Chapter 32—Bobby
I groan at the ringing from my phone, willing it to turn off on its own so I don’t have to move or wake up any more than I have to.
“Make it stop,” Willow mumbles into my chest and snuggles closer. My arms instinctively wrap her tighter in my hold.
After we got back last night, we had a small dinner with Payton and my family, got the girls to bed, and then we went to sleep too. Neither of us had slept at all over the last two days, and we needed the rest.
And since Willow was here to be close to the girls, I wasn’t about to be anywhere else.
I need to hold her. I need to be in her circle. It’s beyond want. I have to wake up knowing they’re safe. That all of them are.
I have money. Power. Resources most men spend their entire lives chasing. And it still wasn’t enough.
The fire. Lily’s teacher. Trevor.
Reminders that no amount of planning or money can protect the people I love from everything. That’s the part that sits heavy in my chest. That demands I stay close. Not what happened, but what could happen again.
If I let it. Which I won’t.
She didn’t even bat an eye when we tucked the girls in, and then I took her hand and led her to bed. We crawled under the covers in our clothes and fell into the same embrace we’re waking up to now.
The ringing stops, and we both sigh contently. For half a second.
“Ahhh,” she groans, and I look down at the pout on her face, making me chuckle. I lean down just enough to kiss her stuck-out lip, then roll over and grab my phone off the nightstand to answer the call.
“Yes, Mama.”
“Roberto. Are you still asleep? It’s after nine. You should be on the road already.”
“Mama, it’s been a long few days. I think we need to rest.”
“Yes, we agree. Rest is good for everyone. Now come. You’ll rest at my house, where I can make you and your girls happy.” She hangs up before I can say anything else.
I toss my phone onto the bed and roll back over, pulling my Wildflower back into my arms.
“What did she want?”
“She’s making food. We’re expected to go eat it,” I say around a yawn.
“What time do we need to leave?”
“Shhh. We have time. Back to sleep.”
I feel her shake from laughter in my arms, and I smile with my eyes closed, content in my life right now. She doesn’t fight me, and we get about thirty seconds of peace before the edge of the bed dips.
“Mommy, I’m hungry. Can we have donuts?” Ivy asks.
I peek out at her with one eye open and see her still in her pajamas, hair smashed up on one side, a curled mess on the other. And a stuffed monkey in her arms.
“Me, too, Mommy,” Lily says, coming into the room with a similar appearance, but with a bunny instead as her stuffed animal today.
“Guess our time is up,” Willow whispers, and I can hear the lightness in her voice. It lifts something heavy in my heart.
After the last two days, I didn’t know what was going to happen between us and how they would all take it. I had many thoughts, all of which I kept to myself. But this? This I never expected. And it’s the best.
No one is reminiscing about what happened.
The girls don’t seem put out about it, and neither has asked about Trevor the Dragon even once since we left the house their father took them to.
The family doctor we had over last night confirmed that the blood samples he ran on the girls came back clean.
He sent a text a few hours after he left and said that while he can’t pinpoint exactly what Trevor gave them, he can confirm that whatever it was will not have any lasting side effects.
Something I’ve been watching out for, just in case.
I’ve been with them the entire time, needing to be with them as much as Willow does.
Losing them took something from me I didn’t know they held: pieces of my heart, large enough that I felt the absence.
I now know my heart is split in thirds. God help anyone who tries to take them, any of them, from me again.
My love for each of them is equal, but different.
And if we’re so blessed to have more children, I know my heart will grow to accommodate them all.
The doorbell ringing has me groaning and Willow giggling.
“We can’t seem to avoid anyone,” she says.
“We can if we try,” I say and pull the covers over our heads. To which the girls laugh and play tug-of-war with the bedspread with us.
After the third door chime, I get up, leaving Willow and the tickle-fest that’s ensuing in the bedroom, and go to answer the door.
I’m not surprised at all to see Marco there with three coffees and a bag of what I presume is food.
“My mama called?” I ask as I let him in.
He nods. “Two hours ago.”
I snort at that. Sounds about right.
“Marco!” Lily gives her cry of warning a second before she plasters herself to him.
“Hey, little one. I brought breakfast.”
