A Restored Man (15 page)

"There you go again, your mind is wandering," Ty said, snapping Cole back to the present.

"Sorry," Cole said. "You could come to the party if you want," he added quietly.

"Your mom's party?" Ty asked.

Cole nodded. "Renzo family things are like block parties. She said I could invite friends." He didn't really want to categorize Ty as a 'friend' but he was pretty sure his mother hadn't planned on Cole extending the invitation to
his-boss-who-he-wanted-naked-and-writhing-under-him.

But that was a minor detail.

"I've got a few appointments tomorrow," Ty said.

Cole pursed his lips and nodded.

"But if I finish early, I'll try to stop by," he added.

Cole looked up. The tension in his body eased slightly with Ty's half smile. "Aidan's going, so he'll know where it is."

Ty lowered his brow. "Aidan's going?"

A chuckle escaped. "Um, yeah. I'm pretty sure. Long story."

Ty leaned over the car door, nearing Cole with a smile. "Now you've piqued my interest."

"And here I thought I had all your interest."

Ty's cheeks heated. "Let's get these cars wrapped up so we can work on the Yenko for a bit," he said, then turned away, casually glancing over his shoulder with a grin.

His boss sure knew how to draw his focus. Once he got through the stress of the Renzo family reunion, he'd work on moving things along with Ty.

He had to or he'd need a doctor soon for his blue balls.

Cole looked at himself in the mirror and fidgeted with the sleeves of his henley shirt, pulling them up to his elbows. He thought about wearing a buttoned-down dress shirt but the Miami heat would make him sweat in no time flat and totally ruin any attempt at looking presentable. Instead, he decided on the olive green shirt that always seemed to make his one hazel eye appear greener in color like those of the rest of the Renzo family.

He raised the edge of the loose, dark-green-almost-black beanie so it sat along his hairline and pulled the sides lower, tucking his ears under the edge of the fabric.

"Why don't you go without the beanie today?" Julian asked, coming up behind him.

Cole shook his head and flattened the edge of the cap. "My mom knit this one. So I want to wear it." He grabbed the hem of his shirt to tuck into his jeans, then changed his mind and left it out. He turned to face Julian. "You look good."

"A white dress shirt and black slacks. Even I can't fuck that up," Julian said with a shrug. "Matt thought it best to not do the black on black for today."

Cole nodded.

Julian scowled. "You're too quiet."

Cole shrugged. He walked into the room and sat at the edge of the bed to put on his boots. He hated this—hated not knowing what to expect. He always had a strategy. Here, he was walking in blind and it was driving him crazy. He was constantly pushing himself, not for the sake of improving himself and becoming a better man, but simply to try and fit in with his other siblings—like trying to fit a square into a circle slot. The effort was exhausting and the differences more obvious with each passing year. They shared similarities in personality, but that was just a result of the Renzo gene pool. Accepting that was difficult. Family was important and he struggled with the thought of growing apart from them.

"How long do you want to be there?" Julian asked, breaking the silence.

Cole shrugged again. He didn't care. The guilt of Marco's death weighed heavily on him just as much as the heartbreak his mother suffered after his arrest. He had ripped her apart not once, but twice. All that mattered was giving his mom a few moments of joy. Maybe that would ease the guilt that burned within. He hoped taking Julian, along with his whole Marco-like package, would give her a few moments of peace and bring a smile to her face. He knew it was a stupid idea, but being around Julian settled him a bit about his brother's passing. He couldn't explain so he just went with it.

"Cole?"

Cole pulled down the edge of his jeans above his boots and stood. "Yeah?"

"You give me some sign or something when you're ready to go and we'll bail. Got it?"

"Are you sure Matt can't come?"

Julian sighed. "He's not sure. He's waiting to hear from Sam in a little bit. If he can make it, he will."

"Sam could come too if he wants," he said quietly, tugging on the neckline of his shirt.

"Jessie said he'd meet us there and Matt already dropped a hint of that when Aidan stopped by earlier. Did you ask Ty to come?" Julian asked.

Cole rubbed the palms of his hands on his thighs. "He's got some appointments or something. He said he'd try to make it if he finished early. I mentioned Aidan would probably be there so he might swing by," he said with a shrug. "I'm not sure I want him to be there and seeing me like this." He was torn. He wanted to have Ty there with him. Somehow, he knew he'd be able to get through it if he were around.

Julian rubbed Cole's back. "It'll be fine. If I need to get all protective and fight off a family mob, you just let me know. Okay?"

A smile tugged at the corner of Cole's mouth. "Thanks."

"Hey, that's what big brothers are for," Julian said with a half smile.

"I swear. You make me lose it and I'll throw you down the stairs."

Julian chuckled and grabbed Cole by the back of the neck. "C'mon, let's go."

They circled for a place to park, passing lines of cars stopped along the side of the road. Cole's stomach tightened as they neared his mom's house. He craned his neck to steal a glance when they drove past the cul-de-sac. The entire area was set up like a huge courtyard to accommodate the entire family—one of the benefits of having neighbors who were also Renzos. He saw children being playfully chased by adults and an area set up for the kids with some type of clown entertainment station to keep them busy.

"What the hell," Julian said as he squeezed into a parking spot at the side of the road and looked out his truck's windshield at the crowd of people.

"I told you it'd be a lot of people." Cole sat still, not wanting to exit the safety of the truck.

"
A lot of people
is one thing. A small town is an entirely different story," Julian said in awe. "Are all these people family?"

Cole nodded and picked at a string on his pants. "It's a big family. I have like sixteen aunts and uncles and they all have kids and so on and so on. Apparently, we Renzos breed like bunnies. I don't remember all their names but I know their faces. Some I see only at the big family gatherings." He shrugged. "Well, before I went in. So I haven't seen most of these people in three years or more."

