Free Fools Rush In by Janice Thompson Page B

must be a prayer.
    D.J. must’ve picked up on his enthusiasm. “I’ll be praying for him too,” he promised. I looked into his eyes to check his level of sincerity. No problem. The guy would really pray for mobster Salvadore Lucci to come to the Lord. Wow.
    At this news, Uncle Laz’s eyes lit up with joy, and he offered us a pizza on the house. “I just thought Bella’s guest might be hungry,” he explained, turning back to his work.
    “Oh, yes sir. Thank you.” D.J. grinned. “Thank you all. You’ve all been mighty polite.”
    “Yep. You’ve figured us out,” Nick said. “We Rossis are a polite bunch.” He punched me in the arm, and I countered with a wallop to his belly. Never one to be outdone, Nick offered a dramatic reaction, bending over at the waist and groaning as if I’d done him mortal harm. He rose with a smile and gave me a wink. “Gotta go.” He leaned over and gave me a kiss on the forehead, then shuffled out the door, singing “With My Eyes Wide Open.”
    I shuddered, thinking of D.J.’s likely reaction to all of this. Did he think he’d stumbled into a badly written scene from a yet-unreleased Godfather sequel, perhaps?
    He turned back to me, putting my mind at ease. “Our families are as different as night and day, that’s for sure. But in some ways they’re just alike. Doesn’t seem to matter where you’re from, family dynamics are pretty much the same everywhere you go.”
    Well, amen to that. I could rest easy. This was a man who got my family.
    “Might be fun to get them together,” Jenna suggested. “East meets west.”
    “More like city meets country,” D.J. explained. “Or better yet, the Grand Opera meets Grand Ole Opry.”
    Hmm. My mama was a sponsor of Galveston’s illustrious Grand Opera, so I had that part figured out. But Grand Ole Opry? I’d have to do a little searching on the Web to figure out that one. Regardless, Jenna seemed to get it. She giggled, then blazed a white smile.
    Sure, why not show off those newly whitened teeth, girlfriend? You’ve got nothing better to do.
    Time to shift gears. Get this train back on track.
    “Laz and Jenna cater all of our big events,” I explained to D.J., trying to keep my focus on the conversation at hand. “They’re the best in the biz.” I nodded back toward the kitchen where Laz was working.
    “Don’t ever let Rosa hear you say that,” Laz hollered from the kitchen. “You know how she is.”
    “How they both are,” I whispered to D.J. He responded with a knowing look, and I raised my voice to add, “Anyway, she’s pretty sensitive when it comes to cooking. And with good right. She’s very good at what she does.”
    “Humph.” Laz turned back to his work.
    I had to smile, thinking of the rivalry between the two. Might be fun to watch them in a showdown sometime. No telling who’d come out on top. Rosa could make some mean classics, and my uncle had a passion for fresh foods, as proven by the garden that consumed over half of our backyard. Of course, his distaste for all things related to Rosa meant she was rarely allowed to root around in his veggies. The man would drop his false teeth if he knew she was hurling his Romas at the neighbors.
    D.J. continued the conversation, oblivious to my ponderings. “Bubba’s looking forward to meeting you both when he helps with the barbecue at the wedding.”
    “Bubba?” Through the window leading to the kitchen, Laz looked up from his pizza making and gave me a curious look. Oops. Had I forgotten to tell him he’d be receiving assistance from Bubba, the barbecue extraordinaire from Splendora, Texas? Perhaps now would be a convenient time. I filled him in on the particulars, and he seemed to take the news in stride. After the hyperventilating passed, anyway.
    “Speaking of barbecue reminds me of something.” Uncle Laz slipped our pizza into the oven, then joined us once again. “I’ve been trying to come up with a barbecue-themed pizza for months now. I