“Donuts?” Ivy asks as she comes over and gets onto the barstool. I hold it steady for her as she climbs up.
“Maybe,” he says with a wink as he picks up Lily and plops her on the chair beside her sister. Then he pulls out the food he brought. It’s not lavish by any means, but it’s everything that they could want.
That’s the best part about this family. They don’t expect things. They know I have money, and not a single one ever asks for more than a little something. And if I or anyone ever said no, I already know none of them would throw a fit.
“That coffee for me?” Willow comes sneaking up behind me, wrapping her arms around my back a second before I pull her around to the front.
“Sure is,” Marco says and moves the tray of coffees to us after pulling his out. “Got you a few breakfast sandwiches too.”
“Thank you, Marco. Right, girls?” Willow side-eyes her girls, and they both mumble their thanks around mouths full of chocolate-frosted donuts.
“You’re welcome. And happy Thanksgiving,” he says with a rare smile. He doesn’t hide his joy, but he doesn’t smile unless he really wants to. And seeing the girls happy, I’ve got a feeling he might smile a bit more now.
“Happy Thanksgiving!” they both say as loudly as they can. I wince a bit but wouldn’t have it any other way.
“What are we doing today?” Ivy asks as she takes a sip of the water that’s been sitting out since last night, when she set it there before bed and we were too tired to clean up.
“Nonna Cynthia invited us over if you want to go,” Willow says with a look sent my way, as if confirming she spoke correctly. I nod once.
“Yay!” Lily hops down and runs to her room.
“Where are you going?” Willow asks with a laugh.
“To get changed. Nonna promised me she’d make me more zeppole if I came over again.”
“But you just had donuts,” I say, a little flabbergasted.
“But not Nonna’s donuts,” Ivy counters as she also hops down and follows her sister.
“You both need showers before you get dressed,” Willow calls out to them, and the three of us left in the kitchen chuckle at their audible groan before Ivy shouts that she’s going first.
“Sounds like that’s my cue to leave. Text me when you want me to have the car ready, boss.” Marco nods to both of us and shows himself out.
“Think I should go too,” I say as Willow turns in my arms and wraps her arms around my waist.
“What? You don’t want to shower here and borrow something to wear to your mother’s place?”
I chuckle at the imagery of me in something of hers as I brush a piece of hair behind her ear. “We might need to rethink the living arrangements if you’re offering to share your shower. Your place only has one, while mine has four.”
“Are you trying to tempt me to move in with talks of having my own bathroom?”
“You’d have to share still.”
“Well, as long as you don’t steal my shampoo, I might be up for it.”
“No promises.” I lower my lips to hers and enjoy the stolen moment we have. For all of ten seconds.
“Are you guys always going to be kissing?” Lily asks from behind us.
“Yes,” I mumble around her mother’s lips, but don’t let them go.
“Mommy, Ivy’s hogging the shower. It’s my turn now, and she knows it.”
With a heavy sigh, Willow pulls away and goes to her daughter. “Your offer sounds pretty good right about now.”
“Say the word and I can get it done today.” I’m done pretending I don’t want her in my space.
She turns her head back to me a second before she enters her daughter’s room, a narrowed look on her brow.
She knows I don’t bluff. And that I get things done quickly.
I already know she’s thinking about how I moved her and the girls into the building and got it all done without her consent.
She said she hated it, but I think she secretly enjoyed seeing me go to extremes to have the three of them in a place where I could watch over them on my terms.
“As long as you apologize for it after,” she says before turning her back to me, shutting the door to her girls’ room.
If she wants an apology, I better make it worthwhile. I go back to the bedroom and put my shoes on, then grab my phone. I call Marco as I let myself out.
“Ready to go already?”
“Not yet. Know any movers available to work on a holiday?”
His bark of laughter has me pausing as I wait for the elevator. “You haven’t been home yet. Wait until you see what your ma already did. I’ll send some people over to move the girls’ things while we’re out.”
I hang up and smile as I enter the elevator. I should be pissed, but I know where I get my need to control from. Not my dad, but my mama. No doubt she’ll have already moved things around to make room for my new family, cutting the moving time to half.
My family.
I like the sound of that.
“Nonna!” the girls cry out the second the car stops, and they run to Mama, who’s standing on the top steps waiting to greet us.
