“You’d have to give me a good reason for asking this of me.”
“The women. The lifestyle. We’ve seen the news reports and your name has been brought up in them. The women you sleep with. How you’re never with just one person.” My papá snaps at him.
“I thought we established that you can’t believe everything you hear? I stayed away from relationships. Yes. But that doesn’t mean that I would do anything to hurt Gabriela.”
“And it’s my decision. I choose Gianluca. I don’t care if you give us your blessing or not. He’s my world. And I won’t walk away from him. No matter what you say.”
The look on my papá’s face is one I’ve only seen when he’s been really angry. But right now? I don’t care. He won’t keep me away from Gianluca.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gianluca
It’s been a few days since Gabriela and I decided we wanted to get married. But my schedule during baseball season is rigorous, so we haven’t been able to do our ceremony yet. This week we’ve played three games in Colorado and then we played two games in San Fransisco. After tonight’s game, we’re finally headed back home. I’ve always loved every game we play, home and away. But now that I have Gabriela and Giancarlo waiting for me? I can’t wait to get back home.
My zio Enea got Ivan Koslov to sit down and have a video chat. From what I heard, it didn’t go to well. Ivan’s pissed that Ramón won’t be giving Gabriela to Yakov. Zio told him that we’re already married and that we eloped without telling anyone. If it keeps my girl safe? They can tell him anything they want. The other thing that was talked about was Yakov trying to take Giancarlo from me. Zio Enea told Ivan that Giancarlo isn’t his brother’s kid. That we’ve done the tests and he needs to back off. He said he doesn’t believe us. And he said it doesn’t matter,because they can prove that he’s taken care of Giancarlo since his birth.
We’ve talked to Mirabelle about this situation. She’s a supervisor for the Child Protective Services department in our county. She said she hasn’t seen any paperwork that has mine, Faith’s or Giancarlo’s name come through her office. If anything is put into the system, she will see it and let us know. Because we did the DNA tests with Faith’s consent, this whole process should be easier. We have a court date next month to get my name put on his birth certificate. The court system here is backlogged, so even with our connections, we’ve had to wait to get our court date.
Knowing the issues we’ve had with the bratva before? I do worry about what’s going to happen. It’s not like they play by the rules when they do things. I told my papà, maybe it was time to take down the bratva, once and for all. He did point out that not all of this was our fight…until I fell in love with Gabriela. Meh. Point taken. Now it is our fight.
When I get back home, we’re gathering for a meeting to update everyone. Gabriela’s family is still in Lake Renegade, they were supposed to head home a few days ago. But they decided to wait and see if we can get this deal made with the bratva. I don’t have high hopes and neither does the council. At least for now, Diego is still with Gabriela. But I think when her family goes home, he’s going too. So I’m going to need to talk to the council about having someone assigned to her. I’ve already brought it up to my papà and he’s agreed. Especially with everything that’s going on. Even if we make a deal with Ivan, that doesn’t mean that Yakov will honor that agreement.
I can’t wait for Gabriela to learn about the shifters. It’s always fun to see new people learn about them. I told them that they can’t do it unless I’m there. I have to see her reaction. I think oneof them will be her bodyguard. Which means they have to show her what they are.
Ever since meeting Gabriela, away games have been different for me. I miss looking into the stands and seeing my girl smiling back at me. And Giancarlo next to her jumping up and down as he cheers. One more game and I’ll be home with my loves.
Gabriela
Gianluca and I have been talking about moving into our own home on the property. As much as I love living with his parents, I think it’s time. Especially if we’re going to be getting married. We’ll be living on the Mancini property. Each of the families has a huge chunk of land. They’re all connected in the middle with the campgrounds. From what Giovanna said, the campgrounds in the middle is over twenty thousand acres. There’s ponds and waterfalls in it, along with cabins and places where they can hook up RV’s. It’s a really fun place to explore. There are signs everywhere saying that there are wild animals that roam the campgrounds too. I haven’t seen any yet, but I hope to see some soon.
Yesterday Giovanna, Luciana and Calliope went with me to look at a few of the houses that are already built. I loved one of the houses that we saw. It has three stories and has five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms. It’s perfect for us and our growing family. When I told Gianluca about it, he said it was all up to me. That he will love any home that I choose. So the family has started to help us move in, since Gianluca will be back tomorrow, it’s going to be the best surprise for him. And I love that it’s really close to Giovanna’s home. Fiorella was sayingmaybe she’ll take the house that’s close to ours. Right now, she still lives in the big house with their parents.
Away games are hard to get used to. Not because I worry about the women. But because I miss Gianluca so damn much. I miss waking up with his arms around me. He makes me feel safe from the moment we go to bed to the moment we wake up. Even the days when I can’t go to games, I end up falling asleep with Carlo. Gianluca will come home and carry me to bed. I never thought I could love someone so much.
Today I’m headed to the bakery with the mamàs. My own mamá has been coming with us to the bakery in the early mornings. I think she wants to see what I’ve been doing. I know she wants me to go back home with them. But I don’t want to.
“Would you be able to teach me how to make a whole meal? I want to surprise Gianluca when he gets home tomorrow.” I ask the mamàs.
“What would you like to make?”
“I don’t know. What is Gianluca’s favorite dinner?” I ask Rosaura.
“His favorite is pollo al ajillo and mushroom risotto.”
“Can you help me make that?” I ask.
“Sì. I’ll make a grocery list, you can get all the ingredients and we’ll make it here.”
“Okay, thank you.” I smile and hug her.
At lunch time, Giovanna comes to the bakery with Giancarlo. The first thing he does now is run to me to give me a hug. I love him so much. I see GeorgÍos Nikolaidis walking in with Giovanna. He waves at me as he walks over to Diego starts talking to him. Then they both walk over to me.
“Since you’ll be Gianluca’s wife soon, you’re going to have your own bodyguard. Georgios is going to be your bodyguard. Because when your family goes back to Valencia, I will go with them.” Diego says to me.
“Thank you.” I say to both of them. I feel sad knowing that Diego won’t be with me much longer, it’s been fun having him around. But I’m also glad he’ll be protecting my family again. After hearing how bad the Koslov Bratva is, I worry more for my family when they go back home.
I’ve spent a little time with Georgios, he’s a big guy and I’m honored that he’s said yes to being my bodyguard.
