24. Matteo
Matteo
“So, there’s something special we wanted to talk to you girls about.”
Bianca’s big brown eyes stared up at me from where she was seated on my lap. “Are we going swimming?”
“Uh, maybe when it gets a little warmer.” Though the weather was much milder than what we’d left behind in Chicago, it was still chilly in early February.
“Oh!” My daughter perked up as she ventured another guess. “Is Cookie coming?”
Even with as much trouble as that cat had caused, Bianca loved it. But unfortunately, without knowing how long we’d be staying abroad, we decided to leave it behind.
Summer reached out from her perch on the couch opposite me, holding Serafina, to give Bianca’s leg a little squeeze. “Sorry, B. I’m afraid it’s not about Cookie. But she’s safe with Uncle Enzo, and I bet we can video chat with him later so you can see her.”
Arms crossed, she pouted with a “fine.”
I jostled her on my lap, trying to get her to loosen up a little bit as I asked, “What if I told you I asked Summer to marry me, and that she said yes?”
The four-year-old’s head moved on a swivel, twisting as she glanced between me and her former-nanny-turned-future-step-mother. Summer kept her eyes glued to Bianca, nervously gnawing on her lower lip, as we gauged my daughter’s reaction.
Bianca peeked up at me. “Does this mean she will stay with us forever?”
“That’s the idea, yeah,” I replied, my chest filling with warmth at the mere idea of spending the rest of my life with Summer.
“My wish came true.”
Brow furrowing, I asked, “What wish?”
Shyly, she smiled before confessing, “The first night Summer came to live with us, I wished that we could keep her forever.”
“Oh, you did, did you?” I tickled Bianca, making her squeal. “Then I guess I owe you a giant thank you or maybe a giant bowl of gelato. How’s that sound?”
“Chocolate?”
I reared back, placing a hand to my chest in mock outrage. “Is there any other flavor?”
Grinning widely, she shook her head.
Setting her on her feet, I gave her little bum a tap. “Go on ahead, I’ll meet you in the kitchen. “
Bianca was gone in a flash, and I reached out to grasp Summer’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
Watery laughter bubbled from her lips. “That was easier than I thought.”
I couldn’t contain my cocky smirk. “I told you she would be thrilled.”
Sniffling, she battled back the tears. “I can’t believe she wanted me to stay so badly that she wished for it.”
I scooched closer to her on the couch, cupping her face and wiping away the first tear that fell down her cheek. “It’s not hard to believe. Not when I’ve been wishing for the exact same thing this entire time.”
“Thank God I’m not wearing any makeup, or I’d be a mess after having the father-daughter Bellini tag team make me cry.”
With my forehead pressed to hers, I whispered, “You are always beautiful to me.”
And I meant it. Dolled up, dressed down, or even in a fucking hospital bed, I was in love with this woman in every single one of her forms.
I couldn’t wait to see all the others she hadn’t gotten around to showing me yet.
“Go get Summer,” I encouraged Serafina.
Our small but mighty eleven-month-old was rocking on her knees, so close to crawling for the first time. This would be a huge milestone for her physical development.
Summer sat only a few feet away, jingling a set of toy keys. “Come on, little mouse.”
Since this was a whole family affair, Bianca chimed in, “Look! Like this!” Getting down on her hands and knees, she demonstrated how to crawl.
The baby girl looked at the three of us like we were crazy, but just when I was about to give up hope that today might be the day—we’d been trying to get her to do this for nearly a week—she lifted her right palm and scooched forward a few inches before placing it down again.
Collectively, we held our breaths, waiting to see if it was a fluke or if she might do it again and actually crawl.
The silence stretched on for what felt like hours before she repeated the process with her left hand, inching forward even more. Like a lightbulb went off, she figured it out and worked her way across the six feet it took to reach Summer.
“You did it!” With a triumphant cry, Summer lifted Serafina over her head before drawing my youngest daughter into her chest and rocking her from side to side. “Look at you, big girl!”
