More childish murmurings. “Grandma just said ass!” More snickers.
“Ma’s right,” Simone said loudly. “I’m taking self-defense classes like Gwen and the next time one of you jackasses dig your stubby fingers between my ribs I’m kicking your ass!”
Several of the women agreed and Chris sensed an impending mutiny as his father came forward and gently slipped the wooden spoon from his wife’s hand. He looked down at Roberto. “You’ve been gunning for your brother all night. Hell, your whole life. Get up.”
Whimpering in pain and clutching his nuts with one hand and his chest with the other, Roberto complied, barely able to make eye contact.
Chris’s dad continued. “Gwen was our guest and you’ve embarrassed us. If you can’t be gentle with a woman, you don’t deserve one. You apologize to Gwen and then you apologize to your brother. That’s his girlfriend and you have no business putting your hands on her in any way.” Turning to Gwen, he said, “Gwen, I’m sorry. I’ve been wrong about a few things lately and you’ve helped set me straight.” He glanced at Chris and then peered at her like he was hoping for forgiveness which she gladly gave, hugging him, even though her face was still red from embarrassment.
His dad knocked Roberto in the back of the head and he turned to Gwen. Through his swollen lips he whispered, “I’m sorry, Gwen. It’ll never happen again. I promise.”
His mother started speaking in a rapid stream of Sicilian. Older family members looked shocked and some of them giggled but they all cleared a path for her.
“Is Grandma cussing in Italian?”
“Shush! I’m trying to listen!”
His mother returned to her kitchen where she promptly broke a plate.
Auntie Rosa wisely said, “There, that’ll make her feel better.”
Gwen rubbed her hand as the crowd dispersed and Chris lifted it to inspect her reddened knuckles. After kissing them he shook his head and said, “I warned them all.” He gestured with his thumb at Roberto who was stumbling back to the bathroom to inspect the damage. “Somehow I knew he would be the one who would disregard my warning.”
“I feel terrible but he scared the ever-living shit out of me.”
“I can imagine,” he murmured as he wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. “Don’t you dare feel bad for this. He had it coming for not listening.”
Angelo came up to them and grinned at Gwen. “Good going, little Rocky. I’m gonna check his nose. Dad said he was pretty sure it was broken.”
Gwen got a pained look in her eyes and nodded. “It’s definitely broken.”
Grannie came down the hallway and reached for Gwen so Chris released her and let her hug her. Gwen was average height for a woman and she towered over Grannie. “Angelina told me what that”—She went off into a nice long stream of indignant Sicilian that was intended for the asshole inspecting the damage done to his pretty face before she continued in English—“what he did to you. He got what he deserved. When my husband and I were newlyweds, he was a little overzealous in that way. Sometimes I was even sore from his tickling. He persisted no matter what I said.”
“What did you do?”
“I cooked calf liver, which I knew he didn’t care for, every day for a week. On the second night he complained, and each night after that. At the end of the week he begged me, ‘Why do you keep serving me liver every night when you know I don’t like it?’ and I said, ‘Ah-hah!’ He understood and he never tickled me hard like that ever again. He said he loved me and he just didn’t realize he was hurting me. That’s not to say he didn’t goose my bottom occasionally.” She shared a conspiratorial giggle with Gwen and they hugged once more. She continued down the hall where she had a few more choice words for Roberto and then she called him a “brute.”
Julián joined them as Chris grinned down at his woman and said, “Ready for ginger ale yet?”
“Well, the ‘ginger ale’ I don’t really need, but I am up for a little dancing at The Pony if you’re both still in the mood.”
“Hmm,” Julián said softly. “In the mood to have you pressed against us, dancing the night away—we’ll never not be in the mood for that, love.”
It took about an hour to kiss and hug and say good-bye to everyone. His sisters wanted to know what kind of self-defense technique Gwen had used and his mother wanted to make sure that Gwen was all right and not scared off by Roberto’s bad behavior.
Paolo got in a snide remark to Chris about him needing women to fight his battles for him and somehow wound up with his forehead smacked against one of the kitchen cabinets. He’d kept his mouth closed after that.