Epilogue
Back in Boston, ten weeks after the little bang…
Everyone had their champagne flutes filled, ready to toast Dante’s and Noah’s return from aviary life. Gabriella’s excitement was as palpable as the rest.
“Are they going to be the same as we remember them?” Mallory whispered to Kizzy. The two women stood next to each other, holding hands.
“I think so. From what I understand, they’ll look and act the same and have all their memories. One little oddity that shouldn’t even be noticeable is now they’ll be the same age.”
“Oh my goodness! So, they’re twins now?”
“Yeah. Fraternal twins, I guess.”
“You guess right,” Antonio said. He’d overheard, of course.
When would Kizzy and Mallory get used to that heightened audio ability? Gabriella smiled—she didn’t always remember they had it either.
“If they stayed in bird form for another month, they’d come back a lot older. This is the right time for their ages to stay about the same,” Antonio explained. “They’re about twenty-five.”
“Okay, so where are they?” Mallory asked.
“Shifting and getting dressed in their old room,” Gabriella said. “They shared the largest room on the third floor for about twenty years. Noah moved up there when Luca was born.”
“Yeah,” Luca said. “I kicked him out of the nursery.”
Gabriella chuckled. “That’s pretty much how each of my boys got their own rooms. Each one kicked the next one upstairs.”
“Then Dante moved to his own place a few months before Noah joined him,” Antonio said. “That was, what…about three years ago?”
“So, they’ve almost always lived together,” Kizzy stated.
“Pretty much,” Antonio confirmed. “Dante had a roommate from his firehouse for a while, until the guy got married. Then Noah moved in.”
“Well, they’ve been best friends all their lives, so why not twins?” Mallory asked.
Cheering started near the stairs.
“That must be them.” Kizzy was shorter, so she tried to see around the crowd.
Mallory stood on tiptoes, glancing over the shoulders of the rest of the family. Dante emerged first, wearing a sombrero. Mallory handed her champagne glass to Misty, giggled, and ran to him, jumping into his arms. The hat fell back, but neither one seemed to notice. They were too busy kissing.
Then Noah walked out wearing a fez. “What a great trip! Remind me never to enter another world tour contest.”
Kizzy handed her champagne off to Chloe, then ran to him and threw her arms around his waist, hugging him tight. He kissed the top of her head and hugged her back.
After lots of handshakes and pats on the shoulder, Antonio cleared his throat, then lifted his glass.
“Sons, daughters, and friends, we’re so glad all of you were able to be here today to welcome back Dante and Noah from their fake world tour.
” He smirked at Gabriella. She simply threw up her hands.
“But seriously,” he continued, “if you guys don’t stop this reincarnation nonsense, you’re going to have to put up with sillier and sillier excuses for a two-month disappearance!”
Everyone chuckled or outright laughed.
“I know what I tell you next is going to come as a surprise—probably as much to Dante and Noah as any of you. But here it is.” Antonio held up a round pellet, which glinted in the overhead light.
Dante gasped. “Is that Noah’s musket ball?”
Antonio grinned and announced, “I examined the rubble that used to be your apartment and found this. Gentlemen, your brothers are alchemists! They created gold out of lead.”
Noah stumbled backward. “Seriously?”
Gabriella let out a tinkling laugh. “If you ever do it again, I’ll refuse to take you out of the cage until you’re old men. Understand?”
“Yeah, we understand,” Dante said. “But, shoot, that’ll come in handy when Noah has to find a new place to live. Me? I’ve decided to move in with Mallory, if she’ll still have me.”
“Of course I will! We’re going to be living together? That’s my dream come true.”
“We can be married, if you’d prefer.”
She laughed. “I’d prefer that a whole lot!”
The two of them kissed heartily, not coming up for air and apparently not caring if anyone else was in the room while it erupted with cheers and shouts of congratulations.
When everyone had quieted down, Noah turned to Kizzy and took both of her hands in his. “Yeah. About that. I was hoping we could get a place together. Unless you’re still worried about your father’s disapproval.”
Her jaw dropped, but she recovered quickly. “I don’t think he’ll disapprove at all, now that our family is out of danger, thanks to yours. And even if he did, I’d love to live with you, Noah! I love you dearly.”
“I love you too. So that’s a yes?”
“That’s a shut-the-front-door, heck yes!”
They kissed more chastely, but to the same sounds of cheers, whistles, and catcalls. Kizzy’s olive skin turned a lovely shade of rose.
“I baked a special treat to celebrate.” Gabriella gathered everyone in the dining room. She had made a large sheet cake, copying the old Risk board to approximate a world map on top. “Everyone have a seat,” she said.
Most of the guys and the two remaining women sat down at the very long dining table.
“Tony might have a mind of his own,” Gabe said. The little boy was just learning to walk and couldn’t be stopped from toddling everywhere.
“I have a solution to that.” Gabriella remembered how to distract a child. She picked up her precious grandson and plopped him into a highchair. “Give him his favorite toy,” she said to Gabe.
He pulled a plastic dinosaur out of a diaper bag and handed it to him. Tony chewed on it and seemed content.
Now Gabriella had her hands free to cut the cake.
Misty emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray of cups and saucers. Sandra followed with plates. Kristine was already placing napkins and silverware in front of each place.
It was amazing how much Gabriella’s family had grown.
As each son moved out, her heart had broken a bit.
Then when they visited with a wife and even a child, her heart not only mended but grew larger to accommodate the new members.
She and Antonio would have two new daughters very soon.
And they were human. Capable of giving her more grandchildren!
Antonio winked at her. After thirty-five years together, she knew exactly what he was thinking. “Six sons settled down. One to go. Almost there.”