Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Sal raised a brow. “How did you manage to get him to sell it to you, then?”
“I asked Lucca to talk to him for me,” she said with a wink.
Sal looked back at the Casino Hotel to see Lucca standing behind the glass doors, watching him.
“Lucca found all the parts of the car that was missing and bought them,” Valerie continued. “Maria found a car restorer for me, Nero bought the custom wheels, and Leo found the hood ornament.”
Coming up to him, she put her arm around his waist. “The car isn’t just from me but from all of your family, Sal. Even Vincent bought the original car mats, and Amo found the hardest part—the engine.”
He didn’t know what to say and couldn’t have anyway from having the massive lump in his throat. With his gaze moving from Lucca’s, he finally noticed all his family was there, watching him. They all then came out, seeing he had spotted them.
“What do you think?” Maria asked, joining them with his brother, Dominic, and their daughter. “Does it look just like you remember?”
Sal nodded with mist in his blue-black gaze.
“When I had it repainted, I thought you might like a different color this time around,” Dante spoke around an unlit cigar. “But Valerie was adamant it had to be the same.”
Angel, who had his arm hooked around Adalyn’s shoulders, gave him an envelope. “The rest of us got together to give you plenty gas for a year and hand car washes.”
Taking the envelope, it was hard not to get choked up. They all knew he didn’t need the gift cards; he wasn’t hurting for money. They had chipped in to show him they cared and that he was a member of the Luciano family, too.
Sal looked around the large group surrounding him in their midst to see just how much family he had accumulated for a boy who had been born homeless. “Thanks, everyone.”
“You ready to go eat, son?” Dante asked, patting his shoulder.
Sal stared at his father then down at the woman who would make every birthday here on as special as his mother had when he was a child. “Where are we going?”
“So, I googled the hotel you told me you and your mom stayed at for your birthday, but the hotel has been torn down. It’s just a casino now, but they have a buffet starting in twenty minutes. I reserved a whole section. Is that all right? If not”—Valerie gave him a mischievous smile—“we could always break in this bad boy with Taco Bell.”
“And let you get lettuce all over my car?” Sal slung an arm around her shoulders, knowing she was joking, but just in case she wasn’t … “Hell no.”