Serafina reached both hands up, placing them on Summer’s face, babbling excitedly. But on the tail end of her baby talk, she said, clear as day, “Mama.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
Panicked, Summer’s eyes grew huge, and she quickly corrected the baby, “Oh no, sweetheart, I’m not—”
“Can I call you Mommy too?” This came from Bianca, and Summer whipped her head around, mouth hanging open.
“Uh . . .” Unsure how to respond, Summer looked to me for help.
With the weight of a two-ton elephant sitting on my chest, I asked Bianca. “Do you want to call Summer Mommy?”
Sensing the growing tension, Bianca drew in on herself, her voice coming out small. “I have a mamma in heaven, but I’d like to have a mommy. All the other girls at school do.”
My heart broke all over again, shattering into a million pieces, for the two little girls who’d lost their mother so young.
I swallowed around the lump formed in my throat, my words coming out thick with emotion. “If that’s all right with Summer.”
Eyes glassy, the woman I loved nodded. “Of course that’s all right. I would be honored to be your and your sister’s mommy.”
“Okay.” Bianca walked over to Summer, hugging her around the neck. “I love you, Mommy.”
It was almost enough to make a grown man cry. And I should probably check to see if Hell had frozen over, because I did tear up, for probably the first time in my entire life.
Shrieks and squeals echoed off the rock walls surrounding the little alcove. We’d braved the cold water enough to put our toes in, and Bianca loved it. Her favorite game was splashing me with her kicks, and even though my clothes were soaked through, my cheeks hurt from how wide I was smiling.
Summer and Serafina were seated a safe distance away on a blanket spread over the sandy shore.
But even from this distance, I could see my baby girl was desperate to get in on the action.
She was squirming, trying to escape Summer’s hold, and her whines of protest were loud enough to be heard over the crashing waves.
Unwilling to leave Bianca alone in the water while I went to retrieve her sister, I grabbed her hand, and together, we walked to where the other half of our little family sat.
I hefted Serafina into my arms and tickled her belly. “Were you feeling left out, topolina ?”
She twisted like a contortionist so that she could spy the sea behind me, and I barely managed to keep from dropping her.
I chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Holding her out to Summer, I asked, “Can you help me roll up her pants?”
Concern filled Summer’s blue eyes as she granted my request. “Are you sure it’s not too cold? She just got over pneumonia not that long ago.”
“I’m just gonna dip her toes in,” I assured her. “Then we can call it a day and get both girls into a hot bath. How’s that sound?”
“The world’s quickest dip, you hear?” There was no mistaking the warning in her tone.
Even though I saw it in action every day, it would never get old witnessing how fiercely Summer loved my girls and the lengths she would go to protect them.
Bending at the waist, I brushed a kiss against her lips. “A millisecond, nothing more. I promise.” When I straightened, I pointed a finger at Bianca. “No more splashing.”
Bianca’s little lips pursed into a pout, but she nodded her agreement.
Approaching the water’s edge once more, I let Serafina’s bare toes dangle above the surf. She kicked wildly, trying to get closer.
“Patience,” I teased as I lowered her.
An incoming wave rolled over her tiny toes, and she sucked in a sharp breath, shocked by the frigid water, and instantly retracted her feet.
Laughing, I tucked her to my chest and used the hem of my shirt to dry any lingering droplets from her skin. “We’ll have to come back when it’s warmer.”
That thought gave me pause.
What if we didn’t go back to Chicago? What if we stayed here and left that life behind for good?
Enzo could take over as Don until Gio’s return—if that ever happened—and the board could name a replacement as CEO of Bellini Real Estate.
Relocating and staying off the grid would keep Summer and the girls safe permanently.
It was the perfect scenario. Except for the fact that it would make me look like a coward, and our enemies would view that as weakness, using it as the perfect opportunity to continue attacking those we’d abandoned in favor of our own safety.
As the head of the organization, I couldn’t allow those who had served it faithfully to suffer at my expense.
At the end of the day, I was Bellini born, and there was no escaping my birthright.
I only prayed that we discovered who held that metaphorical gun to my head before they pulled the trigger.