by Bethany-Kris
“She’s made friends with Andino’s wife, Haven. I blame that on Valeria, though. And Siena Marcello—John Marcello’s wife.”
“So, essentially you will all have to make nice whether you want to or not because the wives have deemed it so.”
“Why do you sound smug?” Corrado asked.
“Wives have a way of ... well, you’ll understand.”
“Technically, Ginevra isn’t—”
“They know what she is to you and Alessio. It is the same, even if a paper doesn’t say so.”
Right.
“You’re home now?” his father asked just as fast.
“Just got home. I was thinking ... well, it feels nostalgic for some reason. I was remembering how you always came home and dropped your keys into the candy bowl Ma had at the door. Every day. Never failed.”
He swore he could feel his father’s grin when Gian replied, “See, now my favorite part of that time of day was when my herd of boys came running around the corner to greet me. You all would hear the metal hitting the glass—not even the door closing. I could hear the sounds of your feet hitting the floors all the way across the mansion.”
“Oh?”
“Nothing felt quite like that. Someday, you’ll know, too.”
Would he?
Corrado didn’t know about that considering kids had never been a topic of discussion between him, Les, or Ginevra. It wasn’t that he didn’t want children, but rather that he didn’t ever sit down and actually think about it.
“You went quiet,” his father said. “My apologies if I overstep—”
“You didn’t,” Corrado assured. “But I smell something good coming from the kitchen, and I should make my way there, I think.”
He wasn’t lying.
Ginevra must be cooking something. It smelled rich and full of spices. Already, his mouth watered because God ... that woman could cook like it was nobody’s business. If there was anything Corrado missed the most about living at home with his parents, it was his mother’s cooking. Except now, he only had to come to his home for a good meal, a great man, and a perfect woman.
“Don’t let my offhanded remark make you get in a headspace about something like babies, figlio,” Gian said on the phone. “I was just talking to talk.”
“It didn’t. I want kids. Right now, I want to eat more than I want that, though.”
His father chuckled. “Fine. And continue to make nice with the Marcellos, Corrado. Because goddammit, if you’re going to live in New York, you need to play by their rules. That is the end of it.”
“You wanna tell Les that, too?”
“Everyone likes Alessio. When he tries.”
“Yeah, well ...”
“Say hello to Ginevra for me. Les is where ...?”
“Back in Vegas as of a couple of days ago,” Corrado explained. “He had to head back for the new recruit they’re training, apparently.”
“You don’t sound happy about that.”
“I like it better when we’re all home.”
“I suppose you should work on making that happen, then, son.”
Point taken.
• • •
“This is enough food to feed a small army.”
Corrado’s grin blew into a full-blown smile when Ginevra turned around at the kitchen island to face him. Standing in the entryway, he gave the spread on the counters a look and then passed the same to her.
“Something I missed?” he asked.
Ginevra shrugged. “I kind of ... invited Siena and John to have dinner with us and the girls tonight.”
He might have been annoyed by that, if only because Johnathan Marcello was best friends and a cousin to Andino Marcello, but the excitement in Ginevra’s eyes kept him quiet. His father was right—wives, or their women, rather—just had a way of bringing people together in this life whether they wanted to be or not.
Including his woman.
“Les will be sad he missed out,” Corrado said.
Or entirely too happy, the bastard.
“No worries,” Ginevra said, turning back to her work of rolling dough on the counter, “because we’re going to make this a regular thing. I’m sure he’ll have plenty of opportunities to join in.”
“Careful. We don’t play nice with others very well.”
She shot him a look over her shoulder. It warned him, satisfied, and said she was amused all at the same time. “I suggest you learn, then.”
Damn.
“Lucky we love you, woman.”
Ginevra’s laughter had Corrado crossing the kitchen in a blink before he even properly understood what he was doing. He caught her around the waist with his arm, and pulled her into his chest. He cared little that her flour-dusted hands left handprints on his black dress shirt. How could he care about that when she tipped her head back on his shoulder and reached up to press a kiss to the underside of his jaw.
Like she missed him.
God knew he missed her, too.
Always.
For a moment, the two of them stayed like that. Tucked together, lost to the silence of the house and the smells in the kitchen. Happy being close.
“Les needs to come back,” Corrado muttered against the top of Ginevra’s hair.
She nodded. “He does.”
Spinning her around so her back faced the kitchen island, his hand found her jaw, and he tipped her head up. Lowering his own, he took the kiss from her that he’d been waiting for all goddamn day. There was no give to her kiss—not when he took everything from it.
“Missed you.”
Ginevra smiled against the slowing of his lips against her own. “You better.”
He chuckled. “Mmm, and hey, you went to the doctor today, right?”
“With my sister.”
“And?”
She stared up at him, happy as could be. “You and Les worry too much. People get sick. It happens.”
Corrado didn’t deny that, but it told him nothing. “But what about you?”
“All is good. Normal.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yep.”
