Page 77 of The Enforcer

“Okay,” she says in a surprisingly bright tone. “I still have two others.”

I turn to her with a laugh. “Maria?”

She grins at me again. “Alfonso has never done what I want. He’s…” She takes a few seconds to think of the word. “Asino.”

“Huh?”

She’s still thinking when Ugo comes into our line of view with a basket of more produce. Maria calls to him in Italian.

“Donkey,” he calls back.

Maria shakes her head and yells at him again. I hear Alfonso’s name.

Ugo drops the basket in the shade near the front door of the house, and then he turns to head back into a greenhouse at the edge of the property. He laughs. “Jackass,” he calls to his mother. “He’s stubborn.”

“Yes. Yes,” she says, turning back to me. “My boy is stubborn. He was almost two weeks late being born! But you are right,” she tells me, reaching for my hands. “He is a good boy just as he is. And if the two of you do not want babies, then I will be okay with that. But maybe you can bring Alfonso home more often. Yes, that you can do.” She smiles triumphantly at me, and I have to laugh.

“You and my mother would get along very well.”

“Oh, good. I cannot wait to meet her.”