Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sawyer
Emerson’s family makes me wish I had grown up like he did.
You can feel the love between all of them.
Even though they’re not all blood related, they’re all family.
Emerson keeps telling me that they’re mine and River’s family now.
But that’s so hard to believe. How can they be mine when they don’t know if things will work out with Emerson and me?
River’s having such a good time with all the kids. But I could see that he was starting to get tired so Emerson and I took him back to the house so we could get him ready for bed.
“But I wanna play,” he grumbles as I get him into his bath.
“You’ll get to play with them tomorrow.”
“You pwomise?” He scrunches up his face.
“Yes, I promise.”
My phone buzzes as I let him play in the water for a few minutes.
Former mother: I hear you’re back in Illinois. You need to come see me
How the fuck does she know anything about me? I haven’t heard from my mother in years. I don’t know how she got my number.
Sawyer: No
Former mother: If you don’t, I’ll come and find you
Sawyer: Is that a threat? You didn’t want to have anything to do with me before. Why now?
Former Mother: You’ll see. I expect you to be here tomorrow at twelve
Who the fuck does she think she is? Demanding that I come to her. Fuck her. I’ve never thought about blocking any of my family before but after this? I block her number and turn my attention back to River.
“Did you have fun tonight?”
“Yes. Eveyone liked my motocycle.”
“They did. Maybe tomorrow we can see all the animals.”
“Yay!”
“Okay, time to get out and to bed.”
“Awww. Okay, Mama.”
I get him dried off and into his pajamas.
“Can I say night to Emerson?”
“Of course you can.” I smile as we head to the living area. River runs to each of the family, saying goodnight to each of them. He saves Emerson for last.
“Can you come tuck me in?”
“I would love to.” Emerson smiles as he picks him up.
I follow them both into the room next to ours.
“If you need anything, you knock on this door,” Emerson tells him, pointing to our door.
“Okay.” He nods as he gets a book out of his suitcase. “Can you read this to me?”
Emerson smiles as we both get into the bed on either side of him. I can’t stop smiling as I listen to Emerson read to River. As he’s nearing the end of the book, River’s yawning and his eyes are closing.
“I love you,” I whisper as I kiss his cheek.
“I love you, Mama. I love you, Emerson.”
“I love you too, buddy,” he says as he kisses his head.
We quietly walk towards the door, making sure the lights are dimmed. Suddenly, I’m nervous as we walk into our room.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to have my own room?” I ask him.
“Nope. I want to fall asleep with you in my arms,” he says as he comes over and kisses me.
I hug him tightly, I’m not sure if I should tell him about my mother’s text. But it feels like I should.
“I feel like I need to tell you something,” I say to him as he sits down on the bed with me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, remember how I told you that I don’t speak to my family? In fact, I haven’t heard from any of them for almost two years.” He nods as I take a deep breath. “My mother texted me while I was giving River his bath.”
Emerson frowns as I hand him my phone to read the texts.
“Now, normally it wouldn’t bother me and I’d just ignore her. But this gives me a bad feeling. Mostly because I don’t know how she got my number and how does she know I’m in Illinois? We didn’t take a commercial flight.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do.”
“I need to get my cousins in on this. My cousin Sebastiano is an IT guy, so is Francesco Bastianini. They’re the two that take care of things for us.”
“Okay.”
“And I need to go and talk to my zios for a minute. I need you to stay here. I promise you, we’ll figure this out.”
Emerson kisses me and leaves me in the room. I take a shower to pass the time and then get into bed to wait for him to get back.
Emerson
I head over to my Zio Enea’s house, it’s a five-minute walk from our house.
I need to talk to him before I can tell Sawyer anything about my family.
The Mancinis and O’Connors are mafia. My Zio Enea is the head of the Chicago Mafia.
I’m not sure if Sawyer’s heard of my family or not. She hasn’t asked me anything.
“Hey, Emerson, come on in,” my zio says as he greets me at the door.
“I’m really sorry it’s so late, but I didn’t want to wait.”
Sebastiano and Francesco come driving up in their four-wheelers. They both yawn at me.
