Together Again(35)
“Hey,” he said, “what am I, chopped liver?”
“Tone, we see you all the time. We only see Margo at weddings,” Theresa said. “Deal with it.”
Two of the Alessandro daughters had been Margo’s childhood playmates — ringleader Catherine, two years older than Margo and Tony, and best friend Theresa, less than a year older than the couple. Tag-along Mary Ellen, three years younger and the baby, had been the one they pulled in wagons, dressed in odd costumes and excluded from teenage conversations when they got to that stage. In the years since she’d moved to Portland, Margo had seen them mostly at their weddings or in passing when she visited her mother.
“Get Margo a glass of wine, Tony,” Catherine ordered when they were all in the house. He gave a palms-up gesture of acquiescence and walked into the kitchen with the flowers and wine to obey Catherine’s command.
Margo didn’t see him again for almost an hour, trapped in the living room “catching up” with his sisters and an occasional husband or kid, a process that felt more like a job interview than a social conversation. When the interrogation sessions tapered off, Tony ambled in and perched on the arm of her chair, offering her wine from his glass as hers was now empty.
“How you holding up?” he asked. He took a sip of wine from the glass she’d handed back to him.
“The bar exam was easier. My last g-y-n appointment was more fun.”
He almost choked on the wine. “Didn’t you use to say you envied me having all these sisters?”
“I think I seriously over-romanticized the appeal.”
“You’re doing fine, sugar.” He tipped up her chin, bent his head and kissed her.
“Is my brother annoying you?” Catherine said, from the door of the dining room.
Margo shook her head. “Actually, he stopped being annoying when we were about eleven or twelve. But in high school, when I wanted him to bother me, he didn’t pay any attention.” She looked up at him and smiled.
“We tried to teach him better but I guess we weren’t successful,” Catherine said with a grin that looked exactly like her brother’s.
“I’m outta here,” Tony said as he rolled off the arm of the chair. “If I learned anything from growing up with three sisters, it’s that I can hold my own in this kind of conversation with one woman, but I’m in over my head with any more than that.”
Catherine settled herself on the couch. “How are you doing, my dear? We can be a bit overwhelming, can’t we?”
“I’m fine, Catherine. You know I’ve always loved your family. Don’t you remember when I was maybe nine or ten and I tried to convince Tony he should swap places with me? I think I told him since he was the only boy he’d be happier being the only child and I’d be happier with all his sisters. I don’t remember why I thought no one would notice the change, but I was convinced I could pull it off.”
“There’s another way to join the family, one I imagine my brother has thought of.”
Celeste Alessandro came in just as Margo was trying to figure out how to respond, telling her oldest daughter, “You’ve all had Margo trapped in here since she arrived. Let her visit with her mother and get something to eat, please.”
Margo escaped Catherine’s scrutiny as fast as she could, walking toward the kitchen with her arm around Tony’s mother.