncle used to
play when we were younger. He was starting quarterback for the high school
varsity team, almost got the chance to play in college."

"Why didn't he?" Vinnie's
attention shifted from his father straight to Carmine. "Why didn't you
play?"

"Shit happened."

Tess groaned. "Don't curse at my
son."

Carmine didn't even miss a beat as he
amended his statement. "Stuff happened."

"What stuff?" Vinnie asked,
eyes wide.

Carmine wished he could be honest,
but that was an ugly truth for a kid to hear. Vinnie still looked at everything
with bright eyes, like he believed the world was a beautiful place to be. And
while some of it was beautiful, Carmine knew there was a lot of fucking ugly
out there, absolutely appalling, the kind of ugly that bred nightmares. He
hadn't known about it at that age, either… had still believed in the
Happily-Ever-After Once-Upon-A-Time bullshit… and he didn't ever want to be the
one to take that away from anybody. He'd harmed enough people in his life.

"My throwing arm got
injured," Carmine said. It was a half-truth, at least. He had gotten shot
in his arm, making it unusable for a while. "By the time it got better,
well… I'd missed my chance."

Arms slipped around him from behind,
hands linking together over his stomach as Haven tilted her chin up and rested
it on his shoulder. He felt her lips gently press against his neck, a tingle
radiating along the skin. It was a kiss of understanding, a small peck of
gratitude. She knew the truth of why that dream went up in smoke.

Vinnie made a face, scrunching up his
nose as he tossed the ball into the air and caught it again. "That sucks."

Carmine laughed. "Yeah, I can
think of quite a few words to describe exactly how much it sucked."

"But he's not going to say those
words," Tess chimed in. "Is he?"

Carmine mock saluted her.

"So yeah," Dom said,
grasping his son by the shoulder and squeezing. "That's the reason he's
better than me at throwing, but there's a lot I'm better than your uncle at."

Carmine's brow furrowed, him and
Vinnie speaking at the same time, saying the same damn thing. "Like
what
?"

Dom glared at both of them.
"Like computers… and school. Your uncle was a terrible student. You
should've seen his grades."

"So you're a nerd," Carmine
said, waving him off. "Big deal."

Dom pointed at him. "It
is
a big deal."

Carmine looked away from his brother,
instantly meeting Vinnie's curious eyes. Carmine held his gaze for a moment
before turning his head and looking at his daughter, who always seemed to be
watching him.

Ah, right. Kids.

He still sometimes forgot the little
ones actually looked up to him.

Who ever thought
he
would be a
role model?

God help these fucking DeMarco kids.

"Right," Carmine said,
looking back at Dom. "Yeah, you're right. You got me there. That's
important, you know… going to school and studying and getting good grades and
reading and writing and algebra and graduating
suma
cuma
ladi
-
dadi
-da
or whatever. That shit matters."

Tess groaned, but Carmine just
shrugged.

Hell, he thought he did pretty good
there.

"Anyway," Dom said loudly,
rubbing his hands together as he looked around at all of them. "Time to
get this party started. Who's ready?"

"Oh, me! Me! Me!" Maura
yelled, forcing her parents apart as she ran between them, demanding her
mother's attention. "Let's go!"

"Yes," Haven said, her
voice tinged with just as excitement. "Let's go."

They all hurried out, as Carmine
trailed behind, grabbing Maura's little orange pumpkin-shaped bucket and
handing it off to
Haven
so he could lock up the house.
Trick or Treat
. It was Maura's first time going, which meant it was also
Haven's first time, a fact that Dom seemed determined to take full advantage
of.

"Come on, Twinkle Toes,"
Dom said, pushing his mask down over his face as he grabbed her arm, linking
his with hers and pulling her toward him. "We're making good on that
promise I made you years ago."

"What promise?" Haven asked,
startled.

"The promise to take you trick
or treating," Dom said. "Or well, what did you call them?
Treatsters
? Yeah, we're doing that."

"But, I thought… I mean…"
She looked to Carmine, panicked, but he merely smiled as he grabbed Maura's
hand. Realizing he wasn't going to interject, she turned to Tess, but Tess was
already being dragged away by an enthusiastic Vinnie. "But I don't have a
costume."

"You don't need one," Dom
said. "Trust me."

Haven didn't look certain, but
Carmine didn't have a chance to reassure her, because in the blink of an eye
Dom was dragging her across the street while Maura took off in the opposite
direction, staying on the sidewalk. Carmine ran after his daughter, shoving
past people. He gave her freedom to move, let her dictate where they went, but
he kept her at an arm's reach at all times. Dusk was approaching, and it would
be dark soon, porch lights on at a few of the houses on Felton Drive, but Maura
scampered right past them, too excited to be out there, surrounded by kids in
costumes, to give a shit about actually getting candy.

"Look, Daddy!" she
squealed. "It's a princess! Oh, it's a witch! Daddy,
daddy…
look
! It's a ninja!"

Carmine tried to look at everything
she pointed at, but she hardly gave him a chance to pause before she ran ahead
some more.

"Uh, you know the point of this
is to actually
trick or treat
, right? I did explain that shit to you,
didn't I?"

She didn't respond, forcing her way
past a slow group of people. Carmine squeezed around them, muttering
"excuse me," and expected his daughter to keep running ahead when she
abruptly turned, darting beside a black Mercedes in a driveway to approach a
house.

Oh, no.

Fuck
.

