Page 83 of My Big Fat Shifter Wedding

I should have known better than to think I’d actually be able to get inside unnoticed, because when I was still a couple of feet away, the door swung open and I was greeted by shouts.

“Ay!”

“Oi! Look who it is!”

“It’s the hu—guy!”

“Keith, hey, glad to see you here!”

If I didn’t know better, I’d think I’d walked into a frat party as Riccardo and a trio of young men greeted me in perfect unison. Music was playing in the background and while it wasn’t the latest rap or rock hit that would have played back when I was in the dorms, it was still thumping along in a way where it could be felt more than heard.

“Hi, guys!” I said, returning their enthusiasm even if I had no idea what I had done to earn it. I guessed the lunch had gone well after all? Olivia had assured me it had, and we’d gone to dinner with her parents, brother, and Serafina since, but that was largely it. Despite the fact that I was marrying into the family, I felt more of a stranger than not. “Am I late?”

“No, no, no, we’re setting things up! You are early, grande umano. Come, help us!”

“Well, I’d like to check with Olivia first⁠—”

I ended up helping them.

It wasn’t difficult work, just setting out some folding tables and smaller wooden tables that weren’t too heavy but were too long and awkwardly shaped for one person to carry. However, with what turned out to be six other men, we got it done in less than twenty minutes.

“See? What did I tell ya? He fits right in here,” Riccardo said, laughing and clapping me on the back. This time, it wasn’t nearly as hard as before.

That was encouraging.

“Yeah, he does what the women tell him just as well as we do,” one of the younger men said before he started laughing.

“Olivia gives great instructions,” I agreed.

He gave me an odd look, but no one else pressed it, and I was finally released to go find my love. I felt much more confident about my position in things. Surely being asked to do a physical task to set up for a celebration had to indicate some sort of familiarity, yes?

However, I wasn’t exactly surprised when my search for Olivia was derailed by Nonna Rizoli trundling up to me with a surprising amount of speed for a ninety-year-old and gently looping her arm through mine.

“If it isn’t the grande umano,” she said in a way that wasn’t unkind but also wasn’t particularly ingratiating either. I figured that phrase was now my nickname if the matriarch was using it. It wasn’t the worst thing, so I didn’t mind, but I really needed to go and look up what that last word was, because I was sure they were calling me the big white guy.

Not that I would be insulted to be called such a thing, because I was a big white guy, but it would be nice to know.

“Nice to see you again Mrs. Rizoli.”

“Mrs. Rizoli?” she repeated like I was the one speaking in a different language a majority of the time. “No, you call me Nonna Rizoli like everyone else. After all, you are going to be pa⁠—”

“Keith! Nonna!” Rolando’s voice cut off his grandmother before he popped out from behind a corner, wearing the same harried expression that I’d come to know as his default. Considering how chill he was when we hung out, I got the impression that his family was stressing him out. To which I said: fair enough. He’d played a large part in making sure Olivia got the privacy she needed to explore dating outside the expectations of her family, so as far as I was concerned, I owed him forever.

Actually, maybe even beyond forever, because it truly felt like Olivia had saved my life.

“Hey there, Rolando,” I said with a grin. “We were on our way to cause unmitigated chaos, preferably in the form of arson.”

“Arson? What is this that he’s saying?” Nonna asked, and I glowed a bit with pride. I hadn’t expected her to accept me so easily, but her already given approval was really doing things for my ego. Maybe I wasn’t as awkward or as socially inept as I had always told myself!

Rolando quickly replied to her in Italian, translating my joke I assumed, and I had to have been right because a moment later Nonna let out a very sharp bark of laughter and slapped my chest with a surprising amount of force for someone who was nearly a century old. Man, the Rizolis had some great genetics.

“Set fires! I like you. Reminds me of when i miei amici e io used to blow up Nazi camps and uh… Rolando. How you say ferroviarie?”

“Rail lines. You blew up trains too, Nonna.”

“Si, I did.” She sighed dreamily, the slight natural cloudiness to her eyes growing hazier. “Ah, to be young.”

“To be fair, Nonna Rizoli, I don’t know if the world could handle you being young again with all the knowledge you’ve gained now. Pretty sure you’d be way too overpowered.”