OZZY
A FEW MORE YEARS LATER
Parenthood isn’t for the weak, and even though I haven’t slept in years, I wouldn’t trade my family for the world.
We’re transitioning from five to six, and Fallon has sworn this is our last baby, but as I watch her asleep with our newborn son on her chest, I have a feeling she’ll want one more.
Her signature lilac hair is in a knotted nest on top of her head, and she’s had Romeo attached to her boobs for the last three days.
The first few weeks are always the toughest, but so is Fallon, and she’s never let the struggles of motherhood get her down.
I gently lift the baby off her, and she jumps, her eyes sleepy and confused.
“Go take a shower, Bambi. I’ve got him,” I whisper, bouncing Romeo as he settles against my chest.
“Where’s the boys?” She asks, looking around as she realizes how quiet it is in the house.
“Olly and Cat took them out for pizza, then they’re going to the lake. You need a break, you haven’t slept or showered in days.”
“Oliver is alone with them? Good lord, we might have to glue him back together, again.” She laughs, tying off her robe as she stretches and heads to the bathroom.
Our boys are pure, unfiltered chaos, and they thrive when they’re raising hell together.
Benji is seven, and still looks exactly like me, but he’s so athletic.
We’re always driving him to wrestling, soccer, or pick up games at the park. He looks out for his younger brothers, but will be the one to knock them around, also.
Mateo is almost five, and he’s more like Fallon in terms of his priorities.
He’s passionate about science and making shit blow up. He’s young, but we call him our little genius. Mateo – Matty for short – is a through and through momma’s boy, if one of his brother’s even looks at her wrong, he pounces.
We’ve learned not to count him out just because he’s a mini-nerd, he’s gotten every bit of strength from his mom, and her brain too.
Luca is – was – the youngest, and he’ll be two next month.
He’s a little devil, the terrible twos already driving us up the wall. He’s clumsy, messy, but happy to be included. He’s got a fire inside him, and he’s my little man.
Wherever I go, he’s never less than two stumbling steps behind me, and I’m lucky to have my own sidekick.
It’s been a rollercoaster, having three boys so close in age but they’re growing up together, and their bond is worth the fighting that comes along with it.
Since Mateo was born, I completely reinvented myself, becoming the man and father my family deserves. I went through a rough time after leaving the States, and Max’s suicide, but losing Fallon and the boys wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.
Rather than being on the boats, I run one.
I formed a crew, bought the ship, and we’re making great money. Being away killed me inside, but so did a lot of other things, and I still came back from the depths of my depression.
Now, things couldn’t be better.
We have the house, the farm, and the babies we’d always wanted. Our relationship has never been stronger, and we steal moments whenever we get the chance, which resulted in the little slip that became Romeo, but I’d have babies until the end of time.
This little guy is snuggled on my chest as we rock in the chair, his lips pursed and his snores echoing around the nursery.
We plastered jungle animals on the wall, opting for a gender neutral tactic this time around, but we still ended up with a boy.
Since Valentina, Fallon has desperately wanted a baby girl, but the universe must think we were made to wrangle a herd of boys instead, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s a good thing breastfeeding sucks the calories right out of me.” Fallon giggles, her skin shining as she nibbles on a bowl of pasta.
“You look beautiful, Momma, absolutely radiant,” I whisper as she shovels a bite of food into my mouth.
Italy has done wonders for her cooking skills, and over the last few years she’s mastered the art of making pasta from scratch.
This dish is made with pesto from the veggies in the garden, freshly shredded mozzarella, and her signature garlic sauce.
This place gives her the freedom to explore her creative side in the kitchen, and recently, she’s been on a roll, those pregnancy cravings delivering us all full bellies.
“How’s Cat? I haven’t seen her since Romeo came home.” She slides beside me onto the love seat, and I’m still shocked by her all these years later, even when she’s getting a break from the craziness, she still wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.
“She’s great, her and Oliver are moving into the house next weekend,” I say softly, and she hums with approval.
