Chapter 12 #2
“Cosette. You have to know they don’t forgive easily. If Lyam and Thayer know the truth, they know exactly what happened. And if the people who forced you into that weren’t already dead, they’d see to that.”
I laugh and feel lighter than I have in ages. “He said that.”
She snorts. “Lyam? Of course he did.”
The door opens and Avril stands on the other side, waving to us with a huge charcuterie board.
“Oh my God, I’m starving,” she says. “And she knows all my favorite foods. You have any cravings?”
And just like that, we’re talking about food cravings and due dates and babies. Like sisters.
Sisters.
“Does she know yet?” she whispers.
“Not yet,” I whisper back. “But we’re telling her today.”
Savannah grins. “Oh, I can’t wait to see her reaction. She is going to be so damn excited!”
We step through the door and Avril gives us a group hug. “Oh, girls, I can’t tell you how nice it is to have some women around here. I love those boys, but they are uncontrollable sometimes, you know?”
“Oh, do we know,” Savannah says with a laugh.
“And to think,” Avril says, “we’re having a baby.”
“Pretty sure the girls are the ones having the babies,” Lyam says drily.
“You know what I mean,” Avril says while we all wait for her to figure it out. “Wait. Did you say girls? As in… plural?”
Lyam’s eyes twinkle. Savannah grabs the tray of food just in time as Avril throws her hands up in the air and squeals with excitement. “Ahhhhhh! Mère de Dieu! Another baby?”
And then I’m in her arms again and Lyam’s laughing, Savannah and Thayer in the background but even Thayer’s smiling. And I relish this moment. This feeling that maybe everything’s coming together.
“We have a few more guests, Maman.”
Avril’s eyes light up as if she just won the lottery.
“Mario’s in town with one of his cousins.”
“Tell them to come!” she says, nearly clapping her hands together with glee. “Please!”
I’m thankful I’ve had the conversation I needed to with Savannah. I feel happier than I have in ages, energized and excited and… hopeful.
“Already did. They’ll be here any minute.”
“Speak of the devil,” Lyam says as the doorbell rings. He doesn’t let me go but holds me against him as Avril opens the door and the hottest, most Italian-looking men I’ve ever seen enter. The taller, thinner man holds a toddler in his arms and a second by the hand. One boy, one girl.
Lyam grins and my heart turns over in my chest. “Mon Dieu,” he whispers in my ear. “If those aren’t the cutest damn kids I’ve ever seen?”
It dawns on me then that we’ve never been around kids together.
I met him at Le Luxe, an adults-only club, and no one ever brings their kids anywhere near it.
I haven’t seen him that much with his family, and the few times I have, there weren’t any kids.
His brothers’ wives only just started having babies.
And the kids are drawn straight to him. I wonder why. Could it be those twinkling eyes or the fact that he’s smiling at them? Has the concept of having a baby all our own softened him?
Thayer does introductions. Mario and Sergio both hail from Boston.
“Ooh, I love Boston,” Savannah says gleefully.
They talk about businesses the Rossi family owns in the North End, and Savannah’s been to several as she went to school in Boston.
“I had no idea they were owned by you guys.”
Mario, jovial and friendly, quirks a brow. “Did that affect the taste of the cannoli? Hmm?”
“Definitely not,” Savannah says with a groan. “Oh my God, what I would give for one of those cannoli right now.” She pats her pregnant belly.
“Sergio,” Lyam says, extending his hand. “What brings you here, brother?”
“Came to talk to Thayer.” He glances at Avril. “I’m opening up a business outside of Boston similar to Thayer’s, and I wanted to ask his advice.”
“You came all the way to Paris to chat?” Lyam asks.
“We came to Paris on business and thought we’d stop in while you were here.”
I don’t know much about their business dealings, but I know that the Rossis, and by default the Montavios, their close cousins, work with the Gerard brothers. When you’re as powerful and as wealthy as they are, it helps to have someone who’s got your back.
“And who are the darling children?” Avril asks. “Yours, Sergio?”
“God, no,” he says with a smile that looks a little haunted. “My little cousins. We’re taking a family vacation in Paris and these two have kept my cousin up at night. We said we’d wear them out good in the city today.”
The little boy, about three years old, toddles over to us and points to Lyam’s arm. “You draw?” he says. “Bad.”
“I told him it was bad,” Avril says, shaking her head.
Sergio half-smiles. He looks like the kind of guy that doesn’t smile often, and when he does, he has to remember how to.
“Someone got in big trouble for drawing on the wall. He thinks you drew on yourself with a marker.”
“What it is?” the little boy asks.
Lyam bends to one knee. “It’s a snake,” he says in a low voice, which only excites him further. “Do you like snakes?”
The little boy’s eyes widen. He only nods.
“Oh lovely,” Avril says on a groan. “Another snake lover.”
I watch Lyam with the little ones. I watch the way he gently but firmly guides them away from the elegant vase in Avril’s entryway and instructs them to sit politely at the table when a member of staff brings cookies.
I watch him carry them on his shoulders so they can reach way up high to see out the stained glass windows.
With every gesture he makes, my heart melts a little more.
I watch him with the children and know: Lyam’s gonna make the perfect daddy.