Chapter 6 Nonna is Pissed

One month later...

Nico

My parents had decided to take a trip to Italy to celebrate their anniversary. They had originally planned to stay for a week. I surprised them with a one-month tour of Europe instead. They were thrilled. Allie had helped me with finalizing the travel and hotel accommodations in the various cities. She had returned to work a week after the funeral, insisting she needed to stay busy. It was good to have her back. It would be even better when she felt like smiling again. I've missed seeing it.

Rather than having a large party, my folks requested a simple affair, so Becca rented out the private room at their favorite restaurant to host it. Aside from the guests of honor and Becca's new boyfriend, there were several aunts and uncles, cousins, Matt, and his parents - he grew up next door to me and our parents were best friends - and my seventy-seven-year-old grandmother, Sofia Peretti.

Nonna was born in a small village outside Rome and emigrated to America as a twenty-year-old newlywed. Nonno had died when I was a freshman in high school, but I was fairly sure Nonna was planning to outlive us all.

As the party started winding down, Mom and Nonna launched a carefully coordinated attack for which I was completely unprepared. It started off innocently enough, as I helped them gather the gifts and cards, along with the decorations and centerpieces Mom insisted on keeping for some reason.

"I really like Becca's new young man, Angela. He's handsome, and so polite. Lovely manners. He comes from good people, you can tell," Nonna declared, directing her words to my mother at a volume guaranteed to carry to where I was standing at a nearby table.

Mom quickly agreed, "Yes, they make such a cute couple. Becca is crazy about him. Nick even gave his seal of approval, and you know how protective he is of his little girl!"

I kind of tuned them out as they continued chatting about Becca and Ben while I wrapped and boxed the flowery candle whatevers. I had no idea what Mom was planning to with all of them. Ben seemed like a nice enough guy. He was attentive to Becca and didn't go all fangirl when he met Matt and me. That was a big plus in my book.

"— think there will be wedding bells in the near future? I'm getting old, I need some great-grandchildren soon before I forget how to bounce them on my knee!" I heard Nonna grumble.

Wait...what? Oh shit. Fuck! I should have been paying attention. Walk away now before they start in on -

"So, Nico," Nonna began, trying and failing to sound innocent, "Is there anyone special in your life?"

Fucking hell...too late. Well played, ladies. I hung my head briefly in silent acceptance of my fate. "No, Nonna, I haven't found anyone who can compare to you yet." I hoped my blatant pandering would distract her and get me out of the hot seat.

"Oh, bullshit! Don't you dare try that crap on me, Dominic Giovanni Peretti. I'm not going to fall for it," Nonna scolded me, shaking her finger in my face so there was no mistaking how pissed off she was with my attempt at derailing their line of questioning. Since she was barely 5' tall to my 6'3", I was sure it would be pretty funny to anyone not being interrogated about potential offspring. And she used my full name. I was so fucked.

Fun fact, I was named after my dad, who was named after his dad. Nonno was actually Dominico, who dropped the 'o" to Americanize his name a little when he moved to the U.S. He always went by Dom, so it didn't really matter anyway. Dad is known as Nick to everyone, and I ended up being called Nico, to avoid confusion. If I ever have a son, I think I'll repeat the cycle and call him Dominic. It would make Nonna happy.

"You're almost thirty. Don't you think it's time to start settling down, son? I hate to think of you spending your life alone. You would make some woman incredibly lucky to --"

"Mom," I interrupted quickly, "First of all, I'm not quite twenty-nine, so let's ease up on the almost-thirty bit, OK? Secondly, I'm happy with my life right now. Yes, I do want to settle down eventually. I want what you and Dad have, someday, but I'm content to wait for the right woman."I had a fleeting thought that my non-existent future wife would be someone like Allie.

"But don't worry," I continued, flashing her a wicked smirk, "I'm busy enjoying spending time with the wrong women while I wait for Ms. Right to come along." I think it was the waggle of my brows accompanying my cocky statement that pushed Mom and Nonna a bit too far.

