Chapter 32
I hadn’t livedin a house this noisy since I was twelve. The removalists were carrying in boxes, dragging them upstairs to the rooms everyone had chosen. Tally was directing them around like a general, and the guys were unpacking as they went, to ease the stress on Tally.
Bobbi-June, Norton the dog and I had been banished to the lower floors.
I took the baby outside to the patio and sat in the shade, holding her against my chest as the dog sniffed around. He never strayed far from the baby for long, constantly coming back to make sure she was still here, still happy. Man, what a good dog.
The baby was as happy and content as anyone could ask for in a newborn. She was busy looking around at the bright colors and sounds of the backyard. “What do you think, Bambolina? Do you think you’ll enjoy living here?”
The dog took off across the lawn to defend the baby from a squirrel. As I watched him, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Pulling it out with a sigh, I leaned back so the baby was resting safely on my chest, then answered the call. Rafa’s face appeared on the screen. He only believed in video calls, because he was a distrusting asshole.
“Do you have your dick away?” he demanded before he’d even said hello.
You answer the phone during sex one time, and some people never let it go.“Yes, Rafa.” I flipped the phone around, and Bobbi-June was lifting her head, looking at the camera. I snapped a quick screenshot of Rafa’s face, because it was truly hilarious the way he was gaping like a fish.
“Rocco, whose baby is that?”
It was impossible not to fuck with him a little. “My baby. This is Bobbi-June. Say hello to your Zio Rafa, Bambolina.”
“Rocco…”
Once upon a time, that warning in my older brother’s voice had meant he was going to punch the shit out of me when he got hold of me, usually because I was being a little asshole. Homesickness swamped me once again, the same feeling that had plagued me since I’d packed my bags and joined a racing academy at fourteen.
“Is that why socials are saying you had a quick courthouse wedding? Because you got some girl pregnant? Mamma is going to beat you if she finds out you had a baby out of wedlock. She’s already praying for your soul.” He muttered something not very complimentary under his breath.
He wasn’t wrong. Mamma would come after me with a wooden spoon, if she thought I was impregnating girls and not marrying them. Though it wasn’t like I could marry more than one. And if Papa had taught me anything, it was that you could be a happily married man and still impregnate women without marrying them.
That was how I’d ended up with at least seven half-siblings.
I shrugged. “Yes.” Technically not lying. The baby was at least fifty percent of the reason why we had to get married. “And for a green card. Someone was holding up residency, and if I’m going to give this IndyCar thing a chance, I need to be able to work without being tied to VANT permanently.” At least, that’s what my lawyers had argued when we were writing up contracts. VANT had lured me here, but the nature of the racing industry was that drivers moved around. I needed to be able to legally work in the US for that. Not that I was going to leave VANT anytime soon, that was for sure.
Rafa pinched the bridge of his nose. “You knocked up a girl for a green card?”
The baby gurgled at the idea, and it sounded so much like a chuckle that it made me laugh. “Relax, Rafa. Bobbi-June isn’t biologically mine. Though, legally, I am her step-father, so I guess that makes you her uncle, if you want.”
I heard Rafa’s wife, Theresa, ask something, and Rafa covered the phone to reply. I could imagine what she was saying, though. It was either, “Who’s the woman in the photographs?” or “Did that manwhore really get married?”
Rafa made a little spinny motion, and I knew he wanted me to flip the phone camera so it was on the baby again. Heaving a heavy sigh, I turned the phone’s camera back around, to show Bobbi-June asleep on my chest. She looked like the little doll I called her.
Thank goodness Rafa had the mic covered, otherwise Theresa’s, “Che cazzo é questo?!” would have woken the baby right back up again. At least she’d said, “The fuck is this?” in Italian, so the baby’s first word wasn’t going to be a curse.
I snapped another screenshot. Man, I was going to put these as my wallpaper. However, I wouldn’t get to surprise anyone else, because I had no doubt that by the end of this call, Theresa would have texted everyone in the family. And probably the extended family. Possibly even the neighbors.
I grinned, and Rafa rolled his eyes. “I think you better start from the beginning.”
I weighed how much to tell them. I hated lying to Rafa, but he told Theresa everything, and in turn, Theresa told everyone else everything. I didn’t want it to get out that this thing was anything but a love match. At least, not until after Tally had the custody locked down.
“I met Tally at work. She’s a former NASCAR driver. VANT Racing hired her to train the simulator. She’s hot. I found myself thinking about her every day, seeking her out. When Antony told me I was struggling to get my green card, I propositioned her.”
Rafa frowned. “What is she getting out of it?”
I gave him a cocky smirk. “What do you think, brother?”
Let him think what he would about that statement. “Rocco, tell me you?—”
“I got a prenup, Rafa. I’m not an idiot.” I didn’t tell him I was giving her fifteen million dollars, regardless of how this went down. I didn’t want her to struggle if things went sideways.
Rafa shook his head repeatedly. “Three months in that country, and you’ve already got a wife and a baby.”
I didn’t tell him about my wife’s two boyfriends. That might get him on a flight over here to check me into the crazy house. I also didn’t tell him of the contentment I felt with them here; like I’d been starving and alone for so long, and now here they were, a feast for my senses. Alive and full of comfort, when I’d been living with my loneliness until it was a familiar ache in my soul. Not that I’d tell Rafa any of that, because he’d be racked with older sibling guilt.
“Anyway, tell me about VANT. There’s talk about them petitioning to be included in Formula E within five years.”
We moved onto more comfortable topics, and it was like no time at all had passed since I saw him last. The whole time, the baby slept on my chest, and the dog eventually came to curl in a ball beside the lounger.
Inside my chest, the wall I built to keep myself safe from people who just wanted to use me, crumbled to dust.
The rumble of the removal truck leaving told me that the three other members of my newfound family would probably seek me out soon. “I should go, Rafa. Give my love to my nieces. Tell Mamma I love her when you inevitably call her straight after this.”
Rafa shook his head. “I’m flying out at the beginning of the IndyCar race season to see your debut. I expect to meet your new wife then.”
I winced; my brother was intense at the best of times. I gave him a small salute. “Okay. Bring the kids. I’ll pay.” I did it to needle him, because we both knew he wouldn’t take my money, and he always acted so insulted when I suggested it.
He raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps you should bring your bride to visit the family instead.”
I imagined showing Tally my country. Imagined her in the warm Italian sun, a smile on her face and her hair glowing like a halo of gold. “Maybe I will.”
The snort at the other end of the line was definitely skeptical. “I’m sure. Love you, brother.”
“Love you too, Rafa.”
Hanging up the phone, I stroked my hand over the baby’s downy head. “Hope you stay an only child, Bambolina. No one drives you crazy like family.”
Holding her close, I slowly—so fucking slowly—climbed to my feet. Walking on soft feet, I carried her through the house and up the stairs. I could hear laughter coming from one of the bedrooms, and a pang of longing hit me square in the gut. They were so happy.
When was the last time I was that happy?
It wasn’t when I was balls-deep in some influencer from the Gram. It wasn’t when I won my last race, though that had felt satisfying. But it didn’t make me happy.
Laying the baby down in the bassinet beside Tally’s bed, I picked up the baby monitor and tucked it in my pocket. Then I walked away from the sounds of that happiness, before I was tempted to stand outside the door and feed on it, like the emotional black hole I was.