No.

"Maura, sweetheart, I don't
think…" He darted after her, but she was too damn quick, too lithe, for
him to stop. "I don't think this is a good a idea."

Maura ignored him, running up the
front steps, straight to the dark wooden door of the house, the porch light
very much unlit, the shades drawn. Someone was home, all right, but they sure
as fuck has no intention of participating in the festivities.

"Why don't we go to the house
next door," Carmine suggested, glancing over there. "They look like
they're giving out full-size candy bars."

But no, of course they wouldn't go
there.

That made too much sense.

He paused at the bottom of the front
steps, shoving his hands in his pockets, as Maura reached up on her tiptoes and
pressed the doorbell.

Again.

And
again.

And
again.

She assaulted the fucking thing, the
chimes so loud Carmine could hear them where he stood. It was only about thirty
seconds, that's it, before the door was yanked open, Corrado Moretti appearing.

He stood there, his expression hard,
like chiseled from stone, his dark eyes fixed straight at Carmine, while Maura
stood right in front of him,
still
pressing the goddamn doorbell.

His gaze shifted from Carmine's to
Maura on his porch. "I think that's quite enough."

Maura stopped pressing the button and
looked up at him, a smile lighting her face. None of the trepidation Carmine
felt radiated from the girl. She didn't fear Corrado a bit. As far as she was
concerned, the man was just family, his cold persona not putting her off at
all.

"Tricky treat!" she
declared.

Corrado blinked a few times,
regarding her seriously. "Tricky treat?"

Carmine cleared his throat.
"Trick or treat."

Corrado looked over at Carmine when
he spoke, raising his eyebrows, before he looked back down at the girl.
"Trick or treat?"

She nodded enthusiastically.
"Tricky treat!"

Corrado just stared at the girl, his
gaze so intense Carmine could see her start to fidget. Not from discomfort, no…
from boredom. Neither of them seemed to know what to do. It was Maura's first
time trick or treating, and Carmine had a sneaking suspicious his uncle had
never done this before, either. Corrado just wanted the girl to go away, but
all Maura knew was she was supposed to get
something
.

Carmine was about to interject, to
suggest yet again to Maura they go elsewhere, when Corrado looked up again.
There, in his eyes, Carmine saw something startling, something he had only ever
seen from his uncle once before. Panic. The last time had left Carmine's world
in shambles, but this? Oh, this was going to be fun…

Maura's boredom won out at that
moment as she reached for the doorbell again, pressing the button. The chime
rang out, garnering Corrado's attention. He turned back to her as Carmine
smirked. He was going to enjoy this way too much.

Corrado reached for the girl's hand,
gently grasping it and pulling it away from the doorbell before she could press
it again.

"Trick or treat," he said
again as he let go of her hand. "What are you supposed to be?"

"A princess."

He eyed her dirty, ripped dress, the
only sign of costume she wore anymore. "What kind of princess?"

"A princess of pizza!"

Corrado's brow furrowed at her
response.

"She means a
principessa
,"
Carmine said. "She's just a princess, with the dress, and uh… she had a
tiara and whatever, but it went missing."

"It's never good when a princess
loses her crown," Corrado said. "So I suppose you expect a treat, or
was the incessant ringing of my doorbell you subjecting me to a trick in
advance?"

Maura obviously had no idea what the
hell he said to her and chose to just smile and nod, not waiting for an
invitation inside. Before Corrado could respond, she slipped past him, walking
on into his house on her own. Corrado watched her incredulously, before turning
to Carmine as he stepped up onto the porch. The man said nothing, but his
expression spoke volumes.

Carmine nodded at his uncle,
restraining his amused smile, as he followed his daughter into the house.
Corrado followed, shutting the front door behind them, and strode straight past
as he headed for the kitchen. Maura eagerly trailed him as Carmine lingered in
the doorway, leaning against the doorframe, his hands still in his pockets.

"Celia is at the grocery store
right now, but we should have something around here," Corrado said,
opening up a cabinet to look inside. "What sort of treat are you
expecting?"

"Candy."

"I'm not sure we have
candy."

"Why not?"

"Because we don't eat it,"
Corrado said, closing that cabinet and moving on to the next. He pushed some
things aside, pulling out a can of fruit and setting it on the counter.
"Peaches."

"That's not a treat!"

"They're sweet." Corrado
looked at Maura, her expression no-nonsense, before he turned to his pantry.
"Cheerios, then."

He pulled out the box of cereal,
setting it on the counter beside the can of peaches, and glanced at Maura again.
He didn't wait for her response. Her expression was a big fat
hell no
.

"Raisins," Corrado said,
pulling out a small box of sun maid raisins and holding them out to Maura.
"There you go."

She took the box from him and stared
at it in horror.

It went on for a few minutes, the
counter covered in shit Corrado dug out of the cabinets and found in the
refrigerator: more fruit, vegetables, even a jug of orange juice. Maura just
stared at him, no longer humoring him with a response, her nose perpetually
scrunched with disgust, as the man grew more frazzled.

Giving up, Corrado reached into his
back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Carmine watched with shock as he opened
it. "Twenty. Is twenty good?"

He pulled out a twenty-dollar bill
and held it out to Maura, who eagerly dropped the box of raisins to snatch up
the money. Relief seemed to pass across Corrado's face until the front door
opened, Celia's voice shouting out. "Corrado,
bellissimo
, can you
help me with these groceries?"