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“Okay. And?” Enzo lowers Mateo to the ground when he squirms, and he joins his cousin and sister running circles around us.
“We play rock, paper, scissors and the loser has to wear that thing the entire race.” Carm’s grin grows wider.
As does my own, because we both know who’ll end up wearing that belly. Enzo still can’t win a round of rock, paper, scissors to save his life.
“I’m in,” I say right away.
Enzo’s lips press together for a moment, then he shrugs. “Why not? Even if I end up wearing it, it’ll just make my victory that much sweeter.”
“What do you mean if you end up wearing it?” I say, and Carm laughs and high-fives me.
“You sure you want to do that?” Annie asks, sounding concerned.
“It’s fine,” Enzo says to his wife. “Let’s do this.” He holds his hand out in a fist.
Carm and I do the same, then together we say, “One, two, three.”
Carm and I shoot paper and Enzo shoots rock, making him the automatic loser.
“Looks like you’re running with a belly,” Carm says with unabashed glee.
All three of our wives roll their eyes, but they know better than to try to put an end to our childish tradition.
Now that Enzo is no longer holding Mateo, I get a better look at his Santa suit. The arms are a few inches short of his wrists and the pants are the same, leaving a large gap between the line of white fake fur and his ankles.
“You look ridiculous. What’s with your suit?” I ask.
“The company I ordered it from messed up and sent me the wrong size. I didn’t open it until this morning, so there’s nothing I could do,” he says.
“Even though his wife told him to open it last week to make sure everything was okay,” Annie singsongs.
“True.” Enzo swings an arm around Annie’s shoulders. “Guess I should listen to my beautiful wife more often, huh?”
“Happy wife, happy life,” Carm says. “Come on, let’s go get your belly before the race starts. I’ll even foot the bill.”
“Jeez, never let it be said you don’t have a charitable heart,” Enzo deadpans.
Carm turns to Bella, who’s watching Dante now that he’s joined all the kids off to the side. They’re all trying to climb Ryder while he pretends to toss them off his body like he’s Godzilla or something.
“Babe, can I get my wallet from your bag?” Carm asks.
“Huh? Sorry, yeah sure.” She rustles through her bag and pulls out his wallet. Carm grabs his bank card and shoves the wallet back in her oversized purse.
It’s then I realize that Bella seems pretty quiet this morning. I wonder if she and Carm got into an argument this morning. Judging from Carm’s mood, I wouldn’t guess it, but she looks a little pale. Maybe she’s under the weather.
“You coming, Dom?” Carm asks when he and Enzo start to walk away.
I pull my gaze away from Carm’s wife. “Yeah.”
We push through the crowd to the line of people waiting to buy Santa bellies. Why the hell anyone would willingly add to the get-up we have to wear for this race is beyond me, but there are actually a lot of people waiting for these things.
“How’s Annie doing today?” I ask Enzo.
She’s the reason we’re all here supporting the charity, even if we don’t harp on it. I assume it must be an emotional day for her, even though she beat cancer.
Enzo draws in a breath, the good-natured ease he had earlier gone. “She seems in good spirits. Insists this day isn’t harder than any other one, but I gotta say…” He takes off the Santa hat and pushes his hand through his hair. “When we go to things like this, it brings me right back to the day she got her diagnosis.”
I clasp his shoulder. “But she made it through and came out stronger. She’s healthy now.”
