Chapter 48 Kitty
FORTY-EIGHT
KITTY
It was early when we returned to the city, but we had only one destination in mind—Lauren’s house.
The journey was deliciously smooth this time, the trappings of wealth drawing me in like little else could.
I didn’t care that Stan seemed restless, pensive almost. He encouraged me to sit on his lap during the drive and his hand remained glued to mine throughout, so I knew he wasn’t phasing me out after that weird scene last night.
Avoidance had me muttering, “I think Lara, one of my best friends, dropped Taube off at Shady Pines. She’s a driver in—”
Proving his distraction, he didn’t let me finish. “It’s likely. A friend of hers lives there.”
My lips parted in surprise. “Oh.”
With no extra information forthcoming, my plan to avoid that whole thing with his knife went up in smoke.
My cheeks burned with heat at the memory.
I had no idea what had come over me—the whole thing was a fever dream I’d be revisiting if I looked at his knife funny.
It was almost a facepalm moment, but we pulled into the driveway and the doors to the house opened before I could overthink it. Thank. God. Stan’s family immediately poured out and onto the steps.
Gladly locking away last night’s revelry for another time, when I was ninety, I took note of the family members on the stoop. Spouses and children alike—the youngest in Jennifer’s arms, a new one to be added to the mix once Rory gave birth.
I came from a large family and knew how perfection was impossible. Every photo we had of the full coterie of Frasiers, at least one boy pulled a face at the camera or Raisin was sobbing—she hated having her picture taken.
Yet the lot of them looked set for a feature in Vogue. Even the children who wore tiny dresses that when I’d been a kid, my ma had shoved us into only when she’d wanted a group picture after communion to send back to our grandmother in Ireland.
Frilly and fancy, pure white, linen and lace—so impractical for infants, but that didn’t matter when you were rich as fuck, I supposed.
Still, their pristine perfection filled me with nerves despite the designer outfit Stan had packed as a backup. (I was here for his wardrobe choices too. I looked like a boss-ass bitch again in a sleek pantsuit that gave off girl mobster vibes. My man, Stan, had taste.)
Despite the confidence boost, I muttered, “Are you sure you want me here for this?”
His hand, locked in mine, fingers bridged, tightened. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“It’s your… This is private, no?” His amused smirk had me scowling at him. “I don’t want to intrude.”
“What? Intrude on family matters when you’re family now?”
“You can’t say stuff like that.”
“Why not?” His eyes bored literal holes into me. “You’re mine, Kitty. We discussed this.”
“No one likes a know-it-all,” I grumbled around a pout, but his words filled up my heart, making it swell with feeling.
He joined our lips together, sealing those words inside me, etching them into my soul.
I sank into him until he pulled back to whisper, “Family business requires the whole family to be present.”
Slowly, I nodded.
Triumph flashed over his expression before it cleared, turning blank as the engine came to a halt.
Luciu dragged open the door. “Well?!”
Stan sneered at him. “Excuse my older brother, Kitty. He’s forgotten his manners.”
I waved at Luciu, trying not to think about the last time I’d seen him.
Lauren made a sudden appearance and she yanked on Luciu’s ear. “I’m certain that I didn’t teach you to be so rude.”
Luciu yelped but backed off.
And, immediately, my nerves faded.
Yeah, families. This was my shit.
“Hello, dear,” Lauren greeted me calmly. “How did the flight go?”
“It went. How are you?”
“We’re well. Very excited as I’m sure you can imagine.” Her eyes twinkled.
“You purposely trying to torment Luc, Matri?”
She quipped, “Patience is a virtue.”
Stan’s grin was wicked but loaded with love. “Come on, Matri, let’s put them out of their misery. We’ve been searching for these damn things for years. Just one more to find.”
Lauren retreated with a wink and let us move out of the back seat.
The kids immediately circled Stan, tugging on his hands, his pants, and the hem of his jacket, going so far as to pat down his pockets.
