He stroked my hipbone and back, and I smiled to myself. I’d been worried all day because of the conversation with Mansueto. Now I felt lighter. Nothing had changed. I’d keep the truth from Cassio, for himself and for the kids.
“I think Simona is starting to speak.”
“What did she say?” Cassio sounded tired, his voice even lower than usual.
“Dada. It sounds a bit like Dad.”
Cassio squeezed my arm but didn’t say anything.
“I’ve been wondering what she’s supposed to call me. I know Daniele calls me Giulia, but…” I swallowed, worried about voicing my idea “…but I thought maybe Simona wants to call me mom. She doesn’t remember Gaia, and it would be sad if she never had someone she could call Mom. She—”
Cassio finally interrupted my rambling by pulling back and kissing me. “You’re right. You are her mom now, so that’s what she should call you. She’ll probably get confused in the beginning because Daniele calls you Giulia.”
“Yeah, but that’s okay. I’ll move at their pace. I’m just happy they both accept me.”
“It’s because you accepted them from the very first day. You never resented them or me for the weight of your responsibilities.”
“In the beginning, it felt like a responsibility. Like something I needed to master, but it isn’t like that anymore. This family is part of my life now.”
We spent our first summer vacation at the beach house. It was early June and the sun was shining brightly. The weather forecast had predicted a few days without rain. Cassio had taken the week off from work, which didn’t mean he wouldn’t have to return in case of an emergency, but I was still ecstatic about the chance to have a family vacation on the beach.
I dressed Simona in a cute two-piece with ruffles and sunflowers, cute sunglasses, and a straw hat. My bikini looked very similar, minus the excessive frills, but we still managed a cute twin look. Daniele wore his favorite Superman swim trunks.
Cassio was eye-candy in his board shorts. He carried Daniele into the water while Simona and I dipped only our toes into the Atlantic. I preferred lukewarm water, so I didn’t understand how Cassio and Daniele could enjoy a dip in the cold. Simona shared my opinion and squealed every time the waves touched her tiny toes. Her eyes brimmed over with joy as she raised her arms. “Arm, Mom.”
Every time she called me “Mom,” my heart skipped a beat. She occasionally called me “Giula” when she tried to imitate Daniele, but she had trouble pronouncing my name. Daniele had been confused the first few times she’d called me mom, but after I’d explained to him that I wasn’t trying to take his mom’s place and that it only showed how much I loved and cared for them, he’d come to terms with it.
Hugging Simona to my chest, I watched Cassio carry Daniele on his shoulders. Everybody who saw them knew they were father and son, not because of physical similarities but because of how they acted around each other. It was beautiful. Loulou barked wildly beside me, enraged that Cassio and Daniele were out of her reach, but she wasn’t very fond of water.
“Dad!” Simona screamed, stretching out her arms. Cassio came out of the water and set Daniele down on the beach. Loulou inspected him at once as if she worried the ocean could have harmed him. I handed Simona to Cassio, and before he went back into the water, he kissed me.
Daniele ran along the water’s edge, Loulou still barking close behind him. Her fur had grown in again, and she was the cutest curly fluff ball.
“Not so fast!” I called when Daniele and Loulou became too wild, and then Daniele stumbled and fell down hard. I rushed over to him. Loulou was already licking his face. I knelt beside him. He was cradling his knee, crying. He’d landed on a stone and was bleeding from a cut below his knee. “It’s all right. We’ll fix you.”
Cassio’s shadow fell over us. He handed Simona over to me and carried Daniele into the house. He managed to calm down in his dad’s arms.
The wound didn’t need stitches, thankfully. Cassio cleaned it and patched it up with a Band-Aid, all the while talking in a low, soothing voice to Daniele.
Daniele didn’t shed another tear. He tried to be a big boy when he was around his dad. Cassio patted his head.
“Do you want a popsicle?” I asked.
He bit his lip, looking down at the sofa, shuffling his legs.
“Daniele?” I got down on my haunches in front of him, trying to figure out what was wrong. He wrapped his arms around my neck, surprising me. “Hey, you okay?”
I hugged Daniele tightly to my chest, not sure why he needed my closeness but more than willing to give it to him. “Mom,” he whispered. I froze. Cassio tensed, his eyes tumultuous as he watched. Was Daniele thinking of Gaia? Missing her? I pulled back slowly.