“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Mom and Dad won’t give you any more trouble. I talked to Dad and made it clear that he needed to get a grip if he didn’t want to lose you and me.”
A wave of gratefulness flooded me. Christian squeezed my shoulder before he stepped back to make room for Mom and Dad.
Mom crept toward me, her eyes filling with tears. “Oh, Giulia.”
Her joy was earnest and it dulled my resentment. This was a new stage in my life, and I didn’t want to be weighed down by baggage from the past. I smiled. She hugged me, careful not to crush Gabriel. She stroked his cheek and took his tiny fingers into her hand. “God, I forgot how small babies are.”
Dad waited a few steps behind her, looking awkward, but his eyes, too, brimmed with emotion. I smiled at him and he stepped forward. “Congratulations.”
“Won’t you hug me?”
Relief crossed his face, and like Mom, he embraced me gently. He didn’t really know what to do with Gabriel, but he caressed his head once before he stepped back.
Cassio’s gaze could have frozen over a furnace. “I hope you heed Luca’s warning.”
“Cassio,” I said softly. “My parents won’t ever mention the matter again. Right?”
I looked at them expectantly. If they loved me, if they wanted me and their grandson in their life, they’d forget what Mansueto had told them.
Dad sighed and nodded. “If it’s your wish, we’ll take the secret to our grave.”
“It is.”
It was settled. We didn’t mention it again, and when Simona and Daniele joined us later, my parents hugged them and treated them almost as if they were their grandkids.
This was proof of how much they feared losing me… and Luca’s wrath, but I focused on the former, not the latter. Life was decidedly more pleasant if you chose to concentrate on the positive and not the negative. And I had so much to be grateful for.
A loving husband, a reasonably well-behaved dog, and three wonderful kids.
In the past, I’d visited my family’s beach house to find inner peace and remind myself of the beauty in life. I’d gotten up early to stand on the porch and watch the ocean roll over the white beach, to listen to the calming whooshing of the water without being disturbed. I often brought work with me.
Today, I slept in. Something Giulia had taught me. It was already past nine when I stepped onto the porch. Giulia and the kids were already up. Laughter drifted up to me from the beach, not the quiet of the past. I didn’t miss it. I hadn’t come here to find inner peace or see something beautiful. Inner peace had found me when Giulia stepped into my life. I didn’t have to drive hundreds of miles to seek a beach house for that. Now I only had to come home to my wife. Too beautiful for words—inside and out.
I closed my eyes, tilting my head up to the early morning sun, letting it warm my upper body and face. Many aspects of my life remained dark spots of brutality, but my home had become my safe haven.
“Love, won’t you join us?” Giulia called.
I looked at her. She cradled our two-month-old son with one arm while her other hand clutched her ginormous sunhat against her head. The wind was tearing relentlessly at the ugly thing. I’d made peace with her quirky clothes, but some things were beyond my tolerance.
“Love?”
That word wasn’t a casual endearment born out of habit coming from Giulia’s lips. Every time she said it, it held meaning.
Giulia encompassed that word “love,” that feeling, in every action, every smile, every fiber of her being.
I headed down to her, sand clinging to my bare feet as I crossed the dune to the beach. Simona and Daniele were taking a dip in the cold ocean, chasing each other and laughing. It was warm for late October, but the water was freezing cold. Back in Philadelphia these moments of childish carefreeness were few and far between for Daniele. At twelve, almost thirteen, he was only a little over a year away from becoming a Made Man—his fourteenth birthday would mark the day of his induction. His eyes found me briefly, and he gave me a boyish grin before Simona tossed water into his face and their chase continued. I joined Giulia, wrapped an arm around her waist, and grabbed the hand holding her hat down to pull her against my body, Gabriel between us. A gust of wind carried the straw hat away until only the bright yellow of its one big sunflower flashed in the distance.
Giulia gave me an indignant look. “You did that on purpose.”
I kissed her and she softened against me. Giulia handed me Gabriel, who peered up at me with my dark-blue eyes. It filled me with pride seeing our physical similarities, but it wasn’t stronger than the pride I felt when Daniele and Simona did something that I’d taught them—like play pool. Both of them were quite good at it. I loved all three of them equally.