14. Eva
14
EVA
T essa held up another end of the pink and blue streamers for me to measure. I hurried onto the stepstool too quickly and almost fell, making her laugh.
“Easy there,” she teased. “I don’t want to deal with ordering more streamers and ribbons if you crumple all these.”
I smiled, recalling how Olivia had crawled into the box of party decorations Tessa and I had been going through at the big house. I’d been staying in my room there so long now while my place was being repainted that it was feeling more like the home I belonged in. With Nina and Tessa both there, it was easier to spend time with them.
And Olivia. That precious girl was too cute. Even when she crawled into the box and messed up the streamers and ribbons Tessa bought for Nina’s baby shower we would be throwing at this downtown tea room in a couple of weeks. Tessa and I were here to practice setting up the décor, just to see if we had enough, or too much, or if we liked the theme of the space with the things we’d gotten already.
Dante suggested hiring a party planner, but Tessa wouldn’t hear of it. Now that we were so busy preparing for it, I liked doing it ourselves too.
“Just store the boxes of supplies somewhere baby safe,” I told her as we stretched our arms up and stuck the hanging lengths at equal loops.
“Yeah, I will. But Liv’s too cute to be mad at.”
You’ve got that right , I mused as we stepped back.
“Hmm. Maybe the middle dip can hang lower and the side ones can be higher,” Tessa said.
“No.” I took the seat where Nina would be at the head table. “If she’s sitting here, any pictures with the low loops behind her at the height would make it look like she has horns coming out of her head.”
After Tessa cracked up, agreeing, she adjusted the décor with me again. “And she really hasn’t been devilish during her pregnancy.”
“No. She hasn’t.” Nina was a sweet-mannered woman, though, so I wasn’t shocked that the pregnancy hormones hadn’t turned her into a crazed, mean mama-to-be.
“Now you, on the other hand,” she teased.
I shot her a dirty look. “What about me?”
“You’re already a handful as a pampered princess, so you’d only ramp that up if you were expecting.”
I pressed my lips together and sighed. There it was again, that difficult label. It followed me through my childhood, into adolescence, and it dogged after me into adulthood.
“I’m just teasing…” She elbowed me as we searched through the boxes for more décor items to stage and place.
“I know.” I was aware that she was teasing me, but it was getting old.
“Honestly, I don’t know how you managed to be as normal as you are.” She shook her head, musing. “Living with constant danger puts a different spin on a childhood.”
“It’s not so much that as the never-ending demand to be on. To look powerful. To stay aloof because everyone will want to tear you apart.”
Tessa frowned at me, sad and sympathetic. “You matured too soon, huh?”
I nodded. “It can look glamorous, living in the mansion, having all your needs and desires met, the staff and guards to cater to you and keep you safe.”
“But…” she guessed.
“But the power and influence can confine you too.”
“Eh, Nina and I will keep you well-rounded,” she joked, bumping her side to mine.
“And besides,” I joked right back, “you’re more likely to have a kid than me.”
“Why do you say that?” She grinned, giving me a look like she had a secret on me.
There’s no way she can know Liam and I have been hooking up…
“Well, there’s the obvious fact that you’re engaged to Romeo and busy with him, whereas I’m single.”
She shrugged. “I want to wait, though.”
“Yeah?” This sort of girl talk—chatting about babies—wasn’t something I often did. Then again, I seldom had women I could consider close friends. Nina and Tessa were introducing me to a world of sisterhood I’d been missing out on for far too long.
“I want kids. He does too, but I’m too busy enjoying myself with him to rush it.”
I scrunched my face. “Please, no more details.” Romeo was more like a brother to me than a cousin. Thinking about my cousin’s sex life wasn’t appealing, either.
She giggled. “Okay. Okay.”
“Did you always know you wanted to have children one day?”
“Yes and no. I mean, until I met Romeo, I was firmly against it. My parents were so stubborn about my marrying Elliot Hines, and I wanted nothing to do with him. They shoved that idea down my throat so much that I dreaded it coming true, and I did not want kids in the mix with someone pervy like him.”
“I understand.”
“What about you? I bet you’re not crazy about the idea of having kids, either.”