The sight had my brows lifting as he cooed, “Uncle tax incoming.”
Bars of chocolate were retrieved from somewhere and slipped into tiny starfish hands before they skipped off, looking more like children than the earlier models that belonged on an ad for the Catholic Church.
“I’ll make you pay for that later,” Luciu drawled, “when they’re bouncing off the ceilings.”
“The perks of being the uncle and not the dad,” Stan joked before he was pulled into a bear hug that came complete with heavy slaps on each other’s backs.
I didn’t know why I was surprised. Sicilians, I’d learned, did shit differently.
When they grabbed a hold of each other’s faces and pushed their foreheads together, I heard them utter something in Sicilian. Something low and like gravel but ferocious too.
Luciu released him, but only for a second before his sister, Aurora, was in front of him.
She was shorter than him by a good foot and had a belly the size of two basketballs sticking out, but that didn’t diminish her presence at all.
She leaned up on tiptoe as he bowed his head for better ease and pressed kisses to his cheeks.
Her hands grabbed his upper arms, nails digging deep into his silk-blend jacket as more Sicilian spilled from their lips.
The moment touched something in me. Something raw. Something in my soul.
When, finally, they’d finished, Stan turned to me with a wide smile. “You’ve yet to meet Kitty, frate, soru,” he stated, dragging me into his side. “Officially, at least.”
“How many times do we have to meet her before it’s official?” Hunter chortled, grin widening when Stan flipped him the bird then also had his ear yanked by Lauren.
I gave them a small wave, well aware that they were being polite when they had to be desperate for a glimpse of the bracelets. “I think you need to give them the cuffs, Stan, before they burst.”
Hunter chuckled and Jennifer smiled, but Luciu and Aurora didn’t argue.
Stan rolled his eyes but accepted the box once I retrieved it from my purse and passed it to Aurora. Hesitantly, she popped open the lid. Luciu’s head was soon taking up her line of sight.
For the barest of moments, their shoulders sagged and I felt their joy, experienced it with them. My gaze darted from Jennifer to Hunter and we shared a smile.
Our smiles dropped, however, when Rory blurted out, “Oh!” Her hand fell to her stomach, the jewelry case tumbling to the ground until Luc snatched it.
“What is it, moonlight?”
Moonlight? Gah, Sicilians totally did romance right.
A hiss escaped her, slow and long, as Hunter drew her into his side. “No!”
I straightened. “Is it the baby, Aurora?”
Wet eyes collided with mine. “I-I’m not ready, Kitty, and I decide when—”
I kept my smile gentle as Aurora hissed out in pain again. “No one’s ever ready. Do you—”
“Holy fuck! Did your water just break?”
“—have a bag prepared for the hospital?” I finished.
“Jesus Christ. The baby’s coming!” Hunter yelped.
“No, not yet,” she pleaded with me. “There’s another month to go.”
“Are you… Your age… Are you high risk?”
“No,” Hunter answered. “It’s been a relatively easy pregnancy—”
“That’s because you haven’t been in my body,” Rory snapped.
“We need to get you to the hospital. Or did you have alternative plans made?”
Rory grabbed my hand and clutched at it. “I wanted a home birth.”
“Do you have a midwife or a doula?”
“We only traveled today because of the rubies.” Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. “The birth was supposed to take place in Las Vegas. We came with a doctor and a doula.”
“I don’t like that doctor,” Rory snarled. “I told you not to hire him!”
“Moonlight, he’s a specialist—”
“I refuse for the first thing my child smells to be his garlic breath.”
Though I snorted, Jen murmured, “It’ll be fine, Rory. Honestly—”
“It won’t! Fuck. I don’t want him anywhere near me!”
“Bellevue never turns us away,” Lauren inserted. “We could go there—”
“No! It’s not safe. Not after the Summit.
