✔️The Greaser and the Skirtchaser [18+]

10. One Time Vance Had a Visitor

Vance just about ran through his front door but stopped dead when he found Danny and Vin sitting across from his ma eating dinner with her. Danny sat back with a broad grin and crowed, "Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in. There's the topolino now."

"Do you know what hour it is, young man?" his mamma interrogated, but it was weird because Vance didn't feel ashamed enough to want to die, and she had a little grin on her face. It was like she was waiting a billion years to say, "Oh! Why I oughta—"

"Oh, ease up on the poor guy, zietta. He just had his first date with a nice girl." He winked at Vance. "He must've really liked her."

His mamma smacked him on the shoulder. "You worried me half to death."

He didn't really know what to do other than apologize. "Mi dispiace, mamma."

"Dai! Mi dispiace, he says!" She kept on with another small rant before mellowing out abruptly with a little smile. "Well, if you're safe and sound, that's all a mother needs."

"Right! He's very safe, zietta." Danny nodded along.

She was agreeing and smiling right up until her eyes zeroed in on his missing bowtie and undone button. Her eyes pierced right through him. "What's this? What have you done to your shirt?"

"No, mamma, this is not—" Vance panicked and put the button back.

"Dai, I can't believe you! You do indecent things like that when your mamma is home, worried!"

Vance now felt the deep, blushing shame since his ma didn't even know that he'd done it all with Blake Coleman and not even a good Catholic girl.

"No, no, zietta, can't you see—he had engine trouble on his way here." Danny rushed over to point out a smear of car oil on his sleeve. Vin ran up and pulled Vance's tucked shirt free and messed up his hair. Danny gave her the most bullcrap puppy eyes Vance had ever seen. "See, look how filthy he is. He must've struggled to get back home—poor bambino."

"Is this true? Tesoro mio, is that true?" Her gaze was so trusting as always.

"I wasn't careful while I was working," Vance mumbled out eventually with a pang of guilt. He couldn't even make a complete lie; he would just feel like even more of a bastard somehow. He really found it hard to lie to his poor mother, but he didn't want to know how she would react to the truth.

"Oh, amore mio." She took his words as absolute truth and squeezed a hug around him. "I'm sorry, you must've had a difficult time, poor thing. I know, you should eat. Yes, you should eat! What am I thinking—sit down. Sit down, Vance, I'll get it!"

Once she whisked into the kitchen, Danny let out a huge sigh. "I don't know how you deal with that every day."

"You shut your mouth." Vance gave them a warning look before he forced himself to cool off. "And she wasn't even half as mad as I thought she'd be."

"Oh, trust me, she was." Vin made a face at the pasta before stuffing it in his mouth. "Ya know how long it took to convince her you weren't starving, cold, and sick in a ditch somewhere? I had to start making crap up about how you were keeping Rosaline's open late telling Jenny about your dreams of having six kids and a big, happy family; I was writing a goddamn romance novel for her."

"All the guys and I have been working overtime to make sure your date went off without a hitch." Danny sat back with a smug-as-hell grin. "And it did. Ten o' clock, eh? Impressive as hell for the first date."

Vance turned red.

"So? You got a hickey under there or what?" Vin got up and made a grab at Vance's collar.