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her direction.
    “Do I have to pick? Can’t I have both?” Regina said.
    “How about Kahlúa and cream?” Frank said.
    “There’s some that Dad made in the bar,” I said. “It’s in the Colavita bottle.”
    “Perfect,” Regina said. “With ice please, sweetheart?”
    “It’s about two hundred proof,” I said, “so go easy. You don’t want Regina to get brain damage.”
    “I’m already brain-damaged,” she said. “I’ve got kids.”
    “You’ve got great kids,” I said. “They’re growing like weeds!”
    “Growing. Lemme tell you something,” Regina said, winding up for the pitch. “I gotta watch Tony like a hawk—if he’s not smoking something, he’s snitching a drink of something…”
    “I saw him smoking today behind the grill,” I said.
    “I’ll smack him in the head first thing in the morning,” Regina said. “And my Lisa? The good Lord gave her all my estrogen. I’m a thousand degrees and all of a sudden she’s got these breasts. And the boys are calling! Mother Mary, pray for us. No, just pray for me!” She blessed herself and looked up to heaven for emphasis. “She’s not even thirteen and shaving her legs already.”
    “Well, Paulie is a sweetheart,” I said. “Lisa’s normal. Everyone says girls are tough.”
    “They are. And Paulie’s an eating machine! Did you see the fat on his belly?”
    “Make him play football,” I said.
    Regina nodded and said, “If sports were the answer to everything, life would be very simple.”
    “Life’s not so easy, is it? This whole family drives me crazy,” I said.
    “What do you mean?” Frank said, and put Regina’s drink in front of her.
    “Oh, come on, Grace,” Regina said. “Salute!”
    “Think about it. I come in today and there’s pasta hanging everywhere, Nonna’s crocheting like a bat out of hell…”
    “She talked to Nonno yesterday,” Regina said in a whisper. “She told me almost first thing when we got here.”
    Nonno was Nonna’s husband, who had been certified dead and well buried for ten years.
    “See what I mean?” I said in a hushed tone.
    “What did he say?” Frank said. “Is he coming for her?”
    “Shh! Bite your tongue!” Regina said. “She said he was dancing, like he was at a big party—a wedding maybe?”
    “A wedding. You watch,” I said. “Nicky’s gonna marry that twit and then I’ll have to look at her every holiday for the rest of my life.”
    Frank and Regina stared at me and then burst out laughing.
    “What? You all don’t think she’s obnoxious?”
    “Not obnoxious…” Frank said.
    “More like, I don’t know…all that baby talk is a little…” Regina said.
    “Ridiculous,” I said.
    “Well, Grace? There’s nothing you can do about your family. They just are as they are.”
    “I just don’t see Michael fitting in here, that’s all. And it worries me because I really love this man.”
    “If Marianne can fit in, so can Michael,” Regina said, and then covered her mouth, stealing a glance behind her as though she might have been overheard.
    “How do you define fitting in?” Frank said. “Anybody want a glass of wine?”
    Regina declined and I said, “Sure, why not? Never mind, I’m drinking milk.”
    Frank pulled the cork on an unfinished bottle from dinner and poured out two glasses. “If we don’t drink it, it will go bad.”
    “Thanks,” I said, smiling at my brother. “Mud in your eye.”
    “ Salut. Look, it’s late but I’d like to throw in my two cents on this. You’re over thirty, Grace. Them’s the facts. If you want to have a family and Michael’s the man for the job, then it’s your decision. Regina and I are gonna love whoever you love as long as he’s good to you. You can’t live your life trying to please everyone else. Will he fit in? Who fits in?”
    “I never worried about fitting in,” Regina said. “I mean, maybe a little in the beginning.”
    “Yeah, because it’s easy for you,” I said. “You play by all the