Ignoring the guffaws that erupted around us, I stared at him incredulously, then exclaimed, “Boundaries, Nicky! Behave—non fare lo spiritoso con me. Gabeesh?”

“I’m not getting smart wit’chu,” he laughed, speaking with his hands. “You’re my brother—your business is mine. Deal with it.”

I smacked him upside the head. “Scordatelo.” I told him to forget it. “You be good, or I’ll let Gideon know exactly how to make you heel.”

Nicky instantly backed up and showed his palms.

Gideon cleared his throat. “I’m all ears.”

“Soon as we get home,” I promised.

Christ. Fuckin’ animals around this place…

As I blew out a breath and got my shit together, it was just my luck to spot August and Camden in the kitchen window, both with matching grins.

Fuck my life.

Chapter 14

Feet, Don’t Fail Me Now

The biggest rush had to be watching the sea of people jumping up and down to the fast beat as a single unit.

Sylvia killed it on my Hammond, Nicky played and moved around like he was high on cocaine, and I slammed on the strings of my electric as Luiz raised the tempo.

Don’t slow me down.

Don’t fail me.

Luiz hit the snare hard right after I’d gotten out my bottleneck slide again, and then I took a step back from the mic and let my guitar wail in a solo.

I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised that everyone got along well that evening. There was someone for everyone, and the food and drinks put us in high spirits. Throughout the night, I saw little groupings of happy chatter. Camden and Nicky, Maria and Chris and August, Gideon and August, who were then joined by Sylvia and Luiz. No one sat in their seat for very long. With the food set up around the grill, we constantly had a reason to get up and stumble upon another conversation.

“You look happy, papi.” Maria joined Matt and me where we were having a smoke a few feet away from everyone.

I frowned. “You haven’t started smoking again, have you?”

She raised a manicured brow. “Don’t you think you’re the wrong person to get on a soapbox, huh?”

“No.” I stared at her and exhaled some smoke.

Matt snorted.

She rolled her eyes. “Please. I only came over to say you look happy.”

Oh. Well, good. I relaxed my stance. “It’s been a good week.”

She chuckled. “Come on, Anthony. That’s all you’re gonna say? We wanna know about August and Camden. They seem sweet. And August’s scopin’ you out as soon as you’re not nearby.”

I’d known this was coming. “I love you, Maria, but everyone knows you’re Nonna’s eyes and ears on the ground. I’m not giving you gossip.”