G squealed happily at the sound of Juan’s name. “One? One?”
“Yeah, we’re going to see Papa Juan,” Letty said.
Miles laughed. “Did he said Juan or One?”
“Pretty sure he thinks his grandfather’s name is the number.” Letty laughed as she pinched her son’s cheek gently. “You just leave Papa Juan to me,” Letty said to G who laid his head against Miles’s chest. Following Letty to her father’s front door, he gulped slightly as her fingers grazed against the door. Juan didn’t answer on the first set of knocks, so Letty knocked even louder before sliding her key into the deadbolt.
“There you are!” Juan said with a start as the door swung open. “Thought something happened to you,” Juan began, looking happy to see Letty back again.
Letty’s father peered up at her as she crossed the threshold with her hands full of grocery bags. Letty gave her father a charged look. Juan peered up Letty as she crossed the threshold.
"Everything okay, Letty?" Juan asked his daughter, calling her by her nickname he gave her when she was just a little girl. Concern ran rampant in his voice as he stared up at her with eyes as round as saucers. “Did somethin’ happen?”
Letty, without saying a word, glared at her father as she stepped aside to let Miles into the house. Crowding the doorway with his solid six-feet-six-inch frame, Miles's boots stepped upon Juan Alves's hardwood floor with Gabriel hanging onto him tightly. Miles had an unreadable expression on his face as he stared at Letty's father. The pair had always had a prickly relationship. No one would ever be good enough for Juan Alves's little girl. It was a good thing Miles wasn't looking for any sort of approval from him. Holding G in his left arm, Miles waved with his free hand as Juan scowled at him.
"YOU!" Juan snapped as he climbed off of the couch in a hurry.
"ME?" Miles asked in an innocent voice as he pointed a finger towards his own chest. A smile grew from Miles's lips as he looked down at Juan with an amused look upon his face. Miles waved at Juan with his free hand as Juan scowled at him, his brow furrowing into folds like a bull dog.
"Yeah YOU! Get outta my house!" Juan screamed as he pointed towards the door which was still ajar.
Miles’s mouth creased in amusement as he watched Letty's feisty but pint-sized father scramble off of the couch. Slowly, Miles turned his neck, peering over at Letty. She had the look of the devil in her eyes as she arched her left eyebrow. After a moment she snapped her eyes from Miles's face to her father's. Her voice segued her father straight into the reality of the situation.
"Knock it off!" Letty snapped at her father, casting him a stern look.
Juan stopped, dead in his tracks, staring back at his daughter in confusion. Sliding his tongue over his lips, Juan stretched his neck in frustration as a crack popped from his knuckles. Pointing at Miles, Juan griped, “He’s a Capadonno, Letty!”
Juan continued to glare at Miles in deep hostility. “You know what they’re like!”
Letty rolled her eyes as her boots clicked against the hardwood floor.
“You’re right, Daddy…” Letty said as a shocked look crossed both Juan and Miles’s faces.
Clearing his throat, Juan smiled. Adjusting his shirt, he gave Miles a smug look. Juan quipped, “That was easy.”
Miles’s eyes went wide as he saw the look on Letty’s face morph into something else entirely. Stamping her heel against the floor, once, twice, three times, Miles began to laugh as Letty’s temper came unhinged.
“You didn’t let me finish!” Letty yelled, as she waved a finger sassily at her father. “I do know alllllll about the Capadonnos, Papi! I work for them!”
Oh, shit… here comes the crazy, Miles thought, trying to wipe the smile from his face.
A look of total mortification crossed Juan’s face. “Don’t say that! People are gonna think my daughter is mobbed up!”
A laugh ripped from Miles’s mouth as his eyes went wild. His eyes tearing up, Miles couldn’t control his amusement. Miles tried to wipe the smile from his face as Juan gave him a scathing look. Throwing her hands up in the air, Letty stormed through the living room as she berated her father.
“Seriously? No one in their right mind is gonna think I’m mobbed up!” Letty stamped her boot against the floor. “You love lumpin’ people together! That’s stereotypical. Just because one Capadonno likes to butcher people, you think EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM. ARE. ANIMALS!” Letty’s foot stamped against the floor with each word.
“Letty! The Capadonnos… They are the cause of all the problems that this town has. If it wasn’t for them, Carrion would be a quiet, peaceful town.”
Letty rolled her eyes as she circled around the living room, straightening up as she went.