Rosaria caught it but dismissed it as Lola being Lola. If she’d suspected something, she wouldn’t have kept quiet, even if she went behind Luca’s back to stir the fucking pot.
Rosaria and Rocco were more standoffish toward each other than Rosaria and Scarlett, but the two women still had their moments.
“It is such a coincidence that you became pregnant first. I almost wonder if you couldfeelwe were trying since summer and wanted to beat us.” A sly grin came to Rosaria’s face.
Scarlett shrugged. “I would have, you know how competitive I can be, but it wasn’t me who initiated it. Brando did.”
Rosaria gave a fake smile, and so did Scarlett.
Scarlett could, and would, get along with Rosaria and Carmen, but she would never consider them as close as she once had.
I couldn’t blame her. I’d been close to losing my temper the night in front of the karaoke bar/restaurant. I almost did the same thing to Rocco that Romeo did to Dario.
A man never put hands on a woman, but that made her husband fair game if she instigated it. There’s a reason why the military punishes everyone but the offender. It makes more of a statement.
If Scarlett hadn’t stopped me, I would have. But if it ever happened again, she couldn’t stop me. She felt that night was owed to Rosaria, but debt only went so far with me.
Mia screeched, and I turned my head to see what she was doing.
Diego, Dario’s oldest, was playing with Mia, growling at her playfully. She lifted off her feet, chunky rump in the air, before she steadied and started running from him. Her feet seemed to tap when she ran.
She ran straight into my arms, her new ballerina doll with long, loose limbs dangling in her grasp.
Scarlett’s parents had given it to her, and I didn’t miss the look on Scarlett’s face. Pnina saw something in Mia that Scarlett refused to acknowledge, even to me.
Mia fell in love with the doll and refused to put it down. As her head came down on my shoulder, it stayed tucked close to her heart.
“Daddy will always keep you safe,” I said to her in Italian.
Her plump little fingers caressed my arm, and I wished that she would never want me to put her down, that she could stay little forever.
I felt immense relief, like I could breathe again, when we were back in our chalet, all changed into our pajamas, hanging out in front of the Christmas tree.
Scarlett watched as Mia and I played with Mia’s new hand-carved castle, all the tiny characters—king, queen, and princess—wooden and painted, but she’d taken a spot on the plush sofa, covered in a thick, hand-knitted blanket Violet had given her, and fallen fast asleep.
All throughout the day, she kept dozing off when she sat for too long. She buzzed in her sleep, like a bumblebee.
Mia blinked at her new toys, on her way to falling asleep too.
“Are you sleepy, my baby?” I said to her in Italian.
She danced a bit, twisting her upper body from left to right to a Christmas song on the radio, but then she yawned. Handing me her toy, she climbed up the sofa, tucking herself into Scarlett’s embrace.
Scarlett’s voice floated, soft and sweet, something whispered in Slovenian. Mia touched her mother’s cheek, falling asleep that way.
The sight of them together, my entire world, made me sit and watch. I’m not sure for how long, but it didn’t matter. However long later, I ran my hand through Scarlett’s hair, and she blinked up at me.
“Time for bed, baby.”
“All right.” She puckered her lips.
I laughed quietly. “I’ll carry you. Hold on to Mia.”
She tightened her arms around Mia, keeping her close. I swept them both up and carried them upstairs.
Eunice and Ruby slept in the panic room with Mia nightly, but Scarlett made it a point to be up before either of them. We put her to bed as well.
After tucking Mia in, letting Eunice know that we’d set her down for the night, I carried Scarlett to our room.
