That’s when he knew he had to do something.

Because the girls acted like he was over all the time (which he was, they just didn’t know that). They acted like he wasn’t a stand in. They acted like he was a welcome staple in their lives and they’d welcome it if he became more of a staple. Keira teased him. Kate even grabbed his hand and clutched it when she laughed at something he said. Like their mother, they were sucking him in, using him to plug that hole their father left and their combined power was almost unbeatable.

But it was also because he liked Sam and Melissa. Sam acted toward Vi like Cal remembered Uncle Vinnie acting toward his Mom. He didn’t hide his affection for Vi and her kids. He loved him. The world shone in his eyes when he looked at them and he let them know it. He was f**king hilarious too and an easy man to like. His woman was the same, funny and easygoing, a straight-talker and she felt like her man did about his family. It wasn’t like she’d been in their lives since she met Sam. It was like she’d been in their lives the length of it. They were a unit, bonded tight and unbreakable. A family that was blood but their bond ran deeper than blood.

What Cal had always wanted.

And Vi behaved just like her girls. She wasn’t demonstrative with Cal but she found her times to give him looks, touch him, promise things with her eyes that needed no words.

They’d gone to J&J’s after dinner and Sam and Melissa proved they were what they were, funny and able to have a seriously f**king good time. Vi let herself loose with them, laughing more than he’d ever seen her laugh, her face relaxed, happy and even more beautiful than normal because of it.

If he let himself go, he would have enjoyed it. Instead, he had his word with Sam and got the f**k out of there.

His word with Sam didn’t go as easy as his words with Tina and Dane did. Sam wasn’t going to stop and told Cal this flat out then he took the time to explain. Cal understood his reasoning, even admired it, but he gave it back to Sam straight that he was playing with fire and, he got burned, so would Melissa and Vi.

“This is your business because…?” Sam asked.

“Because Vi asked me to have a word,” Cal replied.

“And because you’re f**kin’ my sister,” Sam returned.

Cal stared at him and didn’t respond. He wasn’t surprised Sam had figured this out. Vi might have found her times but that didn’t mean no one was paying attention.

“She talks about you, so do the girls, they like you. I’m cool with that,” Sam told him. “She needs good shit in her life and the minute I saw you, brother, you struck me as good people. I’m happy for her. But you installed a security system that rivals the Pentagon’s to help keep her safe so, I’m guessin’ you know where I’m comin’ from.”

He did, he just didn’t agree with it.

“I’m tellin’ you, you need to stand down,” Cal repeated.

“And I’ll tell Vi-oh-my you did what you could. But I’m not standin’ down.”

Cal again didn’t respond.

Sam held his stare for awhile and finally asked, “We good?”

They weren’t anything or they wouldn’t be.

“Yeah,” Cal replied.

“Fantastic. When we come back and Vi makes her risotto again, I’d hate to see you sittin’ there glarin’ at me while I’m eatin’ it. Shit’s f**kin’ ambrosia and, brother, you’re kinda scary. Would ruin the risotto.”

Nothing would ruin Vi’s risotto that shit was the best thing he’d ever tasted in his whole f**king life.

Cal wanted to laugh. He didn’t because he knew, Sam came back, he wouldn’t be sitting at Vi’s table eating anything.

He finished their pool game, said his good-byes to a surprised Melissa and a shocked Vi and he got out of there.

He went home, called Nadia and set it up for the next day.

It needed to be done.

It didn’t matter Cal didn’t open the door, the three of them were charging through. Vi, Kate and Keira, female battering rams who were relentless.

And he needed to close it down, cut her loose, cut all of them loose so he could close himself off and open the way for them to move onto a good life.

But Vi had to end it. It had to be her decision this time so there was no going back.

So he was forcing her hand.

* * * * *

He was sitting in the dark, in his living room, in his father’s chair with a bottle of bourbon, a glass half full in his hand when he heard the sliding glass door open.

He’d been home an hour. It took longer than he expected for her to come over.

She slid the door closed and stood at it, her back against the glass, a shadow silhouetted by the moonlight. He didn’t know how she knew he was sitting there. He’d never been sitting in his living room when she came over then again he usually met her at the door. But she knew.

“Did you f**k her?” she whispered.

“None of your business, buddy,” Cal forced himself to say.

“You don’t use protection with me, Cal, so yeah it is. Did you f**k her?”

He didn’t hear any words after she called him Cal. His body had frozen, his mind had blanked.

“I asked you a question,” she prompted, still whispering.

“You want this scene then yeah, I f**ked her, Vi,” he lied.

She was silent.

He knew she’d hate it when he reminded her softly, “You don’t get to do this, buddy, this isn’t what we have.”

“I know about Nicky.”

It took everything he had not to surge to his feet.

“Come again?” he asked only after he unclenched his teeth.

“I know about your son, Nicky, your Dad. I know about Bonnie. I know everything.”

Cal swallowed the acid taste burning his tongue then he said, “Everyone knows. It isn’t a secret, Vi.”

“You’re empty.”

He stared at her silhouette. How she knew that, he had no f**king clue but she wasn’t wrong.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“Nothing can fill you up,” she stated.

“Nope,” he agreed again.

“You won’t let it.”

“Barrel’s got a hole in the bottom, buddy, everything leaks out no matter how much you pour in.”

She was silent a moment then she whispered, “Right.”

She turned to the door and his hand gripped his bourbon so hard he had to focus everything on loosening his grip or the glass would shatter.

Before she opened it, she turned back. “You don’t know, Cal, you have no idea. You’ve shut yourself up for so long in this f**king house with your tragic memories, you have no idea what’s about to walk out your door. Kate, Keira and me, we could have plugged that hole. We could have filled you so full, you’d be bursting. We would have loved that chance. We’d have given it everything we had, no matter the time that slid by, graduations, weddings, grandbabies, you’d have been a part of us and we’d have given everything we had to keep you so full, you’d be bursting.”