I sighed as I rubbed one foot against my leg, a bit tired from an early morning dance and the weather. It wasn’t delivery day, but I could hear Brando talking to Rocco and Romeo, not too far from the kitchen.
Eunice was cutting up beef pieces for the minestrone soup we were making, humming as she did so.
Baby Diego was in his walker, staring at the toys with eyes as wide as saucers. If the toys mesmerized him, he stayed stationary; if not, he was off like a bullet, slamming into whatever he could. Including heels. Eunice wore her thick clogs for more protection—she had war wounds that made me wince.
A sharp yipping made me turn to check on Diego. He had abandoned the toys and the need to bust heels in search of more lively prey. Which were our two new four-legged additions to the family. Volpe and Mastino stalked around the kitchen, behaving like the animals they were. It was Volpe Diego was after. He couldn’t budge Mastino if he tried. And he had.
This was another surprise. Right after the attack, Brando came into the kitchen (there I was again) with Vincenzo, Romeo, Guido, and two pitiful looking canines barely trudging at their heels.
Volpino Italiano (Little Italian Fox) was a little white fur ball, chunks of hair missing in certain spots, making him resemble a chia pet that was missing a few seeds. Despite his malnutrition and skin conditions, there was a little fox underneath.
Mastino was a two-hundred-pound mass of muscle that couldn’t seem to hold a candle to Volpino, in terms of personality. A Neapolitan Mastiff, he was all brawn with his silver oversized head and jowls, muscular chest, and short but brawny legs. I thought he was gorgeous, an ancient mammal once trained by Romans to be used as gladiator dogs. He was half the weight he should’ve been, hungered for both food and love.
The presence of them seemed to bring the villa to life again.
At the time of their arrival, Diego had been on my hip, and I went down to greet the two, shocked that Brando would even consider having pets.
I had wondered how Jet was going to feel with the new additions—she was a genial creature, to a certain degree. I didn’t think Mastino was going to be a problem. It was his peppy counterpart, Volpe, who I was sure was going to get a couple of swipes to the cotton.
“Yayayaya!” Diego had squealed, reaching out to seize a bunch of Volpe’s hair in his chunky fist.
I had pulled him back just in time, but both dogs were curious and sniffing around the kitchen, desperate for scraps. When I looked up, I found Brando watching me, arms crossed over his chest, a searching look in his eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me we were getting pets?” I straightened up, settling Diego more firmly on my hip. I leaned the opposite way, attempting to distribute his solid weight.
“Yayayaya!” Diego slapped at my face, and I took his pudgy fingers, kissing them.
“Scarlett.” Brando said my name tenderly, but with an undertone that made me narrow my eyes at him. “They eat before us, always. We eat nothing unless they do. Vincenzo assures me neither one is a picky eater.”
“Well, I’m sure that’s fine, but they need dog food, collars, leashes, and the white one has bald spots—”
“Baby,” he said, stopping me.
Eunice stood up, coming to stand behind me, placing a hand on each of my shoulders. “I understand,” she said, nodding at him, squeezing. “We’ll fix their dinner before our own.”
“Everything,” he said. “Even fruit. Just make sure that it’s nothing poisonous to them. We stay away from things that’ll naturally make them sick. Grapes, for instance, even chocolate. Other than that, they eat like kings. If they refuse to eat it, we refuse to eat it.”
“Oh.” I swallowed hard. Dawn had hit me hard, like first light after centuries of being encased in darkness. “You think—someone might poison our food?”
“I can’t be sure. I’m not taking any chances.” Brando started to leave but turned back to me. “Me, Rocco, Romeo, or Guido are the only people who feed them. Whatever you get from the market, make a meal out of it for them. Do you understand me, Scarlett? No naming them. Dog One.” He pointed to Volpe. Then he pointed to Mastino. “Dog Two.”
Guido had gone to the floor, attempting to roughhouse with Mastino, who gave him a blank stare. He wasn’t used to having someone to play with, it seemed.
“Okay,” Guido said, not meeting our eyes. “What are their names? I will not tell!”
That was how Volpe and Mastino came to be—if any of us slipped up and called them “the forbidden names,” it was easy enough to pass off. Their names reflected their breeds.
Mastino was food motivated, always waiting by the stove, staring up as though he was the best boy in the entire world and deserved whatever it was we were eating. He had gotten used to Diego’s shenanigans with the walker—as long as the boy didn’t go near his paws, he was fine with being used as a bumper.
Volpe was not as easily appeased. He was going mad, his front paws down, rear up in the air, duster-like tail waving frantically, yipping at the front of the walker, ready to take a bite of the contraption if it decided to test him.
Diego loved this. It had become a game to him. Sometimes one of us would have to intervene when he would giggle like mad, having cornered Volpe into a hair-raising frenzy in the corner. He was about to do this when Eunice set a foot on the back of his fast machine, halting his chase before it even got started.
Turning, he looked at her with a fathomless expression on his cherub face before it melted into an accusation—hey, lady, what gives?Then he started to grunt, pushing forward, attempting to defy the odds with his twinkle toes.
The entire kitchen started laughing. We reached out to happiness when we could find it.
Brando, Rocco, and Romeo sauntered in, followed by Donato. After his wounds had healed, he had returned to us with a gold band around his left ring finger. Deciding that life was too short, neither he nor Chiara wanted to be separated anymore. They had a small ceremony in a chapel, her family and his, and he had made her promise that she would stay with her family until the air cleared. She had been set on keeping her promise to her new husband, but when a few scary-looking men started to hang around the place where dance practice was held in Milan, Donato decided she was safer with us.