Since Oliver met Caterina, his fiancee, Fallon has been over the moon. We’d been rooting for him to find someone for years, and finally, he found his woman.
She’s from a smaller village, and they met while Olly was traveling for work. They’ve been nearly inseparable ever since, and she’s just as childish and goofy as he is.
It’s a match made in heaven, and she fits right into place with us.
I knew that wherever we went we’d be able to make it feel like home, but Portofino has been almost like a miracle, our own slice of heaven.
We built our family here, and everyday that I wake up and see the coast out the window, or the animals out back, I beam with happiness knowing that we landed somewhere so beautiful.
“What about Lex and Pep? Have they sent any new pictures of Vivi?”
“Actually, yes. You’ll never guess who her teacher is this year.” I laugh, pulling out my phone to show her the emails from Pepper.
“Oh my god, she’s lost her two front teeth! She looks adorable, just like a clone of Pepper.” She smiles, staring at the picture, but missing my initial statement.
“Her teacher is Cami.”
“Cami, Cami?” She swivels her head so fast I’m afraid it’s going to fall right off.
“Yes, Camila became an elementary school teacher. I guess she’s married to a doctor, too,” I explain, and the smile couldn’t be surgically removed from her face.
It’s been years since we heard about Cami, the last email coming through right around the time Benji was born.
She was nervous about us, with Fallon being plastered all over the news constantly, but we let it fall into the trash folder.
At the time, we were being cautious, only communicating through the tangled web Lex designed to keep our location secure.
“That’s wonderful, I’m so happy for her. I knew she’d find the person she was meant to be with,” she says, gently placing a kiss on my cheek. “You know I love you, right?”
“Yes, my beautiful girl , and I love you too.”
She reaches for Romeo but I shrug her off, soaking up the peace and quiet we’ve been graced with, and stealing an afternoon doing nothing but snuggling my baby boy.
“You go do something with the free time, I’ve got him. Go for a walk, or sit on the porch with a glass of wine, anything besides being a mother for a few hours,” I order, and she reluctantly agrees.
“If he wakes up –” she starts but I hold a finger to her lips, cutting her off.
“If he wakes up, I’ll make him a bottle from what you pumped this morning. Go have a glass of wine, Bambi.” My voice drops low, and I can see her cheeks flush, a hint of lust behind those doe-like eyes that can still drop me to my knees at random.
It’s been a long time since I first felt a home within her, but after all we’ve lived through, I never miss a moment to look deeper into her soul or get into her mind.
She’s got me wrapped around her pinky finger, and has ever since that chance encounter in a diner.
One day, our boys will ask how we met, and I’ll have the delight of telling the story, letting them know their daddy stole mommy away from a silly boy who could never have loved her the way I do.
Then, when they are teenagers, I’ll teach them how to treat a girl – or boy – with respect and love, ensuring that they always behave like gentlemen.
If not, their mother will kick their asses.
Even when they’re waiting for the person of their dreams at the end of an altar, I’ll remind them that marriage is hard, and you have to work at it every single day, but you never let the love stop.
If you do, that’s when you’re fucking up.
I plan to show them what it means to have two happy parents in a loving marriage, how coming home after a long day with a bouquet of flowers and chocolates goes a long way, and most importantly, that if you’re not worshiping a woman like a Goddess, you’re doing it wrong.
It’s my job to raise these boys to be respectable men, and I don’t plan on slacking on one single aspect of those lessons.
I’m not perfect.
I’ve made mistakes in life, and in our marriage, but it’s always about how you bounce back.
That resilience is a part of the bond between Fallon and I, so much so that I won’t sugarcoat things. Yes, I messed up, but here’s how I worked hard to fix it with the things I could control, and I just hope that they appreciate the transparency.
We’re not a perfect, cookie-cutter household from a sitcom, we’re human, but we love each other enough to make up for those mistakes.
As I glance down at my youngest son, I see so much potential in who he could become. He’s brand-new, waiting to be molded like a lump of clay, and I know the possibilities are endless.
