The Firsts: A Guzzi Legacy Companion Novel (The Guzzi Legacy Book 7)

by Bethany-Kris

  “Is that what you want? I can check in five times a day if you’d like.”

  “Don’t be fucking cute. I get enough of that from Les.”

  Chris gave his twin a grin. “If you’re asking about business, it’s good.”

  “And you. I’m asking about you. Your wife. Little Maria, who by the way, Ginny and her sisters keep asking about because they want to do a sleepover. As though there isn’t enough estrogen in my house on a daily basis. All of that good shit, too, yeah.”

  That had him smiling because all he ever needed to do was think about Val and Maria to make him happy. “It’s great, man.”

  Corrado nodded. “Yeah, I know all about that.”

  “How’s Ginevra?”

  “Very tired.” Corrado made a noise under his breath. “But so are the rest of us, too. Happens when you have a six-month-old baby in the house, and all that. We’re making it work. A bit easier with three people because we can take shifts.”

  Chris couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Shifts, really?”

  “Trust me, it works. Coraline is ... she still has her days and nights mixed up, or that’s what everyone tells me. Really, I just think she likes being up at night, and we’re looking at the rest of our lives with that kid.”

  And yet ...

  Chris gave his brother a look from the side. “You still love it.”

  Corrado nodded. “Wouldn’t give this up for the world, man. Last week, we were trying to set up the new TV—me and Les—and Coraline just looked at us across the room where she was sitting in her bouncy thing, and she gets quiet before screeching and pointing at us before shouting Das. We’d been trying to get her to say that ever since she started saying Mama at four months old.”

  Never had Chris seen his brother light up quite like the way he did right then. Like his whole world was owned and revolved around a blue-eyed baby girl with black curls. And that kid was the luckiest baby in the world because not only did she have one daddy who adored the ground she walked on, but she actually had two.

  Years ago, he never would have thought his twin would have a kid. Not because Corrado ever said anything one way or another, but because he seemed like he had another path in life to take. Yet, here his brother was with a baby, two spouses, and a whole house full of life and love.

  It looked good on Corrado.

  He hoped the man knew it, too.

  “But anyway,” Corrado said, clearing his throat, “she’s tired. That’s how Ginny is.”

  “And I imagine she doesn’t let you forget it,” their father murmured as he stepped into the mansion’s office.

  “We can never get five minutes away from the rest of them, can we?” Corrado asked Chris.

  He laughed. “Well, it is his house.”

  “He’s nosy.”

  “I am not,” Gian muttered. “And stop talking about me like I can’t hear you. I may be older, but I am not that old yet, figlio.”

  Corrado smirked but otherwise, said nothing. That was probably for the better, but honestly, Chris just figured his brother liked ribbing his father once in a while. They all did, but they chose their own special times to do it.

  “Ginny wanted me to find you,” his father said, “actually.”

  “What for?”

  Gian laughed. “Coraline won’t eat her peas and pears. Oh, and Les just thinks it’s funny.”

  Corrado made a face. “First of all, the peas taste like shit. I don’t want to put them in my mouth—and I know that because I tried everything she has to eat—so why in the hell would she want to eat them? Second of all—”

  “Ginny is right downstairs if you’d like to have this conversation ... you know, with her. I just listened to a whole spiel about it from Alessio, son.”

  His twin gave him a look. “Catch up later, then?”

  Chris nodded. “Absolutely. No worries.”

  Whether or not they would actually be able to catch up was tossed into the air, though. His brother only stayed maybe a day or two, Chris was crazy busy with la famiglia, and it never seemed like the right time. He didn’t get as much time with his twin as he wanted, but perhaps he should just make some.

  Once Corrado was out of the office, Gian turned on Chris with a conspiratorial grin. “And what about you, hmm?”

  “What about me?” Chris asked his father.

  “Well, I’m told it’s not appropriate to ask ... but you are my son, so it’s a father’s right, no?”

  “I have no idea—”

  “A baby. Are you going to give me another grandchild?”

  Chris choked on a drink of the whiskey in the glass he’d lifted to his lips. Once he had his lungs cleared out, he gave his father a look. “Just come right out with it, don’t you?”

  “Why not?”

  It wasn’t that the conversation with his father made him uncomfortable, but that maybe the circumstances weren’t entirely right. After all ... it was a touchy subject in his own house let alone someone else’s.

  “We’re trying,” Chris settled on saying.

  Gian beamed. “Oui?”

  “It’s ... not happening.”

  Still, his father’s smile didn’t falter as he crossed the room to come and stand next to his son. “Sometimes, it takes a while.”

  “That’s what I’ve been saying, too, but we’re a few months into it, and ... anyway, we’ve got an appointment with a specialist in a month. After we come back from the vacation to the Quebec lodge. Just to see or look at options.”

  “Chris, you’re both healthy. Just because it doesn’t happen at the snap of your fingers doesn’t mean anything. Hell, they won’t even look at you for other interventions until you’ve both been trying for at least a year. Babies usually come when you’re not expecting them to, and you’re not watching a calendar. Trust me.”

