*Four Years Later*
*Elio*
I sat across from my parents, feeling a strange nervousness as my dad inspected the tax docunts I’d brought. He had put in charge of the business a while ago, but I wasn’t sure I would ever feel like I could live up to his expectations.
My mom smiled at over her plate of spaghetti. She’d shown up with a bag of groceries and made the spaghetti just because she knew it was one of my favorites.
My parents traveled a lot, especially now that the houses were built, and Dad was enjoying being mostly retired. I had my own house now, and they’d given Matilde and Caterina a house next to mine and told to keep watching out for the girl.
It was hard enough building up the company let alone play “dad” to a kid, but I kept rembering the way Tallon had talked about the death of his friend and how he’d promised to look out for Matilde and her daughter. It was a pain keeping an eye on the girl, but I felt like I owed it to Tallon.
Right then, I was enjoying my mom’s spaghetti in peace in a temporarily kid-free zone. I looked down at my plate and twirled a bite of noodles absently around my fork. I thought back to the many childhood als when I’d done the exact sa thing.
My dad cleared his throat and my eyes shot back to his face, looking for any sign of disapproval.
“This looks good, son,” he said. “You’ve done a great job gathering this information. I know it’s a pain in the ass.”
I took a sip of my wine and allowed myself to feel the sense of pride that only ca from his approval. There was nobody who I wanted to impress more than my father, the legendary mafia Don turned businessman.
“How’s business been going in general?” my mom asked.
“We’ve managed to close on five deals in this past week alone,” I told her, not bothering to hide the note of pride in my voice.
My dad nodded in approval. “I knew you had what it takes for this. You’ve got your mother’s brains.” He smiled fondly at her.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh hush, Gio. You know you’re better at business than I am.”
I turned back to my al as they fell into a comfortable banter that only ca with decades of marriage. Although we had a large extended family, as an only child, I was used to playing third wheel to my parents.
I didn’t mind at all. It had always made feel more secure to see how much they loved each other. I just hoped I’d be able to find sothing like that for myself soday.
The front door slamd harshly, and my shoulders imdiately tensed up. That slam could only be Caterina, who was supposed to stay in my house while her mom was away.
She must have known she was in huge trouble... I had no idea where she’d been for the past several hours. Since her mom had started finding real success working her TV writing job and left Caterina in my care more frequently, I’d stepped up as more of a parent than her. Caterina was supposed to ask permission to go anywhere, not just venture out around LA on her own.
She stalked into the dining room and stood there looking at the three of us with her arms crossed obstinately over her chest.
In the past few months, she had grown a few inches. It had given her a clumsy lankiness that would have been endearing if she wasn’t so intent on being a thorn in my side every chance she got.
Even now, she knew she’d broken the rules by going out without telling where she’d been, but she had the audacity to stand there looking pissed at .
“Where have you been?” I asked tersely, trying to keep my voice even to avoid fighting with her in front of my parents.
She blushed slightly and a ridiculously guilty look took over her features, but she continued to glare at . “None of your business,” she said.
I sighed, hoping to de-escalate the situation. “Look, it’s not that I don’t want you to be able to have fun. But I need to know where you are. I’m just worried about keeping you safe, that’s all.”
“Screw you! You don’t care about !” she spat.
I saw my mom visibly flinch at the harsh language. It was embarrassing to be talked to like this by a teenager, especially one I was supposedly in charge of. It made feel like I was doing a horrible job.
I just didn’t understand why Caterina seed to have such a problem with lately. When she had first co into my life, I’d been able to be more of a cool uncle figure to her. She’d been such a sweet and quiet little girl.
But ever since her mother had been away at work more, Caterina’s attitude had started to rear its ugly head, and I’d been forced to beco far stricter with her.
I took a deep breath, working hard to stay calm. “I do care about you, Caterina. Your mom left in charge of you for a reason. She trusts to keep you safe, and I need you to help out with that. You can’t be running around God-knows-where.”
She rolled her eyes, apparently intent on turning this conversation into a fight. I grimaced as I could see she was racking her brain for more insults to fling my way. She was obviously furious about the fact that her mom was busier than ever before, but I had nothing to do with that.