“I was in bed. Warm and snuggly with my gorgeous wife,” Sebastiano says as he looks at me with one eye closed.
I laugh. “I’m really sorry. But this was enough to worry Sawyer and the look she gave me, made me worry.”
I show them the texts and tell them her story.
“She said she hasn’t heard from any of them for almost two years. And she brought up a good point. We didn’t take a commercial flight. So how did her mother find out she’s back here in Illinois?”
“Yeah, that’s fucked up. Okay, I’ll get on this.” Francesco yawns. “Can you send me those texts and the number?”
I nod as I send it to him.
“The other thing is I need to know is if I can tell Sawyer about all the families.”
My zio looks at me.
“You know the rules. Is she the one? And I mean are you sure that this isn’t just a fleeting feeling?”
“She’s the one, Zio. I have zero doubts, Sawyer and River are mine. And I won’t give either of them up.”
“Okay, and she also needs to understand that our secrets stay with the family. As for the Athanasious and Nikolaidises, you’ll need to talk to Zeus and Panagiotis.”
“Grazie, Zio. I’ll talk to them tomorrow.”
“My papà says if she’s the one, you can tell her about us too,” Francesco says to me.
Francesco’s papà is Giacomo Bastianini, president of the Cimaruta MC Chicago.
“Thank you, Franco.”
“I hate to say this, but I need to get some sleep. But I promise we’ll get on this first thing tomorrow.” Sebastiano yawns.
“Thank you, Cugino. I appreciate all your help.”
“And you don’t have to worry about anyone getting onto the property. You should let her know that it’s safe here for her. She should stay on the property, unless you go with her to the campgrounds. But we’re pretty full there, so keep your eyes open there too.”
“I will, thanks. I better head back too. We have a lot to talk about.”
I hug all three of them and head back to my house. I hope Sawyer takes the news well, you never know how someone will feel when they find out who my family is. When I get back to the house, my parents and brothers are still up. I let them know what’s going on.
“Maybe you, Sawyer and River should stay on the property tomorrow. Or at least until we find out what her mother wants,” Da says.
“I think it’s really sad that her mother’s treated her this way for so long. I don’t understand how a mother could do that to her daughter. No matter what.” My mama frowns.
When Sawyer told me how her parents treated her, it made me grateful that I have the parents that I do. They’ve always made all of us feel important. And I knew growing up that wasn’t easy with five of us. But somehow they did it.
“I need to go and talk to Sawyer. I just hope what I tell her about the family doesn’t scare her off.”
My parents hug me.
“I think she’ll be able to handle all of it. Especially if she cares for you the way you do for her,” my mama says.
“Thank you. See you guys in the morning.”
I go and check on River, he’s sound asleep, clutching his motorcycle toy. He’s the best kid. I quietly close the door and walk into our room. Sawyer sits up in bed and smiles at me.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I have some things I need to talk to you about. And I had to get permission to do that.”
Sawyer frowns. “Permission?”
“You’ll understand. Let me grab a quick shower and then we can talk.” I walk over to her and kiss her.
I take a fast shower and get back out to my girl. As I’m walking out of the bathroom, her eyes are glued to me. I chuckle.
“Do you like what you see?”
“Hell yes.” She grins.
I flex for her as she laughs. Then I get on the bed and hover over her.
“As much as I want to lose myself in you, we need to talk first.”
“Okay…Should I be worried?
“Not at all.” I smile at her as I sit facing her.
“So there’s a few things. First, my cousins are going to figure out how your mom got your number and how she knew you’re back. That’s the easy part. This next part is a little more difficult. I need to know what your thoughts are about us.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know I want to be with you. And only you. I want to marry you and if you’ll let me, I want to adopt River. I want all of it. More babies and being with you for the rest of our lives.”
“A-are you serious? What if you find out I’m a raging bitch?”
“Then you’ll be my raging bitch.”
Sawyer chuckles. “I’m serious, Emerson. You don’t really know what I’m like, so how do you know?”
“I’ve asked my cousins who have found their person. And each of them has said they just knew. And while I can’t explain it, I just know. What I need to know is what you want and how you feel.”