Chapter 12“So, who’s Barry?”
That’s what Mallory asked the moment they sat down and drinks were set before them.
She had iced tea; Jimmy had a glass of red wine. It was a fancy Italian restaurant just off Madison Avenue in the Fifties and Jimmy had supposed beer would be too west side. He sipped at his wine, put up his pinky finger just to fit in.
“Ha-ha, funny, Jim. But you can’t avoid the question.”
“How do you know there even is a Barry?”
“Do you remember me being at Ma’s yesterday?”
“Uh, sort of?”
“Man, you really got your clock cleaned, didn’t you?”
“Guess so, lost some time.”
She smiled at the way he kept the metaphor going. Mallory had a soothing way about her, she’d always been a typical oldest child, looking out for her two younger siblings with a fierce protectiveness, m
