I shrugged. “It fits her. Itisher mother’s favorite flower after all.” Rocking her back and forth gently, I placed a few kisses on her forehead. “Shh. It’s okay. Daddy’s here. I’ve got you.” Emilia wriggled in my arms a little as her cries slowly started to quiet. Eventually, it stopped, and her eyes drifted open and landed in mine. “Ah, there she is, my beautiful girl.”
“It’s shocking to me that you were worried you’d be a bad father,” Natalia said.
“Yeah, when I saw her I realized she didn’t deserve anything less than perfect, so I made myself learn fast.” I looked up at Natalia. “Kinda like I did with you.”
Natalia crawled over me and settled into the bed next to me and I opened my arm so that she could curl up against me and I could hold her as well. It seemed borderline unfair to be so happy after everything that had happened in the past year, but I wasn’t going to complain.
“Merry Christmas,” Natalia whispered to me.
“Merry Christmas,” I replied to her.
I woke up again to dribbles and other cute noises and realized that I’d drifted off. Emilia wasn’t bothered though, just laying in my arms babbling away without a care in the world. Natalia was passed out next to me, and it didn’t seem like an earthquake would shake her, so I held Emilia close to me and gently worked Natalia out of my arms and onto the pillow below me. She had some breast milk in the fridge that would work to give her a little more sleep, so I walked out of our bedroom and down the hall into the kitchen.
Once Angelo was gone, we were free to do as we pleased with his estate, so Romeo divided it up into wings and gave each one to the four couples. They were remodeled to be suites of their own, with a main bedroom and bathroom, guest room and bedroom - or a room for a baby if that was the circumstance - a dining room, living room, and kitchen. We decided that, at least until we’d undone all of Angelo’s enemies, we were still better off as a unit. Romeo was working to right the ship while the rest of us focused our attention on the various lines of business. There was a hole left behind by Gianni that the Cavettis decided to fill with their little sister Natalia, aided by her new partner, me.
A Cavetti and a Giorgio showing up together to do business certainly turned a few heads, but we were navigating it just fine.
Lucia had taken on the role of caretaker of both her son, Dante, and our daughter when Natalia and I were away working, and the twins were putting their heads together to establish an above-the-board business to keep most of our dealings in house as opposed to outside our territory. Romeo was shocked when they suggested it, but let them go, and in just a year’s time, they’d doubled the family income with clean money and gave us a perfect place to house shipments of drugs moving in and out.
A flower shop. Who knew it’d be such a good cover?
It was nice to have our own section of the house where we couldn’t be easily bothered or heard. The more of Natalia I unlocked, the more raucous we were becoming, and on more than one occasion we’d let Emilia spend alittleextra time with Aunt Lucia to give ourselves some time to play.
We were more careful though. Emilia didnotneed a sibling. At least not yet.
“Alright sweet girl,” I said to Emilia, passing the prepped bottle to her lips. “Breakfast.”
Unlike earlier, Emilia gladly accepted food this time, opening her tiny, pudgy lips and taking the bottle’s nipple in. She sucked and her eyes settled on me. One hand settled on the bottle while the other came up to smack lightly against my chin.
“Hey, don’t beat dad up,” I said. “Wanna go by the tree?”
I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room where we had a small, fake, but beautifully decorated tree standing in the corner. Exactly as she had every time she was carried anywhere near it, her eyes got wide like they were going to pop out of her head. Something about the lights or the shiny ornaments fascinated her, and it was adorable to see how mesmerized she became at the sight of the twinkling lights and sparkling baubles. I was just sad that I didn’t have my phone so I could take a picture.
As if I didn’t already have about twelve thousand on there.
“It’s Christmas,la mia Regina della Notte,” I said. “It was your grandmother Isabella’s favorite holiday. Every year she would put up this big, big tree and make us all gather around it Christmas morning. Way too early in the morning before any normal person would be awake. She and your grandpa Lorenzo would spend a pretty penny getting everyone the perfect gift.”
“Which one was your favorite?” I looked up and Natalia was walking into the living room with a cup of coffee in each hand. I hadn’t even heard her go in there. “Favorite present?”
I tilted my head and turned to the sky, almost asking my mother amongst the clouds to give me the answer, and just like that, it hit me. “The first watch they ever got me,” I said. “It was a steel Cartier with diamonds around the edge and my name engraved in the bottom.”
Natalia stood up off the couch and walked over to the small supply of presents under the tree. Most of the presents we got for ourselves and the rest of our family were gathered under the big tree in the main living room of the estate, but a few were scattered under our tree, mostly for aesthetic reasons, but also for any gifts we wanted to give without too many eyes. She lifted a box and carried it over to me and set it in my lap.
I used the hand that wasn’t holding the still totally entranced Emilia to rip the royal blue wrapping off the box, revealing a felt, Cartier case. I tipped back the lid and saw a watch almost identical to the one my parents had gotten me resting inside. I pulled it out and flipped it over, and this watch was engraved as well, but instead of it having my name, it had the names of my siblings, beautiful girlfriend, and sweet baby girl.
“Lucia told me that it probably broke your heart to lose your old one,” Natalia said. “Merry Christmas.”
My jaw dropped. It was such a thoughtful gift, and even if she’d gotten the idea from Lucia, the fact that she even sought my sister out to get a good gift idea for me was special to me.
I turned my head and Natalia met me with a kiss. “Thank you, beautiful. I love it.”
“You’re welcome,” she said with a smile.
“Okay, trade.” I handed Emilia to Natalia, who fussed when she was dragged away from the sight of the tree, but calmed as soon as she was settled and could see it again. I walked over and grabbed one of the other presents and brought it to Natalia. “Merry Christmas.” With similar movements to what I’d done, she opened her gift and revealed the beautiful, white diamond necklace I picked out just for her. “Since you won’t let me propose,” I grumbled.
“I told you. I want to be together for longer than a year. I don’t want to rush it,” she replied.
“Well let’s wait to have a kid then,” I responded flatly.
