“I know I can’t replace her,” Larisa says, having overheard, “but I’m here.” She glances from Matteo to Bri. “I hate that I failed my children?—”
“Mom, you didn’t fail us,” Bri says. “None of us stood a chance against Andrey, but we made it through.”
Larisa nods in agreement. “I’m so happy that despite everything”—she looks at me with sympathy in her eyes—“despite the loss of some good people, we’re still here. Happy and healthy.” She glances at her grandbabies sleeping in their bassinet. “We have a lot to be thankful for.”
“Babushka, you’re home!” Damien runs over and throws his tiny arms around Larisa’s legs. “Did you bring me anything?”
“Damien,” Peyton hisses, but Larisa laughs.
“It’s not his fault. I’ve brought him home something from every trip we’ve taken.” She bends down so she’s at his level. “Here you go.”
She hands him a small wrapped item, and he tears it open, his eyes going wide.
“Whatis this?” he asks, his adorable little nose scrunched up in confusion.
“Abalero de copa,” she explains, taking the toy from him.
It’s made of wood, and it has a cup on top of a stick. There’s a string hanging off it with a small ball attached.
“The goal is to swing this ball in the air and catch it in the cup.” She models it for him, the ball going straight into the cup.
Damien giggles. “I wanna try!”
She gives it back, and he tries. The ball goes flying—thankfully, it’s tied to the string—but doesn’t go in.
His little brows pinch together as he tries over and over again, until it finally goes in. “I did it!” he whoops, looking around to make sure everyone saw.
“Good job,” Dominick says, making his presence known. “Go wash up. Dinner is ready.”
Before he can run inside, Peyton adds, “What do you say toBabushkafor your gift?”
“Thank you!” he yells as he runs inside to wash up for dinner.
“He’s such a good boy,” Larisa says as she leans over and takes a peek at Adam and Justin. “And look at these two. I swear they’ve grown so much since I saw them. And the pictures don’t do them justice.”
“Yeah,” Peyton agrees. “And they both look like Dominick and Damien. I swear if I didn’t have the C-section scar and stretch marks from carrying them and giving birth, I would think my husband rolled over and created them himself.”
Everyone cracks up laughing.
“We definitely need a couple of girls to even out this gender playing field,” Larisa says with a laugh, glancing at Matteo and me.
“Oh no, don’t look at us,” Matteo says, wrapping his arms around me. “We’ll just have fun practicing.”
I glance up just in time to see him waggling his brows, and I roll my eyes.
“Well, you can count us out too,” Peyton adds. “I’m going to get on birth control tomorrow.”
Dominick grumbles something under his breath, and it has Peyton snorting in laughter.
“And since we all know I won’t be getting pregnant anytime soon,” Brielle murmurs, “it looks like you’ll just have to accept that the men overpower the women in this family.”
Larisa glances at Matteo and then Dominick and smirks. “We’ll see.”
“Sweetness,I’m going to need you to sit on my face.”
I snort out a laugh and shake my head.
We got home a little while ago from Sunday dinner, and after changing into something more comfortable, we found our way to the couch, where we’ve been watching moreVampire Diaries, mixed in withThe Originals—since everyone knows once you hit season five ofTVD, you have to watch them both.
