I sigh, rolling my eyes. Even after all these years, Dante has to put up with Sofia’s brothers giving him shit. At least he’s a good sport about it. Well, that and they live thousands of miles away, and they only ever see each other in person a few times a year.
I look behind him and see Dante heading our way, walking a little stiffly, and I shoot him a sympathetic look when our gazes catch. He gives me a good-natured grin and moves to the pool, picking up Sofia where she’s lounging and settling her on his lap as he sits down.
“Fucker still has a death wish,” Alonzo grumbles.
“Shhh. They have two boys, and they didn’t get them from the stork. Your sister has sex, get over it.” It’s the same argument we have every time we see them, and as much as Alonzo loves his nephews, he never wants to think of just how they got here.
He glares at me and stalks away to grab a drink and stand with Massimo, Lazaro, and Zeno. All three of them glance my way and then over at Dante with scowls on their faces.
“Men. Some things will never change, will they?” Sienna laughs lightly, coming to stand with me.
“He acts like we didn’t squeeze in some orgasms of our own before the kids got up this morning,” I snort.
“Mom, gross,” Salvatore groans.
Whoops. Forgot he was so close by. I’ve always had an open communication policy with my kids, and at twelve, he definitely knows all about the birds and bees. I also have made it clear that I will not hide my attraction to their father from them. I want them to see what a healthy relationship looks like, and how I expect them to treat their future partners.
He’s the spitting image of his father, right down to the bulkiness of his shoulders and chest, and he’s edging closer to my height every day. The boy will be towering over me before long. Not that Santino won’t be long in catching up to him. At almost ten, my youngest is already growing too fast for me to keep in clothes for longer than a few months.
And don’t even get me started on birthing the two of them. I pulled a page from Amara’s book and freaked the hell out about my vagina never going back to normal. It was a dark time for me, not that my husband or kids give a shit. But you damn well bet I wring every last drop out of that for awesome Mother’s Day gifts, and sometimes heaps of guilt when the occasions call for it.
Mostly when they’re pissing me the hell off, but I keep those moments few and far between.
“Go back to the pool if you don’t want to hear your mother and me gossiping then,” Sienna tells him with a grin. She looks around. “Pietro and Angelo look like they’re ready to get a football game going.”
That distracts him and he’s off and running. Pietro and Angelo are Lazaro and Amara’s oldest boys. I look across the grass to see that most of the kids are heading that way too. Urso and his wife, Maria, are pairing up the kids with help from Kida.
It surprised me to find out that he was dating her even when everything went down in New York, but they work. She’s shy, sweet, and wonderful with the kids. She’s often asking for them to come over and spend time with them and their kids.
Sofia told me that she got it out of Urso that she grew up as an orphan, and she always wanted a bunch of them around. So I let her have the kids whenever she wants. Her and Urso have two kids, Rocky and Remo, eight and six, and they’re cheering when they get paired together.
Rounding out the group, I see Soren—who as the oldest cousin takes his job seriously to keep the youngest kids in line—Dante and Sofia’s boys, Stefano and Aurelio, Alessio and Sienna’s youngest boy, Theo, and finally Zeno and Kida’s three kids, Rocco, Grace, and Naomi rounding out the group wanting to play.
“I really can’t believe I’m about to have a teenager in a little over a year,” Sienna mutters, looking at Luca. “It’s not fair, Rori.”
I snicker. “At least I get to see you fail at it first, then I’ll know what not to do.”
She rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t deny it. She, Amara, Kida, Lucy and I have all been working together to figure out this whole parenting thing, and there are days we all fail at it, but we have the support system. I don’t know what I would do without it. Especially in the early days where there was a shit ton of babies around.
It took a good year for Lucy and I to be on good terms, but we talked it out and finally moved past it. Now, we’re close, and it’s like none of it ever happened. Which is good considering that we each had a baby only a few weeks apart and relied on each other a lot. Luna, Massimo and Lucy’s only daughter, and Salvatore being so close in age meant we went through a lot of milestones together. Including deciding that two kids each was more than enough for us.
I’m pretty sure none of us slept for almost six years with how many kids were being born, but it’s worth it. All our kids are close. Even with Gia and Sofia on the other side of the ocean,we do weekly group calls, and yearly girls’ trips. Much to our husbands’ annoyance. It’s a security nightmare for them, but they learned the hard way after the first time they tried to forbid us to go and I managed to sneak us all out anyway without any guards not to bother arguing.
I think they’re all afraid I’m going to teach the kids. I haven’t ruled it out, but as of yet, I’ve kept it my little secret weapon. It also makes me very good at figuring out when the kids are up to something that’s going to get them in trouble.
I’m the cool aunt, of course. Even if it does drive Alonzo crazy.
“I really wish Pietro and Aurelio were here to see them grow up,” Amara says as she comes over with a sad smile.
“They’re probably causing shit wherever they are, so I think they’re alright,” Sienna snickers, but I see the sadness in her eyes.
We lost Aurelio first four years ago, but he was almost ninety when he passed, and his health had been declining for a long time. He lost his second wife, Angelica, four years before that, but he hung on long enough to see his final grandchild be born.
Pietro wasn’t long after that, passing peacefully in his sleep. Personally, I think that he didn’t want to be without his best friend, but I keep that to myself.
It’s still hard to have family get-togethers like this without them, but it’s not as sharp a pain anymore. I got very close to both of them, and they made my transition into the family almost seamless.
Not to mention, Pietro loved to call on me from time to time to help with a particular problem. Alonzo hated it, but he never went against his Don. But the moment Alessio took over for his father when he retired at seventy-five, he made Alessio promise never to put me in that position.
