Page 70 of Bobby

“Why would I confuse you with a restaurant?” Lily asks as she looks at Cynthia, who’s the only one not laughing softly at my daughter.

“Because they both cook amazing food,” Danny says, earning a pat on the arm from his mother.

“Suck up,” Bobby coughs into his hand. “Sorry, must have something in my throat,” he says around another dramatic cough.

“Must be catching.” Danny eyes us both, and I fold my lips in and bite them to prevent a smile from forming that we both use the same tactic to poke fun at his brother.

“Come. Lunch won’t be ready for a little longer, which gives us plenty of time to eat zeppole.” Cynthia says.

“What are those?” Ivy might be skeptical of the name, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t already following Bobby’s mama into the house and down the hall.

“Fried dough,” she says with her head held high as she marches my girls away from me.

“Huh?” This from Lily.

“Donuts, kid,” Danny tells her with a wink sent my way, and I groan internally. This is going to be a very long day if they start it off with sugar.

“Hello, Willow. It’s nice to see you again,” Danny says once we’re alone. He doesn’t hold out his hand, but at least he doesn’t pretend we haven’t met before.

“You as well.”

“I have something for you.” He reaches into his suit pocket, something I note that he’s wearing even though Bobby said casual was fine for this. Even he went casual, if that’s what he calls a polo shirt and slacks. I guess Sunday brunch or church attire is what they consider casual in their family.

Thankfully, the girls each had a nice dress to wear, and I had a clean skirt. I was planning on doing laundry today, but that changed. I’ll have to do it when I get home. Thankfully, there’s a laundry unit in our apartment, so I don’t have to go two streets over like at our last place.

“You do?” Bobby is quick to grab my elbow and pull me back just an inch. Not much, but it puts him in front of me just enough that Danny smirks.

“Relax, old man. Not trying to steal her. Just giving her something she lost.”

He pulls out an envelope and hands it to me. I take it with a glance in Bobby’s direction. He lifts a single shoulder, clearly unaware of what it is, just like me.

Cautiously, I open it and peek inside. Then I pull everything out as quickly as possible.

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” I can’t stop saying it as I look at one picture and then the next and the next.

“We couldn’t recover all the photos, but of the ones we did, we cleaned up what we could. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get all of them.”

I shake my head at Danny’s words as tears flood my eyes and spill over. So many of my children’s first memories are in my hands. Pictures and events I thought were gone, only to be recalled by memory, until that also abandoned me.

“I thought I had lost everything,” I blubber between sniffs as I keep looking at everything until I get to the last piece of paper. It’s not a photo, and I open it quickly to see it’s the girls’ birth certificates and even their footprints on the form that the doctors took when they were born.

I cover my mouth with my hand to keep the sobs from getting louder than they already are and have the girls worrying about me. I look up to see a kind smile on Bobby’s face, not at all put out that his brother did this and he didn’t. Something Trevor never would have allowed if we were together. He would have seen it as someone else showing him up. Then he would have spent the next several days reminding me how lucky I was that he took care of me and the girls.

I swipe at my tears, then fold the papers back together and put them all back in the envelope carefully. And then I wrap my arms around Danny and just hold him as tight as I can.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

He’s so stiff, and I wonder if this is how his mother felt after hugging me.

Slowly, I let go and rub at my eyes once more.

“Thank you for this. I can never repay you for it.”

“It was nothing.” His words are rigid, as if my sign of affection threw him more than anything.

“You’re a good man, Danny Leone.”

“That he is, dear.” Cynthia smiles as she comes over and brushes away the last of my tears. “Come. Time for lunch.”