Chapter 18
He heard the lock on the door turn and then she was standing before him.
“I missed you,” she said.
“I missed you, too,” he answered.
“I didn’t call because I thought you might be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad. I’m just giving you what you asked for. You wanted time, and I’m trying not to pressure you,” Ronan said.
She nodded. “Yeah, I did say that. I’m sorry.”
“Shhh,” he said, shaking his head just a little to stop her from apologizing. “I brought presents,” he said, holding out his hands with two gift bags grasped in one hand, and one in the other.
“Presents?” she asked. “For what?”
“For Valentine’s Day.”
“That’s not for five more days,” Giada said, stepping outside her home and moving closer to him.
“I know. I’m just excited about Valentine’s Day this year. I never have been before, so I thought I’d get a jump on it,” Ronan said, handing her the single bag he held in his left hand.
“You didn’t have to do this,” she said, hugging the large bag to her chest as she smiled at him.
“I know. But I wanted to.”
“Want to come in for a bit?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’d like that if it’s not too much too soon.”
“Not at all, come on in,” she said, leading the way back into her home.
Leo and Matteo looked up from the table where she had them working on practicing their letters; well, Leo was anyway, and Matteo was just busily coloring a large ‘M’.
“Ronan!” Leo yelled, jumping up and running toward him. He didn’t stop until he was just a foot away, and then he launched himself at Ronan.
Ronan was laughing as he caught him in mid-air. “Hey, buddy! I missed you!”
Leo didn’t say anything. He was too busy hugging Ronan so tight it was possible he might have been close to strangling him. But he nodded and wiped his eyes on Ronan’s shirt.
“Ronan, can you catch me, too?” Matteo yelled as he climbed down from the table and ran toward Ronan.
Ronan shifted Leo to one arm, then reached out with the other scooping Matteo up when he got close enough. “You guys are so fast!”
“I know! We race all the time. We’re really good at it,” Matteo said. Then he focused on the bags. “What’s that?”
“That’s a little something I picked up for you guys,” Ronan said, setting Matteo down and handing him one of the bags.
“Can I open it?” Matteo asked, his eyes wide with wonder.
“Of course. It’s for you,” Ronan said.
Leo finally lifted his head from Ronan’s shoulder to see what Matteo had gotten.
Ronan hugged him again, and rubbed his back a time or two. “I got you one, too.” He handed the last bag to Leo, then put him down.
Leo smiled at him, his eyes still a little glassy from being upset when he first saw Ronan again. “It’s really for me?”
“Yeah, it is. Open them. It’s not much, just a few things I thought you might like when I saw them.”
The boys picked a place on the floor and started taking things out of their bags.
“I got play dough!” Matteo cried, holding up a small four pack of different colored play dough.
“Me, too!” Leo said. “And I got some candy!”
“Yep, got candy, too,” Matteo said, already ripping the top off his box and stuffing a piece of chocolate into his mouth.
“And I got…” Leo said, taking the squishy pillow out of his bag, “a squishy pillow! It’s a red wolf!
” he said, taking the large wolf themed pillow in his hands and smashing it as much as he could before he held it to his face to see just how soft it was.
“Ahhh,” he said, changing positions so he could stretch out on the floor and lay his head on his wolf pillow.
“I love this. I’m going to sleep on it every single night. ”
“Mine is a wolf, too. But it’s white with red ears!” Matteo said, getting to his feet so he could jump up and down because he just couldn’t contain himself. Then he dropped to the ground and laid his head on his pillow, too. “This is the best pillow ever.”
“I’m glad you guys like them. I wanted you to have something special from me. All my nieces and nephews have squishy pillows, so I thought you might like them, too.”
“I got super heroes in my bag!” Matteo yelled, grabbing the two super hero action figures from the bottom of his bag.
Leo looked at Matteo’s super heroes, then looked into his bag again, grinning when he saw his set of heroes lying in the bottom beneath the fold of the bag. He reached for them excitedly.
“And they’re all different so you guys can have play wars and be able to tell your heroes apart.”
“Thank you!” they both yelled, though Matteo was already sitting up to get another piece of chocolate.
“Not too much candy, Matteo,” Giada said.
“I know already,” he said mournfully.
“You going to open yours?” Ronan asked.
Giada nodded. “I don’t have anything for you, though.”
“I don’t need a single thing but your time. Go on, open it.”
Giada smiled at him, then sat down on the edge of the fold out bed, that was currently folded into a sofa, and set her gift bag beside her feet.
Hers was much larger than the boys’. She reached into the bag and took out the first thing she touched.
“Fuzzy slippers,” she said, smiling as she held them up.
“I haven’t had fuzzy slippers in years. I used to love them,” she said as she put them on the floor to slide one of her feet into.
She moaned a little and looked up at him. “So soft.”
“Then I did good,” he said. He held out his hand. “Let me have them and I’ll take the plastic thing off so you can wear them.”
She handed them to Ronan, then reached into the bag again, this time pulling out a pillow. An actual bed pillow with a white pillow case with pink hearts on it. “You got me a pillow and a pillow case!” she said.
“Everybody needs a special pillow,” Ronan said with a firm nod of his head.
Giada did exactly what Leo had done and held it up to her face so she could press her face into it. “I love it, Ronan. Thank you so much.”
“That’s not all,” he said, gesturing to the bag.
Giada hadn’t realized there was anything else in the bottom of the bag.
She leaned over, still holding her pillow and looked down into the bag.
“Candy!” she said, laughing. She took the candy out of the bag and tore the wrapper keeping it sealed.
She chose a chocolate and popped it in her mouth, chewing slowly, savoring the taste.
“I love chocolate caramels,” she said when she finally opened her eyes to smile at Ronan.
