“It is! And I already have my Valentine’s gifts,” she said, adjusting the collar of her robe dramatically, before touching the ruby encrusted heart at her throat. “I hadn’t even realized it had fallen off. Thank you for going back to the park to find it for me.”
“How could I not?” he asked. “I love seeing it on you.”
“It means so much to me.”
He smiled. “I know you think you and the kids already got your gifts…”
“We did, a few days early at that. We do not need another thing,” she said.
“Maybe not, but I was thinking that I did promise you a Valentine’s Day dinner, so maybe we could go do that tonight? I mean, I did make reservations and everything. It would be a shame not to use them. And I do have three Valentines I need to win over this year!” Ronan said playfully.
“One, two, three!” Matteo said, pointing to himself, his brother and his mother.
“That’s right! I’ve got three!” Ronan said.
“I feel like we’ve been so overwhelming to you already. We don’t have to do anything at all. I can cook something here and…”
“Momma! You can’t cook that meat like I like. I want some of that meat. Daddy said I could have some, and you just don’t make it like the kind that was in that white container he gave us,” Matteo said.
Leo stopped swinging and just lay across the swing as he listened to the conversation. “You really don’t cook it the same, Momma. You cook other good things, but not that meat.”
“Oh, well at least I can cook some things,” she said, laughing so hard she was trying not to spill her coffee.
“Ronan did say he’d take all of us to a restaurant,” Leo reminded her.
“It’s the best steakhouse in town. Only place better is Havoc’s house. He can cook a steak,” Ronan said.
“That’ll mean you guys have to stop playing early and take a bath. You’ll have to dress nice and be on your best behavior. Can you do that?” she asked.
“Yes!” they both yelled.
Ronan laughed.
“I guess we’re going to eat at the steakhouse tonight,” Giada said, grinning at the enthusiasm her kids mustered.
~~~
Ronan had just finished getting dressed and walked into the living room to wait for Giada and the boys to finish getting ready. He tossed his keys and his phone on the coffee table and went back up the hallway. “Leo, Matteo, anybody need any help?”
“No, sir!” Leo answered from the room they shared. There was a third bedroom and they’d told the boys they could each have their own bedroom, but both had immediately refused. They wanted to share. What that said to Ronan and to Giada, too, was though they seemed okay on the outside, they were still a little insecure and wanted to remain together. In fact, it would likely take a while before they felt completely secure in their new lives — and that was completely natural.
“I’m doing it myself!” Matteo yelled back.
“But thank you anyway!” Giada shouted from hers and Ronan’s bedroom.
“But thank you anyway!” Matteo added.
Ronan laughed as he made his way back down the hallway, but the kids’ door flew open before he even made it to the living room and Matteo was charging past him. When he got to the living room he turned around and held his arms out at his sides. “How’s this?” Matteo asked.
“You look great! You look like you’re at least ten or eleven,” Ronan said.
“Because we’re almost men now,” Matteo said with a firm nod of his head.
“Oh, most definitely,” Ronan agreed.
“He’s weird,” Leo said. “I am not a man. I’m a kid.”
Ronan laughed. “You look very nice, too, Leo. Even a little grown up.”