I jumped out of the way with an embarrassingly girly squeal as both women raised their hands to smack me upside the head. Dad, who had walked up behind me and snickered as he had overheard my little speech, was not so lucky. Both women turned on him, and he ducked for cover to no avail.

"Hey," Dad yelped indignantly, "what did I do?"

"He's your son!", Mom said snippily, as if that were reason enough.

Nonna stomped off, muttering in Italian under her breath. I could only make out the word "stronzo", which I was pretty sure meant "asshole" if I remembered my Italian correctly. Mom couldn't seem to decide if she wanted to glare at me or Dad, so she settled for glaring at us both.

I went to find Becca, who had gone to take care of the billing details with the restaurant manager. "What did you do now?", she asked with a smirk and a raised brow. "I just passed Nonna in the hall, and she is pissed!"

I dropped my head and grabbed the back of my neck with both hands. "Shit! She and Mom ambushed me about settling down and giving them grandkids. It all went downhill from there. Mom implied I was old, Nonna shook her finger in my face, they both smacked Dad, and Nonna cussed me out," I summarized for her, ending in a deep sigh.

Becca gaped at me. "Wow. Wait, why did they smack Dad?" she asked in confusion.

"Because I'm his son. Apparently, that was reason enough." Becca just shook her head and laughed.

She and I walked back into the private room to finish packing up the last of the centerpieces and party shit and carried it all out to Dad's car. Thankfully, he had managed to calm Mom and Nonna down. I saw them all smiling, sitting at the bar as we passed by on our way to the parking lot. I was quite sure the large glasses of wine the ladies were holding helped.

As we walked back inside, Becca asked how Allie was doing since she had started back to work.

"She's OK, I think it helps keep her mind off things," I said. "She's been busy helping Michael wrap up the last-minute details for the new tour. The bulk of the arrangements are up to the Tour Manager, but Michael still has a lot on his plate with all the contracts and shit."

"You leave in three months, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, and we'll be on the road for six months, for this leg of the tour anyway. Then, we'll have a break for two months, and then go overseas for three months after that."

"Will you be home much at all for the first six months?" she asked, concerned.

I smirked, "Why, are you going to miss me?"

"Jackass," she snipped back. "I was actually thinking of Allie. You guys have all really stepped up for her over the past few months, I hate to think of her being left alone while you're gone."

I pulled Becca in for a hug. "You have a good heart, you know that?" I asked softly. "This won't be as bad as the clusterfuck of a schedule we had on the last tour. We had more input on this schedule and were able to add some extra days in between shows. We even managed to fit in a couple of week-long breaks, so we'll all be back often to check on her," I explained.

"We aren't hitting quite as many cities. The record label wasn't thrilled with it, but we insisted on it. We've busted our asses for them and made them a fuck-ton of money in the process. We've earned the right to slow it down a little, and they finally agreed."

Before leaving the restaurant, I stopped by the bar to tell my family goodbye. Dad and I gave each other the typical one-armed guy hug - one arm around the back with the other arm thumping the shoulder. I then put my arms around Mom and pulled her close, kissing her on the cheek. "I'm sorry, Mom. I didn't mean to upset you. I'll think about what you said, I promise."

"Thank you, and I'm sorry, too. I just worry about you. Having children brings me such joy, usually, " she said pointedly, "and I don't want you to miss out on having a family of your own."

I laughed softly at her need to get one last little dig in at me. "I know, and I love you." I said with one last kiss to her cheek.

I turned to my Nonna, who was sitting at the bar giving me the stink eye. I leaned down to wrap her in my arms, pulling her up from the stool as I straightened. "I'm sorry, old woman," I said with a smile, kissing the top of her head and giving her a squeeze.

She arched an eyebrow as she reached up and patted my cheek a little harder than was really necessary. "You will be if you piss me off again. I'm from Italy, remember? I know people," she said, in her best Tony Soprano voice.

"Merda!" I said, using the Italian word for 'shit'. For some reason, curse words made up most of my knowledge of the language. I leaned back to look at her face, and saw a reluctant smile pass her across her lips.

"You're a good boy, even if you do need a good smack upside your head now and then."

"Ti amo, Nonna."

"I love you, too, stronzo."