"You okay?" Julian asked, shifting his focus to Cole.

Cole shrugged again, not wanting to admit how badly he wanted to throw up his breakfast.

"Remember, you just give me a sign or something. Okay?" Julian said, reaching over and grabbing the back of Cole's neck.

Cole nodded.

"C'mon," Julian said, exiting the truck.

Cole met up with him and walked along the street, passing by a few running children with balloons in their hands. He tugged on his beanie, making sure it was securely in place.

Julian slapped Cole in the back of the head. "Stop fidgeting, you're making
me
nervous. It'll be fine."

Cole straightened his beanie and scowled. For some reason, his boots felt heavier today than usual. He felt the strain with each step but stopped when he heard a small voice call him from off to the side.

"
Tio
Nico," the little girl's voice called. They stopped walking and turned to find the girl who had spoken. She stared, unmoving, one arm hanging loosely at her side while the other held a balloon.

Cole's breath hitched and his throat tightened when he saw his nine-year-old niece standing there, staring at him.
Maggie
. A spitting image of photos he had seen of his older sister, Carmen, at that same age. Her hair, a deep dark brown, contrasted with her fair skin and clear green eyes.

"
Tio
?" she said again, her eyebrows arching upward and her lip trembling as if she were ready to cry.

He couldn't speak, he couldn't move. He didn't know what she had been told about his absence. He finally nodded, unsure of how she would react seeing her uncle after almost three years.

In a flash, she released the balloon and headed toward Cole at a dead run. Cole reached for her just as she jumped up and wrapped her thin arms around his neck and held on tight. "I missed you," she whispered by his ear.

Cole screwed his eyes shut and held her close, trying to hold back the tears while Maggie's tears streamed freely down her face and wet his cheek. She didn't reject him, didn't fear him, didn't hate him. Instead, she squeezed him tighter than he thought those thin arms could bear. In that moment, he felt like the most incredible superhero to ever be created. "I missed you too,
Pulga
."

Maggie giggled. "You remember," she said.

Cole fought the tightness in his throat. How could he forget his niece's nickname? Always smaller than other children her age—a curse of the females in the Renzo clan—she had easily garnered the 'flea' nickname from the family. "Of course I do," he said.

She backed off enough to cup her uncle's face and wiped the wetness of her tears from his cheek. "Are you real?"

Cole cocked his head and smiled. "Of course I'm real."

Maggie neared again and whispered, "Then why do I see a ghost with you?"

Cole's brow furrowed. He brushed his niece's cheek. "What do you mean,
Pulga
?"

"I see
Tio
Marco," she said, looking over her shoulder at Julian.

Cole couldn't help the laugh that bubbled to the surface when he saw the scowl on Julian's face. Okay, so maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

Maggie reached out and poked Julian in the arm.

"Ow," he said conversationally.

Maggie giggled again. "You're not Marco. You don't smile."

Cole chuckled. "He does," he said, then whispered in her ear, "but it takes a while."

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Not a Ghost or
Tio
Marco."

Julian rolled his eyes, obviously playing up to the young girl.

Cole hugged Maggie closer. "His name is Julian." He smiled and whispered something in Maggie's ear. Julian squinted, probably guessing whatever was being said wasn't going to be in his favor.

Maggie nodded then turned to Julian. "It's nice to meet you, J," she said with a devilish grin.

Julian aimed a piercing glare at Cole that reminded him of the times when he had first moved into the halfway house. But who was he kidding, he was too happy right now to care. He felt like the king of the world.

She reached out to Julian and wrapped her arms around his neck.

If Cole hadn't seen it with his own two eyes, he would never have believed the transition in the man. Julian's features relaxed and a smile beamed from his expression like a spotlight. Oh yeah, Maggie was going to have him wrapped around her finger. Just as she always did with everyone she met.

"
Pulga
!" Cole heard yelled around the corner. He'd know his sister's voice anywhere.

Carmen turned the corner and stilled when her eyes met with Cole's. "Oh my God," she said and mirrored her daughter's earlier dead run sprint toward him. He easily caught her petite frame and spun her when she jumped into his arms. "
Mami
said you were going to be here so we've all been waiting for you," she whispered in his ear.

Cole pulled away slightly. Carmen, the doctor in the family, had a bedside manner that frightened most patients at first. But the signature Renzo brutal honesty and unrelenting determination endeared her to her patients after the initial shock wore off. "Everyone?" he asked nervously.

Carmen hesitated.

"Rio?" he asked, knowing his brother Demetrio would be the most stubborn of the group—the unfortunate Renzo trait his brother held more firmly than the others.

Carmen nodded. "You know how he is."

He
did
know how stubborn his brother was. Rio had chewed him out after the arrest—how could he shame the family in such a way, how could he hurt
Mami
that way so soon after Marco had been ripped from the family. And in typical Renzo fashion, Rio didn't bother disguising how he felt about something. He was the only sibling who had refused to visit Cole in prison. The night he was arrested was bad, but the day Marco died was even worse. He didn't want to remember all the horrible things his brother had said.

"He still hates me?"

"He doesn't hate you." Carmen sighed. "It's not always easy being the middle child. You know he can be a bit dramatic and needs the extra attention." She stroked Cole's cheek and smiled fondly. "You look happy. I'm glad to see prison didn't take that from you."

Cole stilled and looked over to Maggie.

Carmen waved her hand quickly. "Don't worry. She knows. You know we don't lie about things," she said. "Prison is a place where people who make mistakes sometimes go." She looked over her shoulder and smiled at Maggie. "So how about you tell me who this man is who looks freakishly like Marco."