EPILOGUE
EPILOGUE
She was tiny . With little knots of red hair and huge navy eyes that were attempting to focus as she stared up at her father. Her chin trembled, her sweet rosebud mouth quivered, and Juliet looked up to Sev.
‘You’re okay,’ he told their daughter, whose chin stopped wobbling as she got back to attempting to examine his face. ‘It’s all just a bit new.’
It was a whole new world.
From her hospital bed, Juliet looked out at the stunning skyline. The Dubai sky looked as if it were on fire. The sunset was spectacular, lighting the buildings red, orange and gold. And there was the new father’s work in progress—it was going to be stunning.
They’d hoped to have their baby in Lucca—but of course Sevandro had stepped back , not down , and Juliet loved it here too. He’d been right—there was a wonderful music scene in Dubai, and she was a substitute in an orchestra here as well as at home.
Home was Lucca.
Dante was running the winery now, and still trying to reel his older brother in. Lately he seemed to be succeeding…
‘Soon you’ll meet the rest of your family,’ Sevandro told his daughter, then tore his eyes from their tiny baby. ‘I can tell them to come tomorrow?’
‘No need. I can’t wait for them all to meet her.’
‘Girls are easier,’ Sevandro had said, delighted when he’d found out he was having a daughter and was not going to have to worry about all the stuff boys got up to. ‘You don’t worry about them as much…’
She and Susie had shared a glance, and Dante had rolled his eyes.
‘She’ll have you wrapped around her little finger,’ he’d told his brother.
And now they’d messaged that they’d arrived, and Juliet took her beautiful daughter from her very calm husband.
He’d been incredible through the birth, even when it hadn’t quite gone to plan!
Nothing about this journey had fazed him.
Well, if it had, it hadn’t showed.
Yet.
‘Are we going to tell them her name?’ she asked.
‘Yes!’
In they came. Susie first, her eyes brimming when she saw the newest Casadio, and Gio all smiles and tears too. Dante was holding Eduardo, who had dark curls and huge brown eyes. He peered at his cousin, then swooped in for a kiss, as almost all two-year-olds would.
‘Gently…’ Susie said, then swooped in too, and asked for a cuddle. ‘Oh, she’s perfect… How was it?’
‘Worth it,’ Juliet said.
‘You weren’t planning a Caesarean, though?’ Susie checked.
‘No!’
She was still a bit dazed, but so thrilled to have the people who loved them the most here on this day.
‘Are your parents…?’ Gio started, but Mimi stopped him.
‘Gio, get Eduardo.’
Sevandro did it, picking his nephew up and making a fuss of him as Juliet looked out of the window for a moment, wishing her own family could have been like this.
She looked at the brothers. Dante was asking how it had all gone and Sevandro was nodding, explaining that she’d just needed to be born, and that perhaps she’d been a little flat when she came out, but she was perfect now.
‘Good,’ Dante said, and came over and looked at his niece. ‘You scared your daddy,’ he said quietly to the baby.
Brothers do know.
‘She scared Mummy too,’ Juliet admitted, then looked down at the little pink face and the one tiny hand peeking out. She was absolutely worth all the fright in the delivery room.
‘Do we have a name?’ Susie asked.
Sev looked over to her—just making sure—but they had discussed it at length. Even though Sevandro had frowned when she’d first suggested it.
‘We do,’ he agreed, taking the baby. ‘Mimi,’ he said.
Juliet looked at her, smiling in the background, staying well back…
‘Sorry?’ Mimi said. ‘I am listening. I was just looking at her curls…’
‘Her name is Mimi,’ Sevandro clarified.
‘After the opera?’ Mimi checked.
‘After you.’
They had thought about his mother’s name, or his grandmother’s, and had gone around in circles with old-fashioned names and more modern ones.
Juliet had kept going back to one, and finally she’d said, ‘I know she and Gio have only recently married, but she’s been in your lives for a long time…supporting you all, loving Gio.’
‘It will go to her head,’ Sev had warned with a smile.
‘Good.’
And now there was no attempt to stay back. Mimi came over and scooped up her tiny namesake and started to sing to her.
‘What have you done?’ Dante said to Sev, and they shared a small eye-roll.
They were back to being brothers.
* * *
When Juliet got tired, Sev had no compunction in shooing the happy lot out.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked her.
‘A bit tired…but yes.’
He sat on the bed and they had a small kiss, and a very big gaze at little Mimi, who was getting hungry…or needed changing…or whatever it was that made her squeak and wriggle.
‘She’s so pretty…’ Juliet was fascinated, touching her slender fingers. ‘I think she’s going to play the violin…look at her chin wobbling…’
Sevandro didn’t say anything. If he had it might have come out a bit hoarse.
Of course he loved little Mimi, but it was at that moment that she took his heart and melted him, and also terrified him, and all the other things love did.
‘God…’ He breathed out sharply and put his head right down next to hers, breathing in her new baby smell. ‘Never scare me like that again.’
‘Girls are easier, huh?’ Juliet checked. ‘She’s fine.’
‘Yes…’ He looked up, checked in. ‘You?’
She nodded. ‘You?’
‘Completely.’
* * * * *