He’s going to shape into a tiny human, a kid, and through all the phases of life right in front of our eyes, but I will be along for the ride beside him, his brothers, and of course, his mother.
I never want to miss a single moment.
* * *
One thing about my wife: she doesn’t break traditions.
So, even after her body has birthed four incredible babies, she’s right back at it, walking to our spot at the picnic table a few short weeks postpartum.
We bring our kids here every night to watch the sunset and honor their big brother and sister who play amongst the stars.
It’s her way of not only feeling close to them, but ensuring they see their family. I’ve never doubted her intuition, and when we began doing this when we relocated here, it instantly became something that’s ingrained in us.
Now, we share it with the boys, and they love guessing where Angel and Valentina are in the universes.
Fallon has never shied away from telling them about their older siblings, explaining that they live somewhere we can’t see them, but they’re always watching over us.
Right on cue, the crazy crew comes barreling up the hill, heading straight for Fallon as she drops to her knees to hug them all at once.
“Were you good for Uncle Olly and Auntie Cat?” She asks, looking them over and kissing their cheeks.
Luca abandons the group hug, running to me as I slowly rock the stroller back and forth to keep Romeo comfortable while we’re not walking.
“Hey, bud. You look like you had fun,” I say, rustling his dark hair as he smiles up at me.
“Olly give us sand for din din.” He laughs, his little words coming out fast with excitement.
“Sand for dinner?” I ask, my eyes meeting Oliver’s as he stands with his arm draped around Caterina’s shoulder.
“No, Olly did not say you could have sand for dinner. When Olly was playing football with Benji and Mateo, Luca ate a shovelful of sand while Auntie Cat was buying ice cream,” he corrects, and Luca shrugs, clearly happy with devouring sand no matter how it happened.
“You’re brushing twice tonight,” I warn, and his hand slips into mine as he climbs on top of the table.
“Thank you both for taking them. I feel like a brand new person,” Fallon says, bringing Cat and Oliver in for a hug.
“Anytime, now, we’ll only be a few streets away and they can come for super fun sleepovers at Olly’s Man Cave, right boys?” He asks, and all three of them cheer, riding high off the sugar rush.
“They were wonderful, I love watching them,” Cat says, sitting beside Fallon with her long black hair blowing in the wind.
I park the stroller next to me at the end of the table, wrapping my arm around Fallon as I slide onto the bench beside her.
She’s wearing a nursing bra and a blue sundress, her eyes tired and her body still working miracles, but she is – and always will be – the most gorgeous, stunning, beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
I tilt her chin until she’s looking at me, cutting off her conversation completely, but I don’t care. For one second, I need her to be all mine.
I gently bring her in for a kiss, sighing as the sweet taste of berries lingers on her lips.
“Ew! Daddy and Mommy are kissing!” Matty yells, faking a gagging noise, but Benji only smiles, and Luca is too busy to notice, chasing a poor squirrel until it climbs up a tree out of his reach.
Oliver sits beside Cat, whispering something to her in Italian, which surprisingly, he caught onto pretty quickly.
Watching him become a true man for the love of his life has been a beautiful thing to witness, and he’s better because of her every day. One dinner with the two of them and we knew she was the one for him.
Caterina is Italian-born, but she spent a few years in the States, so her English is usually easy to understand, and she likes American food just as much as Oliver does.
She’s taught us so many different things in Italian, and it’s like we're kids all over again, challenging each other to learn more words than the other.
I’ve learned a few traditional sayings, and there’s one that resonates with me the most, usually said by the older men in the village, or the little old ladies at the market as they gush over the boys. It’s simple, but as I look around at my boys, wife, and my best friend, it rings true as the sun goes down.
Mother Nature is painting another marvelous feat for us over the coast, and everyone’s voices slowly fade away as they stare in awe at the various shades of orange, pink, and yellow in the sky, but what we have here is even more beautiful than a sunset.
La famiglia è uno dei capolavori della natura.
The family is one of nature's masterpieces.