Chapter 16 Nicola
NICOLA
“You’re a literal angel on this earth. I’m endlessly grateful for you!” Lucia said, blowing me a kiss and running out the door with a wave. “Have fun! Don’t kill each other, bye!”
“God, they’re so disgustingly in love,” I said to Matteo once the door shut.
I had curled Lucia’s hair and let her borrow my classic red lipstick for her night out with Alexander.
She looked amazing, and her sunshine was damn near contagious.
Or it was spending the day with Matteo, the way he pulled me close after we jumped into the water or talked while we lay in the sun.
Matteo was so easy to talk to. I had never had that.
Those damn DeLuca siblings were making me soft.
“Zietta?” Gianna spoke up. I turned, crouching down to her level, Matteo catching my eye as I did.
“Yeah babe?”
“Can we watch a princess movie?” she asked. And who was I to tell her no? She looked up to me with identical green eyes to her mother, little blonde ringlets in pigtails, and she was clutching her bunny stuffie as usual.
“Of course, Principessa,” Matteo spoke up, scooping her into his arms as she giggled.
“Put me down!” she laughed and laughed.
“Oh, you didn’t want to fly?” Matteo asked as he started moving around the room and holding her like she was flying.
She put an arm out and started chanting, “Faster!”
Watching Matteo with her was basically the cutest thing to exist. It made my heart soften even more.
We played princesses—Matteo and I in crowns while Gianna held her ‘royal court’—before we put on one of her favorite princess movies on the living space television.
Not even thirty minutes into the movie, Gianna was asleep leaning against me.
Matteo pulled up a blanket around her, smiling softly.
“For knowing literally no kids other than G, you’re damn good at this Moretti,” he whispered.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I whispered back. “She adores you.”
“Please, I didn’t miss how she’s been calling you Zietta lately, that’s a huge honor.”
“I almost cried the first time,” I admitted.
“Didn’t know you were capable.” He smirked.
I smacked his arm in mock annoyance. It seemed to all be mock annoyance lately.
Because Matteo DeLuca was growing on me, was making me blush, and was making my stomach fill with butterflies.
I shook my head, trying to shove down the feelings.
Not safe feelings. Feelings led to hurt.
Nope this was just vacation, a truce was made. It would go back to normal next week.
We watched the rest of the movie in silence, Gianna fast asleep. Then Matteo flipped the channel, scrolling through other movies to rent.
“I feel like you hate romcoms?” he joked.
“Excuse you, I love them!”
“Careful Moretti, your icy heart is melting! Don’t tell the others!”
“Shut up,” I rolled my eyes.
“You’ve Got Mail or 10 Things I Hate About You?” he asked.
“Have you seen both?”
“A requirement when you have Lucia as a sister,” he rolled his eyes.
“Hmmm,” I tapped my chin trying to decide. “10 Things I Hate About You,” I finally replied, and he started the movie.
I must have fallen asleep at some point during the movie, because I woke to end credits,missing a Gianna-shaped human curled into my side.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I said, yawning.
“That’s okay, you’re cute when you snore.”
“I do not snore!” I threw back.
“You one hundred percent snore, Moretti.”
“Oh my God, that is so embarrassing!” I said, covering my face.
“Oh, she’s blushing!” he said, leaning over and poking my side.
“I will slap you,” I swatted away his hand. He raised an eyebrow and got up on his knees on the couch. And he fucking crawled to me. I swore time had stalled.
“You keep being mean to me and I’m gonna fall in love with you,” he smirked, getting closer. I pushed myself back and held out a foot to his chest.
“Fuck right off, DeLuca,” I said, trying to hold back a laugh.
“If there wasn’t a child sleeping in the next room, I’d do just that,” he smirked. I pushed him back with my foot and he let himself fall back, now on the opposite side of the couch. “Your loss.”
“You are so fucking annoying,” I rolled my eyes again.
“Hmm, that doesn’t sound so convincing anymore,” he teased. I opened my mouth to reply, but we heard footsteps and the key card beeped at the front door to the villa. Alexander and Lucia entered, Alexander holding Lucia’s heels as she walked in barefoot and smiling.
“Hey!” she greeted us, “How’d she do?”
“Perfect as always,” Matteo replied easily, getting up and greeting them both.
“And you two behaved?” she asked, raising an eyebrow to me. I mocked a gasp.
“We can be civil adults,” I said.
“One of us can be,” Matteo added, crossing his arms.
“Shut up.”
“Thank you for watching Gia,” Alexander added and smiled down at Lucia, leaning in and kissing her head. “We had a lovely night.”