I frowned, disliking how much it hurt to be projected as a woman lacking maternal desires.
“I only say that with the way you were raised. In the Mafia. I bet you’ve been dreading being arranged to someone, right? There are so many levels of politics and rules I’m not aware of, but I’m guessing you can’t just meet someone and choose them.”
“Dante would never force me to marry someone I didn’t love.”
She smiled. “I know, but you can’t blame me for assuming that. It is the way of other Mafia families, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“So, assuming you could pick your man, would you want kids?”
I nodded, biting my lip with how risqué it felt to admit that. “I never thought I would, partly because of what you’re saying about raising them in the Mafia. Who would want to bring up a child among danger?”
“Uh-huh.”
“But the idea of being a mother is growing on me.”
A lot. Most of this urge was due to Olivia. Having a baby in the house opened my eyes to something I wasn’t used to. Nina’s being pregnant added to it as well.
“Or do you mean the idea of Liam giving you a baby is growing on you?”
I gawked at her, not joining in her laughter after that blunt tease.
Does she know? I blinked quickly, stunned speechless. I didn’t know if I could lie and hide that she was right or?—
“I saw you sneaking out of his room. In nothing but a towel.” She clamped her lips shut, as though she battled giggles. “I know.”
I swallowed and held my hand over my neck. “Um…” My cheeks betrayed me, heating up with a furious blush. The tips of my ears turned hot, and I looked everywhere but at her.
“Holy shit. You’re blushing!”
I furrowed my brow and cleared my throat. “Does anyone else know?”
“I didn’t say a word. I wanted to ask you about it.”
“To ask me about sneaking out of his room in a towel?”
She laughed, so light and easy to talk with. I knew she wasn’t laughing at me, and that made a difference. “No. It’s your business what you do with him, so long as you don’t break his heart or anything like that.”
I nodded. How can I break his heart if he doesn’t even want to give it to me?
“How serious is it?” She leaned in to whisper. “Serious enough that you’ll be the next one expecting?”
I shook my head. “No. Not at all.” Even though Liam and I hadn’t used protection, it wasn’t likely to happen again. “Just a fling.”
“Oh.” She frowned, seeming disappointed. “I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s never been the kind of guy to commit for long. But I was hoping…”
I waved her off. “No, it’s definitely not serious between us.” God, how I wished it were, though. Liam was growing on me, but it was a one-sided effect here.
“But it’s true. He is kickstarting my biological clock in a big, bad way.”
“Ew…” It was her turn to scrunch her face. “Liam’s like my brother. I don’t want the details.”
I smiled. “Something about seeing a rugged, tough military man with a sweet little baby girl… He’s doing something to me, all right.”
“And Liv’s just so?—”
Franco ran into the room, cutting her off and alarming me. I’d seen that tense expression of concern on his face too many times not to know something was wrong.
“You need to come back to the house,” he ordered, rushing in while more Constella guards tracked in after him.
A sudden need for more protection could only mean danger was afoot. I scanned the tea party room we were pretending to decorate, wondering if someone was close to attacking us here. Oddly, I felt scared. For the first time, true terror filled me and I knew it was because Liam wasn’t here with me. I felt safest with him.
“Let’s go,” I told Tessa, not needing to be ordered twice.
“But what’s going on?” she protested. “We need to box all this up and store it for later and?—”
“Someone will handle it,” Franco replied. “We need you both to head to the house for security concerns.”
“Has there been an attack? Has something happened?” Tessa said as I took her hand and pulled her to follow me out with the men.
“Reports of fighting at the gambling halls,” Franco said, ushering us to the exit.
“The Hound and Tea?” Tessa guessed, referencing her old workplace where she waitressed at the steakhouse on the first floor of the building.
“Yes.”
I winced, uneasy with this news. Suddenly being asked to go to safety wasn’t something new. I’d experienced these out-of-the-blue calls for alarm when enemies attacked.
But at the Hound and Tea building? That was where Dante had taken Liam today, to show him around before he officially began as a Constella recruit.
Please, please be safe. Even if he wouldn’t reciprocate the feelings I couldn’t turn off for him, I had to hope he would be unharmed.