EPILOGUE
Six months later
“Papa!” Matteo burst into the house and ran full tilt at Luca with Max hot on his heels.
“Slow down, cucciolo. What’s going on?”
“It’s a party! At Nonna’s house. She says everyone’s going to be there. Don Toscani is coming, his wife, Mia, is coming, Cousin Frankie is coming, Cousin Louis is coming, Cousin Sal is coming, Gabrielle’s friends are coming—”
“I get it,” Luca said. “You are sounding more like your nonna every day.”
“Is that bad?”
“No, of course not. But what is bad is little boys going to their nonna’s house without a grown-up.”
“But she lives right across the street,” Matteo whined. “I can see her house from my bedroom window. It’s not far, Papa. And I always look both ways. Gabrielle said it was okay.”
Luca looked over at Gabrielle, who was pretending not to listen to the conversation as she sorted through her papers on the dining-room table of their new home, purchased, in part, with his winnings from the casino. Nico had generously allowed Luca to keep some of the money if he promised never to play human shield ever again.
Gabrielle had just obtained her private investigator’s license and had joined a PI office in partnership with two other ex-cops. Luca was happy that she was excited about her new career. Not so happy about her working with two men, and even less happy about her going into potentially dangerous situations alone. Not that he dared raise the issue of her safety. But he did plan to have a discrete discussion with her partners about what might happen to them if Gabrielle were ever injured at work, maybe mention that he knew they both wore size 11 shoes.
“I thought we decided that important decisions about Matteo should be made together,” he said. He wanted Gabrielle to be a part of Matteo’s life even if they had not yet formalized their commitment to each other. He understood her hesitation to get married. Hell, he’d been through a bad experience, too. But marriage meant something to him. Not just as a statement to the world that they belonged to each other, but as an assurance to her that he would always be there for her, to love her and protect her, that she owned him body and soul.
He glanced down at the paper in his hand. Yep. Those were the words he had written. He just hoped he remembered them when he went down on one knee this afternoon.
“Crossing the street to his nonna’s house isn’t an important decision, especially if she’s standing on the other side of the street shouting at everyone to get out of the way.” Gabrielle looked up from her papers. “Who is the party for?”
The party was for their engagement, but he wanted it to be a surprise.
“My mother loves parties,” he said, dissembling. “She throws them for the smallest of occasions. Maybe she’s celebrating the opening of my new nightclub, or your new job, or maybe that Alex has been clean for six months, or that Paulo is now an associate in my crew, or that your friend Nicole is dating one of my soldiers, or it might be just because Angela finally found a hair color that looks real. Who knows?”
“Hmmm.” She stared at him as if she could see right through his lies to his very soul.
“What does ‘hmmm’ mean?”
She lifted a suggestive eyebrow. “It means can you send Matteo back to your mother’s place so I can show you something upstairs?”
Show him something upstairs? Oh yeah. He was all over that. Not that their “upstairs” activity was lacking in any way, but when his woman wanted to go upstairs in the middle of the day, who was he to refuse?
“Matteo! Take Max to your nonna’s house,” he shouted, sending his mother a quick text so she would be there when he crossed the street. “Look both ways and don’t run.”
“Come, bella.” He held out a hand. “Show me something … upstairs.”
She snorted a laugh. “Why do you always think everything is about sex?”
“Because it’s you.”
He followed her to their bedroom and closed the door. But when he moved to pull off his shirt, she held out a warning hand. “Clothes on. Sit on the bed.”
He didn’t like the “clothes on” idea, but maybe she wanted to tease. Luca sat on the edge of the bed, puzzled when she sat beside him with an envelope in her hand.
“I did something bad,” she said.
Considering how he lived his life, ‘bad’ was a relative term. “What did you do, bella?”
“From what you said, and the way you reacted whenever I mentioned any similarities between you and Matteo, I figured out that Gina told you Matteo wasn’t yours. So I sent DNA samples for you and Matteo to a friend at a crime lab. You look too much alike for it to be a coincidence, right down to the mole you both have behind your ear. He even walks like you.”
Luca stared at the envelope in her hand. “I told you it doesn’t matter. He’s my son, whether he has my blood or not.”
She opened the envelope and placed the letter on his lap. “Yes, he is your son. The DNA matches. She lied to you.”
Luca stared at the letter. His eyes blurred, and he couldn’t make out the patterns on the page. All he could see was the word, “match.”
“My blood.”
“Your blood, Luca. Your son.”
His throat thickened, and he had no words. She had given him back his son, breached the walls around his heart, and showed him how to live again.
“I have something else for you.” She placed another envelope on his lap.
Luca stared at it warily. “Something bad?”
“Something good.”
He tore open the envelope, stared at the white stick inside.
“I’m pregnant.” Her hand shook as she turned it over to show him the pink cross. “I didn’t think I could get pregnant after what happened, but I guess if you spend every waking moment when you’re not at work or with family having sex without protection, chances are pretty good.”
“Our blood,” he murmured.
“I expect this will take your protectiveness to a whole new level,” she said, smiling.
Luca cupped her beautiful face between his hands. “Mio angelo. You have no idea.”
THE END