“My bambini. How are you?”
“Did you make zeppole?” Lily asks.
“Of course. What kind of nonna would I be if I didn’t? They’re in the kitchen. Go.” She shoos them in, and their laughter fills the house as they run through it.
Willow and I take our time, already knowing that the girls will find nothing but love and safety in these walls.
“My figlia.” Mama is slow to comfort my girl, but something passes between them that I can only imagine is a bond forged in darkness.
Willow reached out to her when she had no one else to turn to.
And Mama became her true self, caring for those she claims as her own and moving mountains to get things done.
Just so happens that those mountains are my brothers and me.
“Mama.” Willow hugs her, and I smile at the tears I see in my mother’s eyes. She notices my smile and swats at me a second before pulling away.
“Roberto, make yourself useful and get your woman a drink. Come. We have much to do.”
Willow looks at me with wide, comical eyes as she’s led away from me, and I follow like a dutiful son. And soon-to-be husband.
I might have noticed the family jeweler’s card on my nightstand when I went to change. No doubt left by Mama. And I might have called and set up an appointment with them for next week.
All my life, I knew how short it could be. The famiglia is many things, including a ticking clock, reminding us with each death that comes to our doorsteps that life is short. Waiting for the perfect moment gets you nothing but what-ifs.
It doesn’t mean you settle. None of my brothers or I have ever rushed into something just to get it over with. We make sure that the thing we want is true. But the moment we have it in our sights, we claim it for good.
Tommy did it with Payton.
I’ll do it with Willow.
And perhaps Vinny will do it with…
What was his fiancée’s name again?
I enter the kitchen, happy to see it’s mostly family and a few kitchen staff.
Mama might claim to be cooking, but she has help.
Lots of it depending on her mood, and she treats each person who works for her well enough that no one ever complains when she asks them to do some extra cooking last-minute like this.
No doubt a Thanksgiving meal wasn’t on my mother’s schedule on Monday, but it is today.
“Hey,” I greet my brothers, and Tommy offers me a glass of wine as I make my way over to them. The four of us stand close while the women and the girls are in the kitchen “helping.”
“Where’s Brittney?” I ask.
Tommy laughs hard, and I see a lip twitch from Danny as well.
Vinny seethes a little. “Bianca.”
“I forgot her name as well,” Tommy sobers enough to say.
“Only family today, yes?” Mama adds, and I look at her, but she keeps her head down as she rolls out pasta noodles. I’ve known the woman all my life. She doesn’t have a meal without fresh pasta noodles, no matter the holiday.
I look back at Vinny. “Fiancées aren’t family?” I don’t even bother correcting Mama that Willow and the girls aren’t family, not legally at least. As far as I’m concerned, they already are.
Vinny shrugs. “Not in Mama’s eyes.”
“Or just not her,” Danny says as he sips his wine. We all note his eyes traveling away from us to look at something, anything but the glare on Vinny’s face.
“She’s perfectly acceptable,” Vinny mutters.
“So is my couch, but you don’t see me sleeping with it,” Tommy says.
Despite his lack of finesse, he has a point.
“You don’t have to—”
Vinny cuts me off with a sharp look before I can say anything else.
“Don’t. I know what I’m doing. She’s fine. The famiglia has waited long enough.”
“They can wait longer,” I say.
I hate that he doesn’t get to pick. Not really.
Being the head of the famiglia, despite that we share much of the main role together, still falls on his shoulders.
There are expectations. Marriage for love can only happen if the woman comes from one of the families the famiglia approves of.
And so far, that hasn’t happened. And from the determined look on Vinny’s face, it won’t be happening.
He’s settled. Something a Leone should never have to do.
But he is. Sacrificing for all of us. Because if he doesn’t marry within the expectations, we all know that the Leone reign will end. We might have trust among many, but the head is only as strong as the body of people backing it. Rumors can taint opinions. Alliances can be bought.
No. Despite what I want for my older brother, this is what must be done.
“Okay,” I say and look at my two other brothers, who both nod in silent agreement.
“Happy engagement, then.” I tip my glass to him, as do Danny and Tommy, and he tips his scotch to ours.
“Yes, happy indeed.” Vinny drains his glass and then turns and walks away.