✔️The Greaser and the Skirtchaser [18+]

34. When Greasers Went Steady

Vance quickly put all his papers down when his ma came through the shop with her foil-wrapped ceramic dish. Everyone stopped what they were doing whenever she had that dish.

"Sophia! A sight for sore eyes!" Zio Fransisco jumped up, took her dish, and set it on the table, so he could hug her as she laughed all booming and loud. She laughed the same way she hugged.

"Dai! I just saw you only the other day, Fransisco." She stepped back and pulled open the foil as everyone gathered around. She greeted all of her nieces and nephews as she handed out fresh cannolis, but when she saw Vance, she just bloomed and had to come give him a hug even though she saw him every day. "Tesoro mio! How was work? Here, here, come, have some. Have as much as you want. Eat."

She piled them up in Vance's hands, and he laughed. "Thank you, but Mamma, you're going to make zietto Fransisco pop if you keep bringing cannolis here."

Everyone started laughing as Johnny and Franco kept arguing through full mouths that she should absolutely keep 'em coming and how amazing she was in the kitchen. She just basked in it and swatted Vance. "Oh, falla finita. Eat! All you do is work here—slaving away under the cars."

"I graduated, so it's time that I ought to work harder." He was nineteen, and he didn't have time to wander around Resthaven anymore. Home needed him. Vance sat back down in his chair and bit into one, the crust giving immediately and dissolving into little flakes into the rich, sweet cream inside.

Everyone was getting distracted by Danny trying to make Francesca break her diet and eat one, so none of them saw the bittersweet smile she gave Vance.

"Mamma?"

She walked around the desk and pinched Vance's cheek. She was very beautiful. "Oh, amore mio. You are just like him."

He stopped eating. He didn't need to ask who she was talking about.

"Oh, don't let me stop you from eating. You're getting too skinny." She smacked his shoulder. "Eat. Eat! Oh, I wish you would eat even half as much as your zio."

She only walked away when Vance would start making a dent in the pile of cannolis in his hands, and she went to join the rest of his family. She was busy wiping crumbs off Francesca's face when Vance put down his sweets and pulled out his little plastic camera.

He snapped a photo.

"Now, what's that?" Danny pinched it from his hands and hopped up on the desk to turn it over. "Where in the world did you get this? A camera?"

"Found one in Resthaven." It had been four dollars and three quarters and another dime for a roll of film. Vance pulled the accounts out from under Danny's ass.

"Jesus. That place has everything." He put it to his face. "How do I take a picture?"

Vance had to show him where the button was, and Danny called over Vin to snap a picture of him in all his crumb-caked glory. It just about killed Danny, and Vin was trying to make him get rid of the photo.

"Hey, where do the photos come out?" Danny started shaking the thing as if they'll fall out.

"You gotta develop the film."

"What. Northfield doesn't have a shop like that. What'd you buy this thing for?"

"Rocky knows someone, so I mail 'em to him, and he sends photos right back." Vance pulled out his wallet and slid out a few photos he'd taken.

"What the hell?" Danny looked through them and ignored Johnny fussing at him to look at them, too. "You've got one for everyone."

"Creepy." Vin cringed.