Chapter Nine
Allegra
Allegra: Brady drives like my ass.
I held my phone and waited for my sisters to text back. The group chat I’d started when Perla had moved out of our apartment was the greatest thing I’d ever done—even if I hadn’t known it at the time. As time passed and we all started going in different directions, it became our lifeline to each other. And I knew that with this pregnancy, I’d definitely need them and this chat.
Perla: I didn’t know your ass drove.
Bianca: Yeah, scary!
And there they are. How I love my sisters.
Allegra: Funny. We’re almost there. Does Dad know I’m preggers?
Bianca: Do you seriously think anyone wants to risk him freaking out? No way!
Perla: Yeah, Bibi just got back in his good graces after that whole forbidden romance business with Knox. Him finding out you’re with child is going to be quite the show. I hope someone brought popcorn.
Bianca: With child? Who says these things?
Allegra: You’re there to be supportive. Not give me agita .
Seriously, I don’t need heartburn. From what I’d read, I’d be getting enough of it with this pregnancy, so my sisters adding to that wasn’t appreciated.
Perla: Technically, I’m not at the house yet. I’ll probably be late because I’m just getting in the car now. Frankie had to fly out to Miami for a wedding, so my goodbye took longer than I expected.
Bianca: Is goodbye a euphemism?
Perla: Go with your gut, Bibi.
Maria: Bibi, I’m about to pull up. See if Knox can meet me outside to carry in the trays.
Bianca: On it.
Allegra: I hope you made lasagna.
Maria: You know I did.
Allegra: With the meat and arrabbiata sauce?
Maria: Is there any other way to make it?
Allegra: Marry me.
Maria: Tell Brady to drive safe. He’s carrying precious cargo now.
Allegra: And so it begins. . . the baby is more important than me.
Perla: It happens. Okay, starting the car. See you soon!
I slipped my phone into my oversized purse and looked out the window, wondering when Brady was going to get acquainted with the signals. “You don’t have to drive so erratically. This isn’t the city.” I was about ready to throw up, and I couldn’t even blame it on the pregnancy.
“I didn’t know being irritable started quite so early in the game,” he returned, turning to me for a beat. “Are you nervous about telling your dad? I don’t know him well, but I think it’ll be okay. If I learned anything from the few times I’ve been around him, it’s that he loves all of you unconditionally.”
The way he spoke with such concern, such compassion for me, made me squirm in my seat. I rolled my lips as I thought about the best way to answer. Then I decided he deserved honesty. “Yes,” I confessed. “I’m not delusional, though, so I know it’ll be fine. Besides the fact that it kind of has to be, I’m not the baby or his favorite, so it shouldn’t crush him too much. It’s not like it’s Perla or Bianca announcing they’re knocked up.”
“Were you close with your mom?”
Smiling, I nodded. I missed her terribly and wished she could be here for this. But I believed she was watching over me, her spirit with me in everything I did. “Sometimes I can still hear her laugh, smell her perfume. It’s like she’s right there. Then I remember.”
Brady pulled up to the driveway of Dad’s house and shut the car off. “Allegra,” he breathed my name, understanding laced in his voice.
I really wasn’t like my sisters. I tried not to let myself get weighed down by the sadness. I tried to connect with Mom in all the ways I still could, like through my medium. But for some reason, being here with Brady, locked in the car, talking about this, it brought it all to the surface for me.
My eyes welled with tears and in the lightest of motions, his thumb brushed over my cheek before he ripped it away. Was it wrong that I wanted it back?
“You can talk to me about her anytime you want,” he said and locked eyes with me.
Not wanting to confuse my emotions, I shook my head. “We should go in. Get this over with so we can eat. Maria cooked, and I’m starving.”
* * *
Brady
Angelo Morelli’s house was intimidating, there was no other way to put it. I tried to not think about how intimidating the man himself could be and instead focused on why we were here. To deliver the news to Angelo that Allegra and I were having a baby.
And apparently lunch. Couldn’t forget lunch.
Everything this family did revolved around food, a fact I was quickly coming to learn.
But I couldn’t seem to forget my observations of the house. If I thought their house in the Hamptons was something else, his main home was goddamn palatial.
Currently we were in the backyard. To be more precise, the entire Morelli lot, plus myself and Knox, were sitting on the outdoor sofas around the fireplace and flat-screen unit under a trellis. To one side was a koi pond and to the other was a rose garden. Behind us was an outdoor kitchen and just beyond was the pool with a rock waterfall and six lounge chairs.
Angelo was telling a story as he sipped his spiced rum, but I couldn’t seem to shake the thoughts circling my own mind.
I looked at Allegra next to me. She was clutching her glass of water like it was her energy source. I could feel the nerves radiating off her body. I reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it in mine to reassure her. I only wondered when she’d make the announcement, but it seemed she was letting her father enjoy himself for a bit.
“Excuse us a minute, would you?” Allegra finally asked and stood up, eyeing me, silently insisting I follow.
I did, and we walked away from everyone and into the house. Just inside, she turned around and closed the door behind me. “I’m nervous.” Her chest moved with each breath she took—up and down, up and down—her tits brushing against my shirt with how close she stood to me.
