Episode Sixteen
S eeing your kid with a kid is something else. I honestly didn’t think I could love another person the way I love Katy and Orlando. And then along came Sebastian. The cutest and smartest fucking baby I’ve ever seen.
It’s not ideal to have your teenage son bring home a six-month-old and inform you that you’re a grandfather. Or in my case, a glampa . I refuse to be fucking old, and I look way too damn good to be anything other than glamorous.
Sebastian’s tiny hands reach out to grab at my face before he lowers his head and tries to eat my nose.
“Nice try, bud. Not this time.” I lift him off the changing table, blowing raspberries on his bare stomach and making him laugh the sweetest little laugh, then set him down again. “Your papa used to love that too.” It really does seem like it was only yesterday that Orlando was this age. “If you can develop some kind of condition where you stay this size and this cute and innocent forever, Glampa would really appreciate it,” I tell Sebastian.
“Really, Pops, you’re wishing an illness on my son?” Orlando is standing just outside the nursery Katy had furnished with Aleeka’s help.
“Not at all. I just want to bottle him up and keep him like this.” I shrug, lifting Sebastian from the changing table and swinging him back into my arms.
“You should have woken me up,” Orlando says.
“Why?”
“Because I should be doing that.” He points to the table.
“Fuck off. We’re all here to help out. It takes a village to raise a child, Orlando. It doesn’t make you any less his father to accept help,” I remind him. I couldn’t be prouder of my son. Orlando has really stepped into his role of being a parent. Taken it on with stride. His only fault is thinking he needs to do everything alone. “We’re family. We help each other.”
“I know. It’s just… you and Ma do a lot for us already,” he says.
“And we’ll keep doing it.” My free hand wraps around the back of my son’s head. “I love you,” I tell him, resting my forehead on his.
“Love you too, Pops,” he replies.
“Now, I think this one needs to eat. Go shower and get ready for school. I’ve got him.”
“Thanks.” Orlando starts to walk away before quickly turning back to face me. “Oh, Aleeka says you have to stop giving him chocolate baby food for breakfast.”
“It’s his favorite and it’s chocolate flavored . It’s not even real,” I counter.
Orlando lifts his shoulders into a shrug. “Just the messenger,” he says, before adding with a smirk, “Take it up with her.”
He knows damn well Katy has forbid all of us from arguing with or questioning Aleeka’s choices as a mother. My wife is determined to not let anyone overpower the young girl and claims that us Valentino men are intimidating. I laughed and reminded her that we’re supposed to be intimidating . It kinda comes with the job.
Still, she wants to make sure Aleeka feels in control and supported, not railroaded in raising her son how ever we dictate she should do it. Katy has always been strong willed. There isn’t anything she can’t do when she puts her mind to it.
But my wife struggled after Orlando was born. She was diagnosed with postpartum depression; it took a lot of therapy and work to get her through it. What’s worse is she felt like a failure. She felt like nothing she did was good enough.
Which was ridiculous. She’s the best fucking mother to our son. Always has been. She puts him above everything else, thinks the sun shines out of the boy’s ass. I mean, he’s a great kid. I would say he wasn’t anywhere near as reckless as I was at his age. But then he came home with a baby at seventeen. So, yeah, pretty fucking reckless.
I think I had the whole wrap it or lose it talk with him a million times. He swears the condom broke, and I believe him. Still, I never got anyone knocked up at seventeen. I don’t think I was anywhere near as reckless as my brothers and parents claim me to have been.
“What do you feel like having today, little man?” I ask Sebastian while walking into the kitchen. He just babbles back at me.
“Oh, you got my baby.” Katy sets her cup of coffee on the counter and walks over to me with her arms wide open. She used to do that because she wanted to hug me. Now it’s purely to snatch Sebastian out of my hands.
“Nope, we’re having a grandson and Glamps morning,” I reply, holding Sebastian just out of her reach.
“Luca, I love you. But seriously, Glamps is not sticking. Now give me my grandchild,” she says in a firm tone.
I relent and pass over my grandson, who immediately snuggles into my wife’s arms. “Traitor,” I whisper to him. “And Glamps is sticking, babe.” I kiss Katy before moving towards the pantry. “Mama says no more chocolate for breakfast. Looks like banana custard it is, little guy.”
Movement on the CCTV screen behind Katy catches my eye, and I watch as my brother storms into my house, clutching his side. “Katy, tell Orlando to use the back entrance today,” I call out before rushing towards the foyer, where Theo is bleeding all over my damn floor. “What the fuck happened to you?” I ask, ducking under his arm to support his weight.