  He chuckled. “You think?”

  Gian patted his shoulder with a supportive touch. “Yeah, I do. Take your wife to Quebec. Enjoy being with her. Take her mind off ... well, whatever she’s worried about. Go see the specialist if you think it’ll help but give it some time.”

  His father ...

  Still the voice of reason, it seemed.

  17.

  Valeria

  VALERIA loved Quebec. More importantly, she loved the vacation lodge the Guzzis owned in the very middle of a massive maple farm. Setting atop a privately owned mountain, in the middle of over two hundred acres of forested land, with a man-made lake behind the three-level lodge for them to enjoy boating, swimming or even fishing, considering they regularly had rainbow trout added every year, it was ... perfect.

  Nothing like the city.

  Not quite like the ranch in Mexico.

  Just enough nature and privacy.

  Val adored it.

  From quadding to dirtbikes, a paintball zone a twenty-minute ride down the mountain, swimming or hiking ... they could do whatever they wanted. There was never a reason to be bored when there was always something to do. Including sitting on the small docks leading out to the water to watch the fireflies dancing atop the lake.

  She only visited the lodge once before. Shortly after they were married, they came for a weekend to stay with Chris’s parents. She wanted to come back almost as soon as they left. So, when he’d suggested it as a week away, even if it meant Maria missing a couple of days of school, Val didn’t say no.

  Not that they were worried about school for their girl. Maria was smart, her grades were perfect, and the school year was almost over, anyway.

  “Are you planning to stay out here all night?”

  The voice behind her had Val peering back over her shoulder with a soft smile. Chris stood at the end of the dock, his usual safe distance from the water. Not that he ever actually said the lake frightened him, but she knew it had to at least put him on edge. Especially considering his almost drowning happened in a lake much like this one at a vacation home owned by his uncle.

  “Thinking about it,” she replied.

&nb
sp; Chris chuckled. “Want me to come over and sit with you?”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “But maybe I want to.”

  Val winked. “Then, you should do that.”

  He walked the dock slowly, keeping his gaze on her or the wet wood slapping the soles of his dress shoes. In slacks and a dress shirt that was rolled up to the elbows, his signature look when he didn’t throw on a blazer, he looked damn good with the moon high in the sky behind him and the large lodge looming in the distance.

  Before long, Chris had come to her side. He took his time removing his shoes and socks before setting them aside. Then, he dropped down beside her on the dock, actually daring to put his feet over the side of the dock like hers were. They couldn’t quite reach the water, but that was probably okay because it would have been cold.

  “I would have come inside,” she murmured.

  Chris shrugged. “I learned to swim here, actually. After the ... incident. This is where Gian brought me. Just me and him. My brothers stayed back in Toronto with Ma. He let me freak out and cry and ... I was a fucking mess, but he put me in the water, and I learned to swim.”

  “Wow.”

  “God, I hated him for that.”

  Val frowned. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I needed it. Couldn’t even be driven over a fucking bridge without having a panic attack. At least knowing how to swim, it gave me a sense of comfort. And then The League ... well, they didn’t fix the fear of the water. They just taught me how to accept the death I’d find if it happened again.”

  “Jesus Christ, Chris.”

  His laughter skipped over the lake in front of them. As though his admittance didn’t bother him at all, and maybe he just needed to say it to someone else.

  Valeria understood that all too well.

  “So, we’re not going to skinny dip in the lake, then?” she asked, winking.

  She wanted him to smile again.

  Just for her.

  The way he did.

  Chris did exactly that. “Probably not, babe.”

  Then, she had another idea.

  “Race you back to the lodge?” she asked.

  He hummed under his breath. “What do I win if I catch you?”

  “I said a race, not a chase.”

  “I like mine more.”

  Valeria laughed. “Fine—whatever you want if you catch me.”

  “Anything? Is that a deal?”

  A shiver worked its way through her at his suggestion. How was she supposed to refuse? Instead of even trying, she simply nodded, and leaned forward to catch his lips with her own in a kiss as she whispered, “You got yourself a deal.”

  She stood up and Chris told her, “I’ll give you a three second head start.”

  There was quite a way to run.

  Then, he added, “And Maria was down for the count when I checked on her.”

  Good.

  Her kid could sleep through a hurricane.

  “Head start is now,” Chris said.

  If he thought his little show would put her off her game, it didn’t. Valeria knew from the beginning of this game of chase that she was doomed to lose, if that’s what one wanted to call losing. But she’d be damned if she wouldn’t give Chris a good run for his money even so.

  Val’s bare feet hit the cold grass, and she heard his loud, taunting one and two before she chanced the first peek over her shoulder. A laugh pealed out of her when she saw him get up, turn around, and brush his pants off before he came after her.

  The man was fit.

  All fucking muscle.

  She’d come to learn he liked to mountain climb, and he did one marathon a year just because he wanted to do something normal. He made it halfway across the back grass of the lodge property before she even made it three quarters of the way to the porch. He caught her before her feet even touched the rear steps with a strong arm wrapped around her waist.

  She shrieked.

  His laugh came out huskier.

