None of my brothers were surprised when I told them Mama was refusing to eat the food offered by the hospital. It seemed she'd put up a fuss every time a meal was brought in, and the others had been sneaking her food whenever they visited. Without a word, Freddie pulled a chicken breast out of the prep cooler and tossed it on the grill. Frankie rounded the cold station and started tossing cut fruits and veggies into a carryout container.

"We'll take over from here," Matteo told me. In the time he'd been with Levi, he'd become much more focused and assertive. His kitchen calamities were a rarity instead of an every day occurrence. "You need to go see her."

I felt guilty I hadn't spent more time at the hospital with Mama. Every time I saw her lying in the bed, my mind jumped to every outcome other than her giving the doctors a hard time and critiquing the food quality. I obsessed over what would've happened if she hadn't come to Marino's that day, if she'd been puttering around in the back dining room later in the day when I'd have been busy getting the main area ready for another busy Friday night. I pictured her lying on the floor, the color draining from her body as she stared up at me with panicked eyes.

Matteo pulled me into the dry storage room and held my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. "Enzo told me you've spent most of your time in the waiting area. Why?"

"I hate it, Teo," I admitted. "I know it's wrong, but I can't stand seeing her like that. I can't stop thinking about how close we came to losing her. I can't go through that again."

His fingers dug into my flesh. The little shit was stronger than I'd given him credit for. "You think we're not all feeling that way? But she's doing well. You're letting your fear keep you from seeing that she's going to be fine. Take her lunch and see how she reacts. That'll go a long way to helping ease your fears."

Maybe it'd help the panic over how close she'd come to dying, but I didn't trust myself around Enzo and Max in front of her. It'd only been a few hours since I'd seen them, yet all I wanted was to collapse against their chests and feel the safety of their arms around me. We'd briefly talked this morning about how to deal with telling Mama that Max was with both of us and decided it would be best to not say anything until she was out of the hospital. We weren't going to lie to her, but we also didn't feel the need to add any potential stress when she should be focusing on healing. That meant I could probably get away with holding onto Max for security, but having one without the other was like Thanksgiving dinner without the pie. It was good, but not enough.

"I never said I wouldn't take her lunch," I argued because it was better to focus on the parts of his criticism that didn't leave me spiraling out of control. Plus, I hated the idea of admitting the baby of the family had just effectively put me in my place. And I wasn't the type of guy who skipped a holiday meal just because he couldn't have his favorite dessert. That thought made me chuckle, which caused Matteo's face to twist in concern. He reached out to pat my arm, and I backed away. "I'm fine, Matteo. It's been a long-ass week, and I'm just tired."

"Whatever you say." He quickly bagged the food our brothers had prepared for Mama—and apparently for Enzo and Max as well because there was no way Mama was eating that entire mountain of food on her own. "Spend the afternoon with her, and then go home with the guys. We'll pick up you and Enzo around eight."

"Huh?" I scratched the back of my head, trying to find the detail of this conversation that was still locked in Matteo's bizarre mind. I knew damn well we hadn't made plans, and it wasn't anyone's birthday.

Matteo handed me the first bag and grabbed the other two. The staff called out messages for me to pass along to Mama as I wove my way toward the back door. Matteo bumped the door and held it open for me. I squinted against the sudden brightness. Days like today, it was easy to lose track of time and forget that while the dining room was illuminated by carefully set artificial light to create a romantic atmosphere, the sun glared on the other side of the heavily tinted glass.

"We talked about it this morning, and we're not letting you hide. I think Frankie's better about the three of you being together now that he's had time to cool off a bit, but if I'm wrong, Da— Levi said we need to stand by you and show him he's the one in the wrong here, not you or Enzo or Max. We haven't all gone out together since the night you got busted drooling all over Peter—"

"Did you see him? He was fucking gorgeous!" It had been over a month since my brothers had given me shit for lusting after Freddie's fiancé, so I supposed I was due another dose of humiliation. "If any of you assholes had warned me ahead of time, I wouldn't have made an ass out of myself."

"Hey, I'm not one to judge another's kink. Between him and Max, it's no wonder you were a walking, talking boner the rest of the night. Some guys are into dudes with long hair and realistic looking boobs, others are into—" Matteo stopped short, his cheeks burning red. That was the closest he'd come to admitting the kink we'd all realized bound him to Levi. If him almost calling Levi daddy on a regular basis hadn't given him away, the way they acted around one another would have. "Anyway, I'm just trying to make sure you know we're not judging you for anything, cross-dressing, poly relationships, or anything else that makes you happy. You get what I'm trying to say here?"