“Gross,” Matteo gagged and I smirked at my friend. We said our goodbyes, and I whispered to Lucia that she owed me an update. We walked down the hall to our own shared suite.
“I think Alex really loves her,” Matteo said as we reached our door.
“I think she really loves him too,” I replied.
“I was worried for so long she wouldn’t let herself be loved again, after everything she went through with Gianna’s dad,” Matteo said quietly.
I took in the confession. It was so obvious how protective Matteo was of his sister and Gianna.
How much he just wanted them to be happy, how he wanted to give them the whole world.
“It’s hard to accept love after loss,” I said into the dark room as we walked in. Like a confession into the night.
“You say it like you know that feeling,” he said without turning on any lights.
“Something like that,” I replied.
We got ready for bed, and I sat in my thoughts as I showered off the day.
Slipping into a satin pajama set, I was feeling rather cute.
Anticipating how Matteo would react to the outfit gave me an onslaught of butterflies.
But when I left the bathroom, I spotted Matteo knocked out on the bed.
And while I had other plans in mind, I couldn’t help but smile at it.
I slipped under the covers after flipping off the bedside lamp.
As soon as my head hit the pillow, Matteo shifted, his arm wrapping around my stomach and pulling me into him.
Stupid butterflies erupted in my stomach as a result.
His cheek was smashed against the top of my head, and he let out a sigh.
“You faking being asleep right now?” I asked, not even really caring.
“No,” he replied too clearly to be asleep.
“Liar,” I silently laughed, “I hope I snore extra loud and you don’t sleep.”
He only squeezed his arm around me once and muttered, “You don’t actually snore.”
“What?” I gasped and flipped around, facing him. His eyes were sleepy but open and I swore there was a twinkle under the moonlight coming through the window.
“It’s just so easy.”
“What is?”
“Annoying you.”
“You infuriate me, DeLuca.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Moretti,” he whispered back leaning forward, brushing his lips to my forehead and leaving a light kiss. Then he pulled me into his chest. “Go to sleep, trouble.”
I went to argue—I really, truly meant to argue—but it was so warm and comfortable there and only a grumbled response came out of me, because I was fast asleep before I could make out the words he said next.
Waking up next to Matteo was quickly becoming addicting. Today, however, he woke up first and started bugging me. I sleepily swatted away his hand that poked my cheek.
“Wake up, Princess.”
“No,” I mumbled, pulling my pillow closer.
“Can you use a pillow so I can get up then? I assume you don’t want to get up before the sunrise to go on a run?” he asked, and my eyes flew open. Because I didn’t have my hand on the sheets but his shirt, and the pillow was in fact not soft at all, and it smelled fucking divine.
“Oh.”
“Who knew you were such a cuddler?” he smirked down at me. I smacked his chest.
“Fuck off.”
“You could ask nicely, ya know.”
“Have fun with your torture!” I flipped around, trying to readjust. Getting up before daylight should be a cardinal sin. Getting up before the sun to go for his runs, just plain psychotic. Matteo laughed and I felt the bed dip as he stood.
“Be back soon,” I heard him say as I drifted back off to sleep.
The next time I woke up, it was to the smell of coffee and an empty room. There was a coffee cup on the bedside table, a note with messy handwriting under it.
‘Enjoy your coffee, Princess.’ I caught myself smiling at the stupid piece of paper before pushing it away and flopping back on my pillow.
Then I pulled out my phone and typed out just about ten different versions of messages before landing on:
Nicola:
A pastry would go really nice with this coffee
Matteo:
…
Sweet or savory?
Nicola:
Surprise me.
A knock at the door startled me, just as I caught myself smiling down at my phone like an idiot. I blinked, shook my head, and tossed it onto the bed like it betrayed me.
Get a grip, Moretti.
I opened the door to find Lucia on the other side, eyes wide, hair slightly windblown like she power-walked here on a mission.
“I need girl talk,” she announced, already stepping in before I could say anything.
She moved through the hotel suite like a mini hurricane, pacing in a tight line near the foot of my bed.
I closed the door behind her, a sinking feeling already forming in my gut.
I’d only recently learned how to be a decent friend, and whatever this was felt… heavy.
Then she blurted it out like it was physically painful, “I love him.”
She dropped onto the edge of the bed like her knees gave out. Her eyes darted to mine, wide and terrified, like she just confessed to something shameful instead of wonderful.
I sat next to her in the chair, softer than usual. “Okay,” I said gently, “That’s a good thing, right?”