Chapter 6
Jér?me
These two weeks have gone by way too fast. I’m leaving today to head home, I have to pack and get moved to Lake Renegade. Fran?ois and Christophe will be joining me with Renee in a few days. She’s finished working here and we gave Lavender six months rent. Even though she insisted we didn’t need to do that.
I wrap my arms around Renee as we look out the window.
“I’m going to miss you.” She sniffles.
We’ve all been able to spend time with her separately and together. There have been times we’ve gotten weird looks from people because we walk around and two of us are always holding her. Her hand, kissing her, touching her in some way. Somehow we all switch off seamlessly. Maybe it’s our connection as brothers? I don’t know, all I know is that it works.
We told my Fabien about Renee and our lives now. He joked that Renee might mistaken him for Fran?ois because they’re identical twins. We asked him if he thinks he’d like to be a part of it. He said no, he’s a one woman, one man relationship person. We told him we were too…until we met our Renee. We’ll see what happens when he meets her. We’ve talked about it and agreed that if he did want to join us, we wouldn’t say no. He’s our brother. We’d never really say no to each other.
My brothers went out to get lunch to give us some time alone. Since they’ll have her for the next few days and I won’t. It’s like I said, we just seem to know what each of us needs from Renee and each other.
“I’ll miss you too.” I turn her to face me and kiss her. “Two days and we’ll all be together again.”
I wipe the tear that’s falling down her cheek. I can’t believe how attached we are to her after only two weeks. Two days does seem like a long time. But I don’t want her to be sad. Renee has told us that she doesn’t speak to her parents or siblings. She has a brother and sister. They didn’t agree with her leaving to live in Seattle. And they sure as hell wouldn’t approve of her being with the three of us. I feel sorry for her family, knowing that they can’t accept Renee and her choices. But it’s okay, she’ll have a new family with us. I know for a fact that everyone in Lake Renegade will embrace her.
The kids of the Mancini and Bastianini families have been meeting their other halves. Their family is getting bigger and better. It’s part of the reason I took the job at Lucciola Memorial Hospital. Even after what my papa did to the Mancini family, they still welcomed me and my brothers with open arms. We were so afraid that they would shut us out and that we wouldn’t see Lorenzo and Giovanna again. And now we’ll be joining them with Renee. I know all the women will embrace Renee. And no one will make us feel bad for our life choices.
“I can’t wait till you’re pregnant with our baby.” I say as I kiss her.
“Me too. I still can’t believe that I found all of you. And that I get to be with you all. Are you really sure all of you are okay with not knowing which of you is ‘daddy’?”
I nod. “Technically since we’re brothers, we’re related to the baby no matter what. So no matter what we will all love our babies.”
Renee hugs me tight as I feel her sigh.
“I’m a lucky woman. And our babies will be the luckiest of all. They’ll have three wonderful daddies.”
“And the best mama ever.”
I lay my hands on her belly. There’s a good chance that she’s already pregnant, and that makes me over the fucking moon happy.
Christophe
Our papa wasn’t happy to hear that we’re all moving to Lake Renegade. He’s worried that we’ll renounce our part in the Southside Mafia and join the Chicago Mafia. I’ve talked to Enea Mancini, he’s the don of the Chicago Mafia. When we talked, we decided that having both mafia families in play is a smart one. It gives us more coverage in Illinois, the Southside Mafia has been around for as long as the Chicago Mafia. And we’ve earned a lot of respect in our territories. As they have in theirs.
We still haven’t told Renee what Laurent Enterprises is and what we do. My brothers and I discussed it yesterday and we know we need to tell her. But first we need to know that she’s definitely going to be with us. Then we can tell her who we are and what we do. I wasn’t lying when I said we owned businesses and are legit. I just left out the mafia parts and well the non-legit things we’ve done. And probably will do in the future. I just hope it doesn’t scare her away. I don’t think any of us could handle that loss.
We’re trying to give Jér?me some time with Renee. I know he’s going to miss her even if it’s just a couple of days.
“Fuck. It’s papa.” I say to Fran?ois when my phone rings.
“Great.” He sighs.
The last time we spoke to our papa, he wasn’t very happy with us. It wasn’t even the fact that we’re all with the same woman. It was because we won’t be living in Sprite Lake. I told him that I feel like we need this, we love our papa. But we miss Lorenzo and Giovanna too. This move will make it so we can be with them. And we can spend time with our nephew, Giovanna’s son, Rowan. Two years ago, she married the star defenseman for the Chicago Redhawks, Declan O’Reilly. Rowan is almost two years old now and we don’t get to see him as often as we want.
“Hey, papa.” I answer.
“Have you thought more about staying in Sprite Lake?”
I sigh.
“No, papa. We’ve made up our minds and I told you why. This isn’t to hurt you. We need this, we’re not leaving you. We just need to get out and do this. Fran?ois and I are still going to work with you. That will never change, we just want to be close to Jér?me and to Lorenzo and Giovanna. You have to understand that.”
I hear my papa breathing. So I know he didn’t hang up on me. But I know that’s not what he wants to hear either.
“And this girl? She has nothing to do with your decision?”
“No papa. Renee isn’t the reason that we’re moving. I told you that.”
“But if you don’t move, you won’t be able to share her right?”
I sigh again.
“Oui, papa. But again, she’s not the reason we’re moving. Okay. She’s not the only reason. Jér?me has been dreaming of this head of ER position. And we want to support him.”
“You can support him from here in Sprite Lake.”
“I’m not going to argue this with you, papa. We’re moving. Jér?me will be home tomorrow and he’s packing up for the move. We’ll be home in two days and we’re doing the same. Enea has said that you can come to Lake Renegade.”
“He says that. But you know he doesn’t mean it. The great Enea Mancini would never really let me step foot into Lake Renegade.”
“If he didn’t mean it, he wouldn’t say it, papa. Enea is a man of his word, you should know this by now.”
He huffs into the phone. “Well my children don’t want to be with me.”
Oh for fucks sake. My papa has become quite dramatic lately, we told him maybe he needs a girlfriend. Hell maybe he needs to go to Club Sin. I think I’ll suggest it to him when we get back.
“Papa. Lorenzo and Giovanna will come around. What you did is not something that’s easily forgiven. You know that.”
“But they won’t even let me explain?—”
“There’s nothing you can say to make it okay. Just give them more time.”
This is a subject that we talk about a lot, and I’m just not in the mood right now to coddle my papa. He fucked up and is paying the price for it.
“We’ll talk more when you get home.” He says as he hangs up.
“Well that was a pleasant conversation.” Fran?ois says as he rolls his eyes.
“Papa just needs to understand that Lorenzo and Giovanna may never forgive him. And if they don’t? I can’t say I blame them. They lost so damn much because of what happened.”
I need to stop talking about it. My papa will never get over them leaving. And they’ll never get over that he kidnapped them. It’s just how it is.
“You think we’ve given them enough time to spend together? Or should we go shopping or drive around?” Fran?ois asks.
I look at my watch, it’s been an hour since we left.
“Maybe give them like thirty minutes? We can grab some drive thru and then head back.”
Fran?ois nods and starts looking around for food that we’ll all like.
When we get back to the hotel, Jér?me and Renee are snuggled together on the couch asleep. They look cute but the smell of the food wakes Jér?me up.
“I smell fooooood.” He mumbles.
“Is this how they wake you up at the hospital?” I laugh as we put the food out on the table.
We spend the rest of the night showing Renee the reasons she’s chosen to be with all three of us. Over and over.