“Yeah, and I’m not surprised. She’s never been that deep into the day-to-day stuff. She’s always been someone who will mouth off when she has an opinion about something, and I don’t expect that to change, but Nate…I don’t think I can do this.”
“Yeah,” I say, “you can. I didn’t think I was up to it, and I leaned on you a lot. I probably should have leaned on you a little more, but I had someone in my head yelling at me all the time.”
“I don’t even have that.” Antony chuckles nervously.
“You don’t need it.” I reach out and place my hand on his shoulder. “You can do this, man. I have total faith in you to protect our interests and our family. In fact, I’m glad it’s going to be you. If I had a brain in my head, I would have asked you to do that right after Pops died.”
“I don’t know.” Antony shakes his head as he stares at the desk. “I can’t even imagine myself sitting in that chair.”
“I couldn’t either,” I admit. “Weirdest thing in the world. Why don’t you sit down there and see how it feels?”
With a little coaxing, Antony takes a seat.
“Well?” I ask.
“It feels weird.”
“You look good though.”
“Do I?”
“Hell yeah!” I laugh. “Much better than I ever did.”
“Are you blowing smoke up my ass just to make yourself feel better about leaving?”
“Maybe a little.” I shrug. “Obviously, I am much better looking than you are.”
“My ass.”
We both laugh. Antony gets up from the chair and comes back around the desk. He stands in front of me and gives me a long look.
“I don’t want you to leave,” he finally says.
“I know.”
“You can step down without leaving.”
“I could,” I say, “but that’s not what I’m doing. Cherry isn’t made for this life, and I need to get her away from it. I don’t want to be around it anymore. We have a child to protect, and to do that, I need to get her away from this town and start a new life.”
“The choice I didn’t make,” Antony says with a nod.
“With Maddie and her mom?”
“Yeah. She wanted me to leave, but I stayed…for the family.”
“I’m not forcing you to do this,” I say. “Work it out with Nora. Threes can take over, or liquidate everything and get out. I’m not going to keep you here.”
“No, I don’t want to do that,” he says quickly, then grins. “Baby Mama would never take me back anyway. I did cheat on her.”
“Twice.”
“Three times, but who’s counting?” He laughs, and then his face becomes serious. “I’ll miss you around here.”
“It’s not like I’m never coming back,” I tell him. “This is still home to me, and it always will be. We’ll come back for holidays, and you sure as hell better show up when it’s time to name my kid’s godfather.”
“I get to be the godfather?”
“Who else?” I reach out and hug my cousin. He grips my shoulders tightly for a moment before releasing me.