“Drive-by,” he grunts.
“Who?” I’m already coming up with a list of ways to kill the motherfucker who thought they could shoot my brother.
“No fucking idea. Get the doc here. I can’t go home with a bullet in my side. Maddie will kill me.” The fucker smiles.
“I might just kill you if you keep dragging blood through my house, Theo,” Katy says, and I turn to see my wife with Sebastian on her hip.
“Hey, little man, you doing your job and keeping the old man up all night?” Theo asks Sebastian.
“That baby is pure perfection,” I tell my brother. “Come on, let’s get your ass into the office.” “Have someone clean this up for me.” I gesture to one of my soldiers, who is looking at Theo with worry etched on his face. I lay Theo down on the sofa—a sofa that will now need replacing—and pull his hand aside. “Let me look.”
“Why? You suddenly a doctor?” he asks.
“No, fucker, but I have been shot once or twice.” I laugh.
“Boss, the doc is on his way,” Theo’s driver calls into the room.
“Thanks, Logan,” Theo answers. “Any other hits?”
“You think this wasn’t a one-off?” I chime in.
“None, boss. Everyone’s accounted for,” Logan replies.
“Good.” Theo waits for Logan to walk away. “Have Romeo pull up street cam footage from outside The Plaza.”
“What were you doing at The Plaza?” I ask with a raised brow. “I know you’re not cheating on your wife, so what were you doing at a hotel at this hour of the morning?”
“Looking for the little shit who can’t seem to keep his dick away from my daughter,” Theo growls.
“Travis?” I ask. I’m pretty sure Travis and Lil are in Canada right now.
“No, dipshit, Dante.”
“Why would Dante be at The Plaza?”
“He bought a fucking apartment,” Theo grunts as he tries to pull himself upright.
“Lay your ass down. And explain how our seventeen-year-old nephew purchased an apartment worth millions?” The heirs, as we like to refer to them, don’t get access to their trust funds until they’re twenty-one. I walk over to the wet bar and pour a healthy serving of whiskey into a glass.
“It’s Dante. The kid can make money by looking at it.” Theo swipes the glass out of my hand before I can offer it to him. “He’s been playing around with the stock market.”
“Huh, maybe I need to get him to invest for me.” I’ll have to remember to talk to him about it.
“Not the point. He bought a fucking apartment and has taken my daughter there. Unsupervised .” My brother says the last word like it physically ails him.
“They’re seventeen, Theo. You’re overreacting.” I laugh at his obvious discomfort.
“Yeah, keep laughing. Who the fuck’s a nonno here? That’d be you, Luc, ya old fart.”
“You’re older than I am,” I deadpan.
“Still not a grandfather.” Theo smirks.
“Yet. It’ll happen. And you’ll fucking love it when it does.” Fuck, I’d much rather be spending the morning with my grandson than dealing with my brother’s bullshit spilling out all over my furniture.
The door opens, and Orlando stops dead in his tracks. “What happened to you?”
“Caught a bullet. Where’s that sidekick of yours?” Theo asks.
“Dante? No idea.” Orlando lies through his teeth. One thing I’ll give these kids is the fact they stick together like glue. They don’t rat on each other. Not even when they were little.
“When you see him, tell him I want a word,” Theo says.
“Sure thing, Zio Theo.” Orlando smirks and then looks at me. “Is he going to live?”
“Yes.”
“Thank fuck. The last thing this family needs is another restructuring,” Orlando grunts. “I’m off. Ma is taking Sebastian over to Zia Maddie’s.”
“Fuck,” Theo says, trying to get up again. I push on his shoulder right as the doc walks in. “Let me go. If Katy tells Maddie I was shot, my wife’s really going to have my balls.”
“Sit your ass down and let the doc sew you up. Katy isn’t going to say anything.” She never does. She really isn’t one for idle gossip. It’s one of the things I love about her.
“You’re right,” Theo huffs and lies back on the sofa. “Doc, can you patch me up quick?”
“Maybe I should look at it first, boss. Wouldn’t want to do a half-assed job and leave you vulnerable to some kind of infection or realize too late that you’ve ruptured something vital,” the doc says.
“Right.” Theo throws an arm over his forehead, covering his eyes.
“So fucking dramatic.” I laugh.
“You try getting shot,” he groans as the doc starts probing the hole.
“I have. Twice,” I reply with a grin.