Lauren made a sudden appearance and she yanked on Luciu’s ear. “I’m certain that I didn’t teach you to be so rude.”
Luciu yelped but backed off.
And, immediately, my nerves faded.
Yeah, families. This was my shit.
“Hello, dear,” Lauren greeted me calmly. “How did the flight go?”
“It went. How are you?”
“We’re well. Very excited as I’m sure you can imagine.” Her eyes twinkled.
“You purposely trying to torment Luc,Matri?”
She quipped, “Patience is a virtue.”
Stan’s grin was wicked but loaded with love. “Come on,Matri, let’s put them out of their misery. We’ve been searching for these damn things for years. Just one more to find.”
Lauren retreated with a wink and let us move out of the back seat.
The kids immediately circled Stan, tugging on his hands, his pants, and the hem of his jacket, going so far as to pat down his pockets.
The sight had my brows lifting as he cooed, “Uncle tax incoming.”
Bars of chocolate were retrieved from somewhere and slipped into tiny starfish hands before they skipped off, looking more like children than the earlier models that belonged on an ad for the Catholic Church.
“I’ll make you pay for that later,” Luciu drawled, “when they’re bouncing off the ceilings.”
“The perks of being the uncle and not the dad,” Stan joked before he was pulled into a bear hug that came complete with heavy slaps on each other’s backs.
I didn’t know why I was surprised. Sicilians, I’d learned, did shit differently.
When they grabbed a hold of each other’s faces and pushed their foreheads together, I heard them utter something in Sicilian. Something low and like gravel but ferocious too.
Luciu released him, but only for a second before his sister, Aurora, was in front of him. She was shorter than him by a good foot and had a belly the size of two basketballs sticking out, but that didn’t diminish her presence at all. She leaned up on tiptoe as he bowed his head for better ease and pressed kisses to his cheeks.
Her hands grabbed his upper arms, nails digging deep into his silk-blend jacket as more Sicilian spilled from their lips.
The moment touched something in me. Something raw. Something in my soul.
When, finally, they’d finished, Stan turned to me with a wide smile. “You’ve yet to meet Kitty,frate,soru,” he stated, dragging me into his side. “Officially, at least.”
“How many times do we have to meet her before it’s official?” Hunter chortled, grin widening when Stan flipped him the bird then also had his ear yanked by Lauren.
I gave them a small wave, well aware that they were being polite when they had to be desperate for a glimpse of the bracelets. “I think you need to give them the cuffs, Stan, before they burst.”
Hunter chuckled and Jennifer smiled, but Luciu and Aurora didn’t argue.
Stan rolled his eyes but accepted the box once I retrieved it from my purse and passed it to Aurora. Hesitantly, she popped open the lid. Luciu’s head was soon taking up her line of sight.
For the barest of moments, their shoulders sagged and I felt their joy, experienced it with them. My gaze darted from Jennifer to Hunter and we shared a smile.
Our smiles dropped, however, when Rory blurted out, “Oh!” Her hand fell to her stomach, the jewelry case tumbling to the ground until Luc snatched it.
“What is it, moonlight?”
Moonlight?Gah, Sicilians totally did romance right.