She popped her p.
Corrado just laughed. “So, how long do we have before this dinner gets started? Or until the girls get back home?”
He didn’t hide the suggestion at all.
“A bit. The girls are coming with Siena and John.”
“Does long enough mean I could put you up on this counter and get your thighs wide for me? Because if I am going to have to play nice with Johnathan tonight, I need a reason to keep smiling while he’s here.”
A sweet heat crawled up Ginevra’s cheeks. “I am cooking on this counter.”
“Table is free.”
“The table is where we will all eat.”
“Yeah, us too, but you know what we did on that with Les the night before he left, right?”
Ginevra blew out a slow breath. “Ten minutes. That’s what you’ve got. They might not get here for an hour or more, but I have things to do.”
“Oh, you know how I love a challenge, kitten.”
6.
Ginevra
“GUESS what?”
Alessio’s dark tenor had Ginevra smiling in a way she knew was entirely inappropriate considering who her companion was that walked down a Manhattan street with her at the moment. They were supposed to be shopping, but she had wanted to take a walk first. Mostly the drive made her nauseous, which was exactly why she currently had a ginger sucker in one hand while she held her phone with the other.
The sucker was disgusting.
It did help the sick feeling.
“What?” she asked Les.
Cara passed her a look, raising a brow because maybe she had heard the way Ginevra’s voice dared to raise a bit with her curiosity. If there was anything to know about Corrado’s mother that was most important, it was that she loved her family. All of them.
It didn’t matter if it was her sons, husband, one of the brothers’ wives, or even Gin
evra who really wasn’t ... well, she wasn’t an official Guzzi. Then again, neither was Les. None of that made a single difference to Cara.
She loved them all.
In fact, she often made time to come to New York just to spend time with Ginevra and Les, separately and together. As far as she understood, Cara did that with all her son’s spouses. Whatever they enjoyed, she made time to do it with them.
“Say hello for me,” Cara mouthed.
Ginevra nodded. “Cara says hello, Les.”
“We need to visit.”
“We do.”
“Say hello back for me,” he said.
“Of course.”
Ginevra relayed the message, but quickly went back to her call when Cara noticed a flower vendor across the street. With a wave and a nod in that direction, Ginevra gave her a shrug and a smile to say it was okay if she left her side for a moment.
She went back to her conversation with Les.
“So, what am I trying to guess again?” she asked.
Alessio laughed huskily. “I’ll be home in a few days—for at least a few months, by the way.”
“Oh?”
“And then I’m only coming back for a few days to settle some stuff. We’re taking time off.”
“By we’re do you also mean—”
“Corrado, too. We’ve been working on it.”
Huh.
For a brief moment, Ginevra said nothing because she just wanted to take that information in. She knew the boys wanted to be more permanent with her in New York, but it took a lot for them to even get a couple weeks at a time with her. The League always had something on the go that one, or both, needed to handle. She accepted that was just a part of their life together, and since she wanted them ... well, this was a sacrifice she needed to make.
“I should probably start finalizing rooms for the brownstone with the designer, then,” Ginevra said. “If we’re all going to be there.”
“Don’t forget the reading nook in the bedroom. It’s the only thing I wanted.”
Ginevra laughed. “Well ...”
“We’ll get back to it. Seems like we have time. Or we will.”
“Soon,” she said.
“Soon,” he echoed.
“I miss you, Les.”
“Yeah, I know. Love you, huh?”
“More than the moon and the stars.”
It was true.
Nothing about her life would be the same because of these men. Ginevra was fine with that.
• • •
“So, Les will be coming home soon, then?”
“Seems so,” Ginevra replied, pushing another dress aside on the hanger to look at another. None of them really screamed Sunday services appropriate, but she was determined to find something new. Same as Cara. “And he said something about Corrado getting time off, too. I won’t complain about any of it, let me say.”
“I bet. My favorite part of the day was when we were all home. As loud and busy as it was ... none of it mattered when all my boys were in the house and their father was home, too. I miss those days.”
“Does the mansion seem ... empty now?”
“Sometimes,” Cara admitted, “but someone is always coming or going and that keeps me more than busy enough not to think on it for too long.”
She stuck the sucker back in her mouth that had been her second companion all morning and mumbled, “Ah.”
“You know,” Cara said, peering over the rack of hanging dresses to meet Ginevra’s stare, “I can’t say I have ever seen you walk around with a sucker in your hand all day.”
Ginevra pulled the ginger sucker from her mouth with a pop and a sheepish smile. “Sorry—not very appropriate, is it?”
Cara laughed and waved it off. “Just thought it was a new thing.”
“It is.”
Then, the woman on the other side of the rack gave the sucker another look. She hadn’t paid it much mind earlier in the day as they moved from one boutique to the next looking for the perfect hat to go with Cara’s Sunday dress she planned to wear to church.
“Is that ... a ginger sucker? I swear I can’t forget that smell.”