Tits I longed to touch, hold, and lavish with attention, something I didn’t get to do the one and only time we’d been together.
I wanted to wrap my arms around her and hold her close, to tell her it would all be okay. And I believed that it would be. In the long run. But that didn’t change the fact that telling her dad might not be okay in the short run. “I know,” I acknowledged, looking down at her full lips.
Not saying a word, she continued to breathe against me until the door opened behind us, and Maria slipped in. “Um, you two may want to come back out and tell Dad.”
“Now?” Allegra shrieked, and I slipped my hand around her, coming to rest it on the small of her back.
I nodded and smiled. “Let’s go. It’ll be okay,” I said, promising her something I had no business promising her.
Maria winked at me. “You’re a good man, Brady Moore.” Then she went out the way she came in.
This time, I didn’t fight it, I pulled Allegra against my body and held her there, looking into her eyes. “We can do this. You can do this. I’ll be right there. Besides, if he’s going to be pissed at anyone, it’ll be me.”
Allegra made a face, her brows coming together like she was unconvinced. “He doesn’t need to know the details.”
“Agreed.” I patted her and let her step out of my grasp. Not that I wanted her to. If I had it my way, she’d be in my arms forever, but I knew that wasn’t what she wanted. She’d made herself clear.
One night.
Now, one baby.
That was it.
She’d never hinted at needing or wanting more, and I was just going to have to get over what I wanted. Hell, I’d done it for months. Why should now be any different, I asked myself as I watched her walk outside without waiting for me.
No, Allegra Morelli didn’t need me. Certainly didn’t want anything from me.
Damn. These next eighteen years and some odd months were going to kill me.
* * *
Allegra
I could do this.
As soon as Brady joined us again (he’d been behind me, or so I thought), I cleared my throat. “I have an announcement.”
All eyes turned to me.
“About the anniversary party?” Dad asked.
I shook my head. “No. Not about work.”
“Then what is it?” he asked, watching me closely.
Honestly, I didn’t know why I was so nervous all of a sudden. But even my heart rate kicked up a notch. Maybe it was because of all the pressure I was putting on myself about telling him. I turned and looked at Brady, my sisters, and Knox. Each one gave me a reassurance of some kind—head nod, smile, wink, the list went on.
Without preamble, I blurted out, “I’m having a baby. With Brady.” My eyes never left Dad as I waited for his reaction, which took a beat before it came.
And when it did, it was a smirk.
What the heck?
“Is this a joke?” Dad asked, laughing. “It’s a good one. A baby.” All right, this was borderline insulting. He was all out laughing. Like hysterically. “Brady, were you in on this with my daughter?”
As he laughed and looked around, it became obvious he was the only one who found it funny. He realized it, too, and slowly stopped.
“Sir,” Brady cut in, “it’s not a joke.”
Turning to me, Dad eyed me. “Allegra?”
I pinched my lips and shook my head. “It’s true. I have a sonogram to prove it.” I reached into my purse and pulled out the picture I’d carried with me since we’d left the doctor’s office. “Look. I’m just over eight weeks.”
“But we just found out,” Brady was quick to add as if that’d matter to my father. Timing wouldn’t matter to him. If anything, time would be the least of our concerns.
Dad stood up and put his glass down on the coffee table between the couches. “You are having a baby with an Irishman?” he asked, clearly distraught over the one thing that didn’t matter at all.
Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Knox lean over to Brady. Tuning into what he was saying, I heard him whisper, “Don’t worry, I’m also not Italian. Consider the way paved for you. My gift to you, man,” as he punched him on the arm.
Not exactly something I was worried about, and I had a feeling Brady wasn’t, either, but okay, Knox. We’re so glad you’re not Italian and came into our lives, loving Bianca, for this exact moment.
Answering my father, I finally spoke, saying, “Yes, I am. We’re very excited. I hope you can be happy for us.” That sounded believable, right?
Don’t get me wrong, I was happy, but excited might’ve been a stretch, especially at first.
“Happy,” Dad repeated. “A baby.”
Brady leaned over to me. “He’s not blinking. Maybe this isn’t good.”
Then Dad started this thing he was known to do when he was upset—rant in Italian. I considered it a good sign. He was responsive (if not blinking) and following all his usual habits when annoyed. Case in point, my gaze fell to his hand where he was now spinning the Italian horseshoe ring he always wore around his finger.
Yeah, things were going to be okay. Trying to tell this to Brady, I explained, “No, it’s okay. It’ll blow over.”
“He seems upset,” he countered as my father walked away from the family and paced around the pool.
Bianca chuckled. “Not too bad, if you ask me.” She snuggled against Knox, and together they seemed amused by the whole thing. Assholes. I mean, sure, they’d gone through their own hell not long ago, but come on.
“Yeah, give him a few minutes, and it’ll be fine,” Perla agreed.
Maria stood. “I’ll get the lasagna from the oven where I’ve been keeping it warm.”
So maybe I’d been right in the car, and there was nothing to be nervous about. This could have gone a lot worse. All in all things were looking good on the tell-Dad front.