I thought I did, but I was terrified to reveal too much and realize I'd been mistaken. A knot of emotion formed in my throat. I tossed the bag of food I'd been carrying into the passenger seat of my car and threw my arms around Matteo. In the end, it didn't matter what support he thought he was offering me; it was enough to know that he was on our side and wasn't going to cut us out of his life. "Thanks, buddy. For everything."

"Anytime."

I stiffened when Matteo kissed my cheek. How many times throughout our lives have all of us kissed one another without thinking anything of it? While I knew for certain Papa never would've condoned what Enzo and I were doing, it was impossible to deny our ability to love had been influenced by him. He was probably rolling over in his grave since all five of his sons had come out as living somewhere on the rainbow, but I had to believe he'd also begrudgingly defend every single one of us because we weren't afraid to love freely, and that included not believing the bullshit that real men didn't hug or kiss their siblings. Okay, so there was a line there Enzo and I had crossed, but that was an invisible line we'd all agreed never needed to be revealed.

Matteo watched me as I pulled out of my parking spot, waving as I disappeared down the alley behind the restaurant. I paused at the stop sign, taking a few deep breaths. Today was the first time I felt like I wasn't hiding from the world in months. I pressed the gas pedal a little harder than necessary, causing my tires to chirp as I raced into traffic. Suddenly, everything was clear, and I couldn't wait to sit alongside my guys.

I could hear Enzo and Max laughing before I reached Mama's hospital room. I tripped over my feet when I walked in and saw Mama's empty bed. "What's going on?"

I dropped the bags on the end of the bed and threw myself into Max's arms. He held me, reassuring me everything was good. Great even. Enzo joined the embrace, positioning himself so the kisses he peppered to the side of my neck were shielded from the view of anyone passing by. God, I loved these men.

"The therapist came by for Mama a while ago," Enzo told me. He reached up and brushed a stray hair away from my eyes. "She's doing so well, Tony. She was struggling a bit this morning, but after Max convinced her to eat and she took a nap, she was like a new woman."

"So, you're saying Max is a miracle worker?" I chuckled, wondering if either of them picked up the movie reference.

"No, I'm simply telling you Mama's a fighter, but you already know that." Max led us to the folding chairs beside the bed. Once we sat, he stood sentinel behind us, rubbing our shoulders as Enzo relayed all the information he'd been given since he'd arrived. It was a damn good thing I was sitting when he shared the most shocking moment of the day or I might've collapsed into a heap on the floor. "...and apparently if Mama hadn't figured out before today that Max and I are together too, she knows now."

"I thought we weren't telling her yet?" I pressed my lips into a tight line, holding back the argument bubbling up inside of me. It annoyed me they'd gone against what we'd all agreed on.

When my leg started bouncing, Enzo reached out to still it. "We didn't tell her anything, she figured it out on her own. I left the room long enough to convince the nurses to tell me what her dietary plan says, and when I came back, she'd finished lecturing Max about treating both of us right." He stared into the distance, leaving me to wonder what he wasn't saying. We both looked up to Max, who offered Enzo a smile and a nod. Enzo sucked in a deep breath. "But that's not all. He didn't ask too many questions, but Max said he's pretty sure Mama knows something's going on between us."

"Fucking wonderful." I scrubbed the back of my neck, feeling that suffocating weight I'd just shed settling back on my shoulders. Why couldn't life be easy for one fucking day?

"Hey, relax." Max started kneading the knots in my shoulders and neck. "We don't know anything for sure, and if I wasn't mistaken in how I interpreted what she said, she's not disgusted or shocked by it. As she very bluntly put it when she was warning me to take care of both of you, she's not a dumb woman. She's perceptive as hell, and I think she was more worried the two of you would never find what you needed to have a full life."

"And you're what we needed?" I asked, a bit more sarcastically than intended. This was too much to take in, first with Matteo and now hearing Mama had figured it out as well.

"You damn straight I am." Max bent over and kissed the top of my head, then did the same to Enzo. "You were never going to be happy until you found someone who could accept both of you and the bond you share, even if you didn't realize how deep that connection ran at the time. It's an added bonus that you found a guy who's more than happy to love both of you equally. Now she knows where I stand, and she can focus on what really matters. What did you bring us to eat?"

I burst out laughing. It was ridiculous how easily Max shifted from a serious conversation to food. Then again, part of what made us all work was that we didn't let the others dwell long enough to drive a wedge into our relationship. He smoothed the blankets over the top of Mama's bed and laid everything out picnic-style. I warned them about our youngest brother's plan for a guys' night out to show the others we weren't trying to hide our relationship. It left a sour taste in my mouth that Max would be working, but he said it didn't bother him as long as we wound up at Club 83 by midnight when he got off work. That wasn't hard to agree to since it seemed to be everyone's favorite club since we were all paired off with same-sex partners. The Marino brothers were finally living openly and honestly, and that was the best feeling in the fucking world.