  Apparently, anything meant her back against the wall of the lodge while he stripped her naked, and then kneeled down looking like sex on a stick to eat her until she was breathing his name into the sky like the prayer that it was.

  It was only then that he let her help him out of his clothes. Or rather, just enough so that she was free to stroke his cock between them when he lifted her up against the wall. Hard and hot in her hands, he jerked forward with every stroke. It only took a slight shift of his hips when she fit the head of his cock at her slit, and he was filling her.

  Anything meant making her moan.

  And scream.

  It meant fucking her until her back protested against the smooth logs that made up the lodge’s wall, but she couldn’t tell him to stop when it all felt so fucking good, too.

  His kisses ravaged.

  They tasted of her.

  Suddenly she was reminded that sex was more than just trying to have a child. It felt like she’d forgotten that over the last while. She loved that Chris was able to drag her back into being a woman with lusts and needs when it was just him and her like this.

  She loved her husband.

  Entirely.

  18.

  Chris

  “WHY do I always bruise like this whenever I have to get my blood drawn?”

  Valeria’s question had Chris glancing her way in just enough time to see her pull off the gauze that had been taped to the inside of her elbow. Sure enough, a bluish-brown bruise colored the majority of the spot under the gauze, but he’d seen worse.

  “It’s normal,” he said.

  She sighed. “Maybe I just don’t like the whole—”

  “Everything is going to be fine, Val.”

  Just like that, she quieted. Her big brown eyes looked to him, and he gave her a small smile that he knew would help to settle her nerves a little more. She was putting on a brave face, considering their current circumstances, but that was just Val. Inside, he had no doubt she was a raging war of anxiety and worry.

  “And everything says we just need to give it some time,” he reminded her.

  “I know, but at least if a doctor tells me that, I won’t constantly feel like something is wrong with me.”

  God.

  He hated that she felt such a way at all.

  Though it was uncomfortable to do in the waiting room’s plastic chairs with their barely there cushioning and metal arm rests, he leaned over to sling an arm around Val’s shoulders. He drew her in close to his side, and she tucked her head against his shoulder. There, he could press a kiss to the top of her head and feel the way she calmed in his hold.

  He continued holding his wife like that until their names were finally called by the woman behind the receptionist’s desk. Once he’d helped Val to gather their things, they followed the nurse who came to stand at the entry of a hall with a clipboard in her hands. She smiled their way, greeting them by their first names and a cheerful the doctor will be with you in a few minutes after she had showed them which room they would wait.

  Well, it was more like an office. There wasn’t even a bed. Then again, Chris assumed a lot of the procedures that happened within a fertility clinic wouldn’t take place in regular patient rooms but a better, more sterile environment.

  “Sit,” Chris murmured, pressing on Val’s lower back.

  She took one chair, and he took another. The two of them settled into a comfortable silence, and Chris took a moment to look over the different things hanging on the wall. Other than the rows of medical texts sitting on shelves behind the large desk facing their chairs, the walls were mostly filled with pictures of babies and medical licenses.

  All good signs, he supposed.

  Thankfully, the nurse hadn’t lied. Within a few minutes, a knock on the door that hadn’t been entirely closed behind the nurse had Chris and Val turning to see a man smiling as he pushed open the door. With lines around his eyes and more white in his hair than gray, the doctor greeted them right away.
/>   “Christopher and Valeria Guzzi, right?” he asked.

  “That is us,” Chris said.

  “Dr. Kennis.”

  He didn’t wait for Chris to stand from his chair before sticking out a hand to shake. He did the same for Valeria who still hadn’t said a single word.

  “So, you had some blood drawn today, right?” the doctor asked Val as he rounded his desk. “Just to check for some standard stuff, and I was going to have them run a few hormonal checks because oftentimes, that can be the cause of the issues noted in your file. Mind you, you’re only a few months into trying for a child, so this wouldn’t be concerning for us to begin with.”

  Valeria let out a sigh. “I did have blood drawn—and good, that’s ... mostly what I needed to hear.”

  The doctor behind the desk chuckled. “Oh?”

  “It seems silly, but—”

  “I assure you it doesn’t. You wouldn’t believe how many women want and try to get pregnant, and when they don’t right away, they immediately default to something being wrong with them. And you know what? When something is wrong, it’s more often their partner than themselves.”

  Chris cleared his throat, but the doctor glanced his way with a smile, shaking his head as he said, “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your husband, either, Mrs. Guzzi.”

  “Why is that?” Chris asked.

  “Well, that blood Valeria had drawn before coming up to the office ... it seems we did pick something up. Standard for every blood test is a check of HGC levels.”

  “Pregnancy hormone,” Val said quietly.

  The doctor nodded. “Yours is at a level that would suggest you’re about three weeks pregnant. Congratulations. I don’t think you’ll be needing anything from me. At least, not when it comes to getting pregnant right now.”

  Valeria’s wide eyes turned on Chris.

  All he could do was smile.

  “Val,” he murmured.

  It was all he could think to say.

  “I guess ... you were right,” she told him.

  Chris laughed. “Probably won’t be the last time, either.”