Ginevra tried to shrug it off. “Yeah, I picked some up just to try.”
“I used those when I was pregnant with the twins. It helped to keep the nausea at bay, but it did nothing for the morning sickness. Can’t imagine why anyone would want to just suck on one of those like they’re actually good.”
Not knowing what to say, Ginevra opted to say nothing at all. That probably wasn’t the right thing to do considering her silence had Cara staring at her longer and harder than before. All at once, the woman’s eyes widened before her gaze darted back and forth between the sucker Ginevra held and her face.
“Are you ... are you pregnant?” Cara asked.
She was not a good liar.
At all.
“I—”
“You don’t have to tell me. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry. Let’s pretend like I didn’t say anything.”
“I am,” Ginevra blurted out, “but I haven’t told the boys yet. I wanted to do it when we’re all together, but that’s hard when you know, they’re gone one right after the other. And how do I tell them that anyway? I don’t know which of them is the fath—”
“Is that going to matter?”
Ginevra really didn’t have to think about it. This thing between her, Corrado and Alessio had never been about the separate relationships. It was the life they made together. “No, it won’t. How do I tell them, though?”
Cara smiled softly. “Well, that’s part of the wonder. You can tell them however you want. But me ... well, I am telling my husband as soon as he picks up his phone.”
To make her point, Cara even pulled out her phone and started dialing.
“Make sure he doesn’t tell anyone else!”
Cara grinned as she put the phone to her ear. “Oh, we won’t. No worries.” Then, Gian must have finally answered his phone because Cara turned her back to Ginevra as she started shouting, “Gian! Gian, guess what I know that you don’t know ... no, Corrado didn’t start a war with the Marcellos—would you stop worrying about that, God. Listen, this is important. We’re going to have a grandbaby!”
7.
Alessio
“THAT’LL be—”
Alessio tossed a fifty-dollar bill over the driver’s shoulder and stepped out of the back of the taxi as the man mumbled his thanks. He could have called someone to pick him up, or even drove one of their many cars still in storage in Vegas home, but he didn’t.
The flight was faster.
He’d already been away long enough.
The cab pulled away from the curb in front of the brownstone, but Alessio didn’t move. He took in the twisted metal gate that opened to a pathway leading to the home. The few potted plants and hanging flowers Ginevra hung up were new. They must have come after he left the last time, and he just ... wanted to take it all in.
He was home.
Where he belonged.
Les wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.
Dragging in a lungful of air that tasted nothing like Vegas, he pulled out his phone as he opened the gate to see a text from both Dare and Cree. One hoped he arrived safely—the other demanded he call to let them know he got there fine.
Both had him smiling.
He would call.
Later.
Dare and Cree would understand.
Right now, Les had more important things on his mind. Like the man and the woman waiting for him inside that brownstone. They knew the time of his flight, and when he should be arriving in New York, but they didn’t know when he was actually getting to their home.
Well, here he was.
He found the front door unlocked, and the familiar noise floating down the hallway that greeted him had Les smiling wider than ever.
“See, you can’t even beat me at Tetris, Corrado. You really need to stop.”
“I’ll find a damn game
I can win,” he heard his other lover mutter.
Les took in the entryway and the fact it was finally decorated. Hooks lined the walls with coats and sweaters hanging from each one. A large mosaic-designed vase sat near the side of a decorative table in the hallway filled with umbrellas. Shoes lined the floor near the wall. A long carpet kept the floors clean where people had to take off their shoes.
Even the walls had things hanging from it.
Photos.
Art.
A mirror.
“Let’s go another round,” Corrado said, drawing Alessio’s attention back down the hall again as he set his bag down. Shrugging off his coat, he listened as the two continued their battle of wills about gaming. It never failed to amuse him how seriously they both took their games, and at the same time, it felt just like home to hear them going on about it. “At least give me a chance to save my pride.”
Ginny scoffed. “What pride?”
Alessio made quick work of kicking off his shoes, but he kept his leather jacket on. Heading down the hallway, he turned the corner at the end to enter the living room where he found Corrado and Ginevra sitting on opposite ends of the couch with a game of Tetris flashing on the television.
“His pride, Ginny. The thing that’s always haunted him no matter what he does,” Alessio said.
All at once, two pairs of eyes turned on Alessio. Their smiles matched his own, and the need growing in his chest had him crossing the floor before he could think better of it. He made it to the back of the couch when Ginevra reached out a hand for him. He took it with his own, weaving their fingers together as he leaned down to grab Corrado’s jaw with his other.
“Someone would have come to pick you up,” she told him.
Corrado arched a brow. “What she said.”
“I know,” he replied simply.
Alessio bent down, turning Corrado’s face at the same time to take a kiss from him. He lingered just long enough to feel the way Corrado let him find the taste he wanted before he let him go. Then, Les moved to Ginevra to do the same. Her sweet little hum against his kiss had him feeling like home was exactly where his heart was.
