“Good morning,” I say.
Three little heads turn at once, bright smiles lighting up their faces. They all say together, “Good morning, Mommy.”
Mateo turns and smiles at me. He walks over and presses a soft kiss to my lips. “Morning,” he says.
“Morning,” I reply, looking up at him.
“Eww,” Victoria calls out.
I giggle as Mateo looks over to them.
“What?” he asks, huffing out a laugh.
“You’re always kissing mommy. Uncle Gino says you act like teenagers, and he says it’s gross. So that means it’s gross.”
“Well, you tell your Uncle Gino what he says is bull?—”
Before he can finish, I cover his mouth with my hand.
“What’s bull mean, Mommy?” Marisa yells.
I look over to Mateo.
“Nothing, Risa,” I say quickly. “You know what? That is a great question for your uncle.”
We both laugh. I buckle Dominic into his high chair and take a seat at the bar beside the kids. Mateo sits next to me, and we eat breakfast together as a family.
The rest of the day passes like any other Saturday. We watch TV, spend time outside by the pool, and enjoy the rare luxury of slowing down.
After all of the kids are in bed, Mateo and I sit out on the deck. I sip a glass of red wine while he nurses a beer.
“So, I was thinking,” Mateo says.
I smile at him. “You do that a lot.”
“Okay, smartass,” he snickers. “I was thinking maybetomorrow we drop the kids off at your brothers and the two of us do something fun.”
I raise a brow. “You really want to send all four of them over there? That seems like a lot.”
He shrugs. “Eh, it’s nothing. He loves having them over.”
Then he grins. “And I may have already asked him.”
“So you’re more telling me than asking what we’re doing tomorrow?” I say, smiling at him.
“Sure. We’ll go with that.”
“So what’s the plan?”
“You’ll see.” He winks.
I snort. “If it involves another kid, that’s not happening. Four is more than enough.”
He smirks. “You said three was enough, and look at us now.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, well, we both agreed no more planning around kids.” I air-quote the word, remembering how the last time we talked about having another baby, I ended up pregnant within three months.
He lifts his beer, eyes dragging over me. “This is me not discussing it, then.”
