In the limo, he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. The smack-down was pointless. Dante knew his brother would run straight to Pop and whine about mistreatment. What felt good in the moment would just come back and bite him in the butt. His only hope was to get to his father before Cappi did, a matter of who could tattle first. Absurd for a man his age. He put the incident out of his mind. He had other issues to worry about.
He’d had lunch with his sister Talia that day and he’d broached the subject of Lola. “I’ve been thinking I’d ask her to marry me.”
“Well, that’s a cheery prospect.”
“I can do without the sarcasm. I’m telling you because you’re one of the few people I trust.”
“Sorry. I thought you were joking.”
“I’m not. We’ve been talking about it and it’s not such a bad idea.”
“I don’t get it. It’s been eight years. Why marry her now?”
“She wants a kid.”
“She wants a child?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Talia laughed.
Dante closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Don’t do this. Don’t turn this into a fight. Say what you want. That’s why I brought it up. Just don’t be a bitch about it.”
“Fine. You’re right. Let me take a deep breath and we’ll start again. Nothing accusatory. I’ll ask questions, okay?”
“Fine.”
“How’s she going to handle a pregnancy?”
“Like every other woman, I guess.”
“Not like other women. She’s a head case. I don’t mean this as criticism. I’m stating a fact. She’s obsessed with her body and nutty about her weight. That’s why she smokes. To keep the pounds off.”
“She says she’ll quit. She’s also cut back on alcohol. Glass of wine a day and that’s it.”
“Because she’s worried about the calories, which is why she does drugs.”
“She doesn’t do drugs. Would you listen to yourself? She’s dead set against drugs.”
“Except for appetite suppressants. Have you looked at her lately? She’s skeletal. She has an eating disorder.”
“She had an eating disorder, but that’s done. She saw Dr. Friedken for a year and she’s fine.”
“He’s not ‘doctor’ anything. He’s not even a licensed clinical psychologist. He’s a psychic nutritionist. A quack.”
“He helped her. She’s better. She eats like a normal person.”
“And then goes in the bathroom and sticks a finger down her throat. Pregnant women get fat. It’s a fact of life. She’ll go off the deep end.”
“Not all pregnant women get fat. You didn’t.”
“I gained forty pounds!” Talia reached out and gripped his hand. “Dante, you know I love you more than life itself, so please let me speak from the heart. Lola’s a narcissist. She’s moody and insecure. All she thinks about is herself. How could she possibly make room for a child?”
They changed the subject at that point since neither of them trusted themselves to go on. The question she’d posed was a bothersome one that he was still pondering.
He caught his father after dinner when he was sitting out on the verandah, smoking a cigar. Dante had always associated the smell of cigar smoke with Pop. There was a time when Lorenzo Senior had smoked in the house. He considered this his due. The living room drapes and the upholstered furniture had been saturated with smoke, the ceiling pale gold with nicotine, windows clouded with the residue. When Dante moved his father into the big house, he insisted Pop confine his smoking to one of the outdoor patios.
The old man was eighty-three and far less imposing than he’d been in the days when Dante was routinely pounded to a pulp. The punches and kicks were meant to keep him in line, or so his father said. Now he couldn’t get over how small his father was, like a miniature adult, his cheeks lined and sunken, his nose and ears out of proportion to the size of his face. His hairline had receded in the shape of a heart, a V of gray in the middle of his forehead with a balding arc on either side.
Dante sat down facing him. “You heard about Audrey?”
“I hope you’re not here to complain.”
“Matter of fact, I am. I can’t have Cappi pulling shit like that.”
“Hey, bub. You were gone. He came to me with a problem. His solution made sense. He knew you’d never go for it. You’re too busy playing boss man and pissing on his shoes. Besides which you’re off on some mountain and no one could get hold of you.”
“They have phone service in Canada. You could have called anytime.”
“Says you. Someone had to step up to the plate.”
“Pop, I’ve known Audrey years. She wouldn’t have turned on us. I can guarantee.”
“That’s not what Cappi heard. Word on the grapevine, she was rolling over on us. I told him to take care of it.”
Pop and Cappi had used the same phrase, “rolling over on us.” Dante wasn’t sure who’d come up with it first. “I don’t get where you’re coming from. You tell him to take care of it and he goes out and whacks a valuable employee. That doesn’t seem right. Does it seem right to you?”
“That might have been a bad call. I won’t argue the point. You delegate responsibility, you can’t come along after and second-guess what went down.”
“I didn’t delegate anything. You did that. I can’t have you undermining my authority.”
“What authority? Anything you have, I gave you.”
“That’s right. I run the operation. He doesn’t know the first thing about business.”
“So you teach him.”
“I’ve tried! He has the attention span of a gnat.”
“He says you’re condescending. He says you belittle him.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Don’t argue the point with me. I’m just telling you what he says.”
“And I’m telling you, he’s not cut out for this. I promote from within the company based on merit and seniority. He’s sitting on a felony conviction. How does that look?”
“You’ve been accused of a thing or two yourself.”
“All the more reason to keep the lid on.”
“You’re the strong one. You’ve had all the advantages. Your brother wasn’t as lucky.”
Dante tried to bite back his response. Anytime his father was losing an argument, he shifted to this old saw. Dante couldn’t help himself this time. He said, “He wasn’t as lucky about what?”
“Your mother ran off and left him.”
“Jesus. You know what? She ran off and left me too. I don’t see you cutting me any slack. Just the opposite. I gotta carry Cappi on my back whether I like it or not.”
“Now that’s the kind of selfish attitude I’m talking about. He can’t help what happened to him. He was a little kid. What she did crushed his spirit. He’s never gotten over it. So he’s touchy, you know, because she ripped his heart out. He’s had a tough row to hoe, which you were spared.”
“I was spared? News to me. How so?”
“You never said a word about her. Name one question you ever came to me with after she walked out. Every day Cappi asked for her and every day he bawled his eyes out. You never shed a tear.”
“Because you told me to buck up.”
“That’s right. Twelve years old, it’s time to get a grip. You knew when she left, it had nothing to do with you. Cappi was four and what’s he supposed to think? One minute she’s there, the next minute she’s gone. He’s never been the same.”
“I have four sisters who turned out all right. How come they’re okay but not him? And what about me?”
“Even then, you knew better. Women are like that. About the time you think you can count on ’em, they take off without a word. She didn’t even leave a note.”
“So Cappi’s a loser and everything goes back to that? He gets a free ride off that one event? I should be so lucky.”