“I can go wherever I want and do whatever I want. You can’t stop . You aren’t my dad!” She had practically worked herself up into a yell by the end of her little declaration.
My own dad raised his eyebrows at her words, probably wondering how the hell I’d managed to get stuck with such an insolent child to take care of. It just didn’t seem fair that I was only twenty-four and already being forced to deal with this shit.
I hated to even think it, but Caterina felt like a hopeless case. She obviously didn’t want to be under my care, and I doubted that anything I said or did would change that.
“I know I’m not your dad, Cat,” I said as patiently as I could. “I’m not trying to be your dad. I’m just trying to keep you safe. You’re young. You don’t even understand all the dangerous things out in the world. I know it’s annoying to be told what to do all the ti, but it’s for your own good. Do you really think I never had rules I didn’t like? My parents are right here. Why don’t you ask them?” I gestured across the table and waited for her to say sothing.
“Ugh, whatever!” She stamped her foot like a toddler and stord off to the living room.
I made a ntal note to take her a plate of dinner later. Her growth spurt had made it so that she was already so thin, she really couldn’t afford to skip any als, and the last thing I wanted was for her usual crankiness to be exacerbated by hunger.
“So, how’s that going?” my dad asked, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Well, you can see exactly how well it’s going,” I said wryly.
“How old is she now, fifteen?” my mom asked.
“She just turned sixteen a few months ago. It seems like she’s been intent on becoming my worst nightmare ever since. She genuinely hates , I think.”
Both of my parents looked at knowingly. My mom responded, “Oh, she doesn’t hate you, Elio. Don’t you rember when you were a teenager? Everything we did infuriated you.”
My dad laughed. “Rember the ti we tried to play a card ga and you damn near flipped the table by the end?”
I took another sip of wine to hide my mortification from the mory. I had never been known to have a temper, but my parents were right. My teen years had been rough for the three of us.
I rembered struggling to feel like I belonged. My parents had always been so in love, and as a young kid I had felt like the center of their world. But as I grew older, I started worrying that I wasn’t as important to them as I had thought. Of course, I later realized I was wrong. But at the ti, I had no idea what I was feeling. All I knew was that I was pissed off all the ti.
“I wish I could tell Cat that soday I’ll bring up all these little monts and she’ll be humiliated about her behavior,” I joked.
“Teenagers hate being told that there’s sothing they don’t understand,” my mom said wisely. “They are convinced that they know everything about the world and that we just don’t get it, and there’s nothing you can say to convince them otherwise.”
“I really want to be there for her. I know she’s having a hard ti with her mom working so much. But she makes it so damn hard to even be around her. I don’t know how to make her feel better when she’s so intent on yelling at every ti we’re in the sa room.”
“You’ll figure it out,” Mom said. “Just rember, when she’s hurt, she’s going to lash out with anger. That’s just what kids do at that age. If you keep that in mind, you’ll have more sympathy for her, even when she’s acting like a brat.”
“Your mom had to tell that once when I was about to head up to your room and lay into you for being disrespectful to her,” my dad said.
“Well, damn, I didn’t think I was that hard to deal with!” I laughed.
I knew it was all water under the bridge. My parents loved dearly, and they always made sure I knew it. I wondered if that would help Caterina at all. Maybe she just needed her mom to tell her she loved her more frequently.
“You weren’t! Your dad just didn’t know how not to treat everything like you were one of his n.” My mom poked him in the side as she said it.
“I’ll be honest. I just don’t know what I’m doing when it cos to her. I’m trying my best because Tallon asked to help take care of her, but every day I think soone else would have done a better job,” I admitted.
“You’re doing great, sweetheart,” my mom reassured . “Nobody knows what they’re doing when it cos to dealing with teenagers, especially ones who have had to deal with the death of a parent. Just keep being there for her as best as you can, in whatever capacity she needs.”
“Thank you, Mom,” I said genuinely, reaching out to take her hand in mine and squeeze it once.
I hadn’t been realistic when I agreed to help care for Caterina. I’d thought she would just be a sweet little kid forever, always wanting to follow around like a puppy. But I had made a promise to my family to take care of her, and I never broke a promise, no matter how difficult it beca to keep.
I just hoped we would both make it out of her teenage years with our sanity intact.
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