“Uncle Dario,” Bella sings. “We have ice cream, and they have bowls, so you don’t have to eat it off Auntie Car’s leg.”
Dario starts to choke. I hiss at him, “I told you I heard something.”
Bella wanted to sleep over at my place after we settled in. Dario let go of his apartment once we returned and walked through my finished brownstone. It’s the perfect home for our family.
Dario swore he put Bella to bed before he made a dessert out of me. Oh God, I hope him eating ice cream off my leg was all she saw.
“Bella…” Dario turns to me with red cheeks. “Fuck, I don’t even know what to say,” he whispers to me.
I burst into laughter. I don’t know either. She’s curious, just like her uncle. However, we will not be doing anything sexual in our house in any room other than our bedroom when she’s over. I warned him in the first place.
The laughter continues as the other Di Lorenzo brothers arrive. Elijah offers them all drinks and they head out back to share cigars. I breathe in the moment.
This is life.
Lizzy
“Hey, Ny,” I sing as I enter the living room where I left Carleen, the baby, and Bella.
I didn’t mean to take so long looking for the box of pictures. I knew just the box I was looking for, but I had to dig under a ton of stuff before I got my hands on it.
“What’s up, sis? Whatcha got there?”
“Aunt Denise brought me this locket as a wedding gift. I want to put a picture of Mommy and Daddy in it to pin into my gown. Something old and something new, you know? So I feel like they’re there with me.”
I take a seat by Ny’s feet and take the lid off the box. She runs a hand over my hair, then gives me a hug and a tight squeeze. I need the hug more than she could ever know.
“I’ve never seen this box before,” Ny says.
“I found it years ago. I had a school project and went through the thing Dad put in the chests for us.”
Ny reaches in the box and picks up several of the pictures off the top. The picture that’s revealed as she does, grabs my attention. I push my glasses up my nose, then pick up the picture.
The man in the picture looks just like Jace. I mean, he could be his twin. On either side of him are three women. The one on the left looks like a younger version of Aunt Denise. On his right is a woman who looks like she could be a younger version of Ny or me. Beside her is…I gasp.
It’s the pretty lady. Her hair is dark the way I remember it from when I was little, but the hazel eyes stand out. This is the same woman from Italy. The one I asked Aunt Denise about.
She told me she would dig into who she is, but from the picture in my hand, she knows exactly who I was talking about. They are all here, smiling at each other.
“What’s that?” Ny asks.
“Nothing, you find anything good?” I say as I quickly tuck the picture under my leg.
I don’t know what makes me lie. I get the same feeling I got when in Italy, and I remembered to mention the woman to Dante. It’s as if I need to keep this to myself. I only mentioned it to Aunt Denise because I wanted to use her skills to find something out.
I guess it’s time I start doing some digging of my own. As a matter of fact, I want answers from the person I trust. I get up and go to call Aunt Denise.
I head out to the front of the house, swiftly tucking the picture into my pocket. When I step out of the front door, I find a nervous-looking Aunt Denise getting ready to ring the bell.
“Hey, I was just coming to call you.”
“Oh yeah, honey, what’s up?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you. Did you find anything on that woman I asked you about?”
“No, I tried. I got nothing.”
I pull the picture out. “Maybe this will help. She’s the only white lady in the picture with you and my mom.”
It looks like all the blood drains from her face. “Shit,” she mutters.
“Has Dante or Dario seen this?”
“No, why would…” I freeze. My brain starts to work overtime. I feel like I’m in a game, putting all the pieces together as I move through my memories.
The hazel eyes I looked up into as I sat in that safe room. The hazel eyes I look up into at night as my fiancé makes love to me. The same gazes that twinkles at me as the owner gives me brotherly hugs.
The redhead with the same eyes. I just wanted to see. Everyone is so grown up now. I only wanted to see… I wanted her to take the job with Gio, she was the one Denise assigned.