” Rory’s face crumpled with pain. “It has to be here. Fuck, we should have stayed in Vegas. What the hell was I thinking? About curses! That’s what.
Fucking curses and fucking Sicily and fucking shit I shouldn’t be stressing about when I’m on the brink of giving birth! ”
“If you’re comfortable with me helping you,” I offered, voice gentle, realizing the added stress of her position and situation would only make the experience more traumatic.
“I can coordinate with your doula?” I turned to Stan.
“That doctor I saw, Victor? Maybe call him in if she doesn’t like the one from Vegas? ”
“On it.”
I turned away from the mother-to-be and tugged on his hand. “You should have a medevac at the ready in case things… deteriorate.”
His eyes widened but he nodded in understanding.
I left him to coordinate with the doctor they had on call while the rest of the family surged into a flurry of action, each of us heading in different directions.
That I’d helped plan their medical center around Currau’s needs worked to my benefit.
No, we weren’t set up for labor and delivery, and my emergency training was far less than an OBGYN’s and definitely inadequate, so, yeah, not ideal, but at least I was a medical professional Aurora didn’t appear to loathe.
She grabbed my hand again once we got her settled into the emergency trauma room that, thankfully, we hadn’t had to use yet. “Don’t let the baby die.”
My eyes flared as I stared at her strained features, realizing she’d waited until we were alone in here. “You’re not going to—”
“Women die in childbirth every day,” she dismissed, her tone cool even if perspiration dotted her forehead. “It’s a possibility. Save him. Please.”
Mouth working, I eventually settled on, “I’m going into this with the belief that mommy and baby will be tucked up safe and sound in a bed upstairs, shortly after he makes an entrance to the world.
” I squeezed her fingers. “I’m an ER nurse.
No, I’m not a doctor and I wish I were right now, but I know my shit.
I have no intention of this going south, and if it does, Stan’s putting a medevac on standby. Understood?”
“I understand, but the men in my family are saps where the women are concerned. Don’t let them take me to a hospital unless it’s an emergency. Please. God, I should have scoped out Bellevue, prepared it—fuck. This is what I get for being underprepared—”
“Hey! Stop it. This was last minute. Completely out of the blue. Don’t stress about hospitals. We’ll get through this. Together.”
“Together,” she repeated.
Her eyes locked on mine as she said it again, seeming to take it as a vow.
Her lips twitched and a calm seemed to overtake her. “This isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, hmm?”
Grateful that her teasing lightened the charged moment between us, I grinned. “Literally.”
I winked at her seconds before Hunter stormed in, a laptop in his hand and a doula on a video call. “She’s stuck in traffic but will be here shortly, Rory.”
As I checked her progress, Stan showed up with a promise that Victor was incoming and that they had both a medevac and ambulance on standby. Just in case.
Luciu stopped by to kiss his twin sister’s temple and offered his hand through a contraction.
Lauren and Jen hovered around me as I made my initial checks, and when Victor appeared, relief filled me that I had backup.
As a family, we guided her through what had to be the most intimate birthing experience of my life.
I never imagined my first official meeting with my future sister-in-law could ever have been like this. But it was. And, thank fuck, no complications presented.
Later, when Aurora shrieked at her doula and demanded Stan throw her out because she irritated her, it made sense to me.
Victor and I worked well together and our vibe with Rory felt positive, where the doula’s serene nature only seemed to stoke her temper.
Honestly, she aggravated the hell out of me too.
When the baby’s crown presented, she nearly broke Hunter’s hand. “I’m going to brand your balls with that signet ring if you come anywhere near me again!”
Then, once their son finally made an appearance and Victor made sure all was well with mommy, I took the baby away to assess his Apgar score, leaving Rory sobbing in relief in Hunter’s arms while the rest of the family peered over my shoulder at the newborn.
It hit me… just how fitting this all was.
What about my relationship with Stan hadn’t been a trial by fire?
A smile curved my lips as I tended to the baby…
My nephew.
Huh.