“Something told me that you might.”
She set her box of candy aside, and reached back into the gift bag again. “What in the world…” she whispered as she took out something else. She stood up and shook out the item, realizing finally what she was holding. “It’s a velvet robe.”
He nodded.
“And it’s got red and pink hearts on it!” Matteo piped up.
“I wanted you to have something you could wrap yourself in when you get home from work and just need to unwind, or when you’re up late at night and need to just remind yourself you’re not alone.”
“It’s perfect,” she said, putting it on.
“It’s a little over sized so you can snuggle into it and it won’t be too tight,” Ronan said. “And here, your slippers.” He put them on the floor for her to slip her feet into. She stepped forward, wearing her robe and her slippers. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say it’s okay that I came over without waiting for you to call.”
“It definitely is.”
“Good. There’s something else. I wanted you to have something to wear when you’re at work, too, so I picked this up,” he said, holding out a small box toward her.
Her eyes widened, and he wasn’t sure if she was just surprised or afraid.
“Now, I need you to remember that it’s from a department store and not… well, just open it and see.”
She took the box from his outstretched hand and opened it. When she got it open and finally saw what was inside, she smiled as her chin started trembling. “I love it,” she said.
“It’s probably just red cubic zirconia or something, but I thought it was pretty.”
“It’s beautiful,” she said, fighting sniffles as she put her head down and walked into his arms.
“What is it?” Leo asked.
“A necklace,” she said, her voice muffled against Ronan’s chest as he held her gently.
“Here, let me put it on you,” Ronan said.
Giada nodded against him, then held up the box without moving from where she stood, leaning against him.
Ronan laughed. “I need you to stand up so I can put it on you.”
“I’m working on it,” Giada said. She took a deep breath, then breathed it out exaggeratedly before she finally stood up straight and turned her back to Ronan so he could fasten the gold necklace around her neck.
She looked down, as her hand came up to lay against the small flat, golden heart-shaped charm sporting small red stones on its surface. “I’ll never take it off,” she said.
“Well, you might want to rethink that. Like I said, it came from a department store, not a jeweler.”
“I love it more than anything I’ve ever owned. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Want to play with my play dough with me?” Leo asked.
“Do I ever! I used to love play dough,” Ronan said. “Let’s move over to the kitchen area, though, so the play dough doesn’t get caught in the carpet.”
“Okay,” Leo said, gathering up all his gifts and putting them back in the bag to move into the kitchen with him.
“I want to play,” Matteo said.
“Well, come on, then,” Ronan said.
Matteo grinned ear to ear as he put all his stuff back in his bag, then scooted across the floor to reach his brother and Ronan.
“Want to play, Momma?” Leo asked, looking over at his mother, still pressing her fingertips to her new necklace.
“I’d love to,” she said, walking over to take a seat right beside where they sat on the floor, on one of the small chairs the boys had been sitting in when Ronan arrived.
“Can you make me a bomb? I’m going to throw bombs at Matteo’s super heroes,” Leo said.
“I’m gonna keep them and throw them back at your super heroes,” Matteo said.
“I’m going to try to make the longest snake,” Ronan said as he started rolling out a long length of play dough.
“Me, too!” both boys yelled.
“Bet I’ll win,” Giada said, starting to make one of her own from the play dough Leo had handed her.
“She might,” Ronan said. “She’s the best at everything.”
“I know. My momma is the best one,” Leo said.
“Yep. Even when she’s mad,” Matteo said happily.
“Does she get mad a lot,” Ronan asked, with a teasing tone in his voice.
“Only when I make her mad.”
“How do you do that?” Ronan asked.
“He won’t eat his dinner. And he won’t listen, or he makes a mess and then cries when she makes him clean it up. But she doesn’t yell. She just makes him do what she says,” Leo said.
“Sometimes I just don’t want to listen,” Matteo said.
“Me, too. But we have to listen to our moms. Because they have a hard job and it’s our job to make it easier for them. It only takes a minute to listen,” Ronan said.
“I know,” Matteo said.
“Think you can try it next time you just don’t want to?”
“I’ll try,” Matteo said.
“I always try to listen,” Leo said.
“I’m proud of you for always trying,” Ronan said.
“Me, too,” Giada said.
“What about me?” Matteo demanded.
“I’m proud of you for knowing that you just don’t feel like you want to listen sometimes and telling the truth about it. And for agreeing to try to do better,” Ronan said.
“You are?” Matteo asked.
“I am,” Ronan said.
“Truth is always the best thing,” Giada said. “And that’s why I'm proud of you, too.”
They sat there playing for a few minutes before Leo looked up at Ronan. “Momma was crying when she thought I was sleeping. And that’s the truth.”
Ronan’s smile fell and he looked from Leo over to Giada.
“I was just having a hard time yesterday. I was tired, and I was feeling down.”
“And you missed Ronan?” Leo asked.
Giada smiled at the ease with which children navigated their worlds. She nodded. “I did. But I’m all better now.”
“Because he’s here,” Matteo said.
“Because he’s here” she confirmed.
“Would it be okay if I asked you to go to dinner with me on Valentine’s Day?” he asked Giada, but then looked from Leo to Matteo, too.
“All of us?” Leo asked.
“Can we eat some of that meat you gave us when you brought us home the other day?” Matteo asked.
“Would you like to eat some of that meat?” Ronan asked.
“I would like that a lot,” Matteo said.
Ronan laughed, then looked up at Giada sitting at the table next to where they all sat on the floor.
“I’d like that very much. We all would, I think,” Giada said.
“It’s a date then. I’ll pick you up at about the same time I got here today. About six or six-thirty?” Ronan said.
“We’ll be ready.”