13

Gregory

The meeting with my mother goes surprisingly well. Allison's intimidated and quiet at first, but Mother draws her out, and they end up chatting for a couple of hours. When it's over, as a condition of her acceptance and blessing, Mother makes me promise to do one horrible thing: have dinner with my brothers and their wives.

Which is how I end up sitting at the bar of a Callahan-owned restaurant in the center of Boston's historic Beacon Hill, flanked by Finn and Nolan.

"Going to be honest with you, Gregory. I never imagined you'd get married." Finn salutes me with his glass of whiskey. "Out of the four of us, I assumed you'd be a bachelor for life."

"He's right about that," Nolan agrees.

It's only the three of us. Carson claimed he was too busy, which I assume really means he's pissed at me for getting the family involved in a war on the other side of the continent. Oh, well.

"My relationship with Allison is only a business expedience," I say, not ashamed of that fact.

Finn and