Oh, sure, he told Corrado’s father when Gian asked.
That wasn’t the same.
Corrado nodded, unbothered at the silence stretching over the table, and glanced his mother’s way. “Yeah, that’s about right.”
“How?”
Both Alessio and Corrado’s attention snapped to the youngest of the second set of Guzzi twins. Bene, who Ginevra had just been conversing with moments ago. At the lift of Corrado’s brow, a silent order for his brother to clarify, Bene did just that.
“How does that work?” he asked.
Corrado cleared his throat. “Bene.”
The warning was clear.
Don’t ask.
“I get how that works,” Bene muttered, “I’m not a fucking idiot, Corrado.”
“Then don’t ask.”
Bene looked only to Ginevra. “No, how does that work? Because Corrado was like a sixteen-year-old girl with her heartbroken throughout high school—in a fucking mood, and you just wanted to punch him in the throat and tell him to suck it up. And Les? Yeah, in case you didn’t get the memo, he’s a fucking asshole on his good days, too. How does she put up with it all the time? Because I had to live with one for a long while, and that was enough for me.”
Ginevra’s mouth popped open, but she said nothing. Maybe she didn’t know what to say. Light laughter drifted down the table, from the other twins, Marcus at the end near his father, and the heads of the household, too. Not nervous laughter, either, but genuine. Because well, none of what Bene said was a lie, and he always had the biggest fucking mouth at the table.
Alessio wasn’t even offended.
Corrado grunted under his breath. “I am not that bad.”
“I am,” Alessio said, nodding in his seat, “and Corrado is ... well, Bene isn’t wrong.”
“See,” Bene said. “I wanna know how.”
All eyes turned on Ginevra again. Alessio was sure this was not what she had planned for the dinner, but hell, one had to expect anything with the Guzzis. Well, everything except judgement or problems. As long as they gave a shit about you, then that’s what mattered. They would be the first to jump in and support whatever someone needed or wanted even if it meant everyone else would back away.
Her cheeks tinted with pink as she said, “Well, I learned to like it, I guess.”
“But how?”
Ginevra’s stare drifted between Corrado at her side, and Alessio across the table. “Kind of hard not to with those two, that’s all.”
Bene opened his mouth to speak again, but it was Gian who spoke up to stop him at the other end of the table. “That’s enough, Bene, you understand the rules. Unless someone offers, you mind your own.”
The youngest twin scowled. “I can’t help I’m curious.”
“Be curious privately and allow others the same respect.”
“Fine.” Bene muttered to Ginevra out of the corner of his mouth, “But they’re still moody as fuck, and I’m not sure how you do it.”
Alessio smirked at Corrado’s mother, shrugging as he took the final drink from his wine glass. “So yeah, it’s good.”
She laughed. “That’s all I care about.”
Right.
Him, too.
• • •
Alessio whistled low, admiring the twin Ducati super bikes parked in front of the large garage. “Damn, I will need to get me one of those.”
Matte black.
Chrome detailing.
Speed like nothing else.
“Yeah, I need one,” Alessio said.
Beside him, Chris chuckled and shook his head. “Ma saw them, and the first thing she said was it was just another way for Bene and Beni to kill themselves.”
“Well ...”
“She had a point,” Chris muttered. “They have no concept of fucking danger, and if anything, they chase that shit. Usually together.”
“You’re aware I like you, right?”
“Mostly, yeah.”
Alessio nodded and gave Corrado’s twin a smirk. “But I’m also grateful you’re not as close to Corrado as those two are with each other. I couldn’t handle your ass in front of me every single day.”
Chris chewed on the piece of gum in his mouth before muttering, “You know what? Same.”
Yep.
He respected Chris a great deal, like the rest of Corrado’s family, but he also wasn’t lying. He wouldn’t appreciate and like Chris as much as he did if he was around twenty-four-seven.
Facts were facts.
“And what are you two doing out here, hmm?”
Chris and Alessio spun around to see Gian crossing the driveway, coming their way with a knowing smile. The man tossed his hands in his pockets, looking unconcerned that they had snuck out of the house, and away from the noise.
Mostly, Alessio just needed to breathe. Corrado should enjoy dinner with his family—they had tonight planned for a week, now. Ginevra was having a good time, too. It didn’t matter that Alessio wanted to take them home, and move onto far better things.
His needs could wait.
So, he needed distance.
A breather.
“Admiring your sons’ bikes,” Alessio said, spinning back around to look over the Ducatis again. “I hear your wife doesn’t appreciate their beauty.”
“No, she doesn’t appreciate that they stunt on them, and regularly break two-hundred kilometers an hour on the highway. Because she knows, when they hit the pavement, there will be nothing left.”
“And yet, here they still are.”
Gian chuckled darkly. “Only because Cara has not gotten mad enough to tell me to get rid of them, yet.”
“They’re not kids anymore, Papa,” Chris said. “They’re adults, with their own money, and they can do what they want with it.”
“Except you all will always be my kids, regardless of your ages. And you keep thinking you can do what you want, Christopher, we’ll see how that works out for you.”
Chris sighed.
Gian smiled as he came to stand in between the two. He gave Chris a nod and then tipped his head back toward the house. “Give us a minute, would you?”
“Sure. Later, Les.”
Alessio tipped his chin in Chris’s direction, his silent goodbye. It was only once the front door of the mansion slammed shut that Gian turned his focus on Alessio next to him.
“I’m glad to see things are better for you three, but I didn’t think you—or him—wanted me to mention it in there,” Gian said.
“We’re getting there. Still complicated, but—”
“There’s three people,” Gian interjected, chuckling, “the complications can’t be helped.”
“It’s good complications, though.”
“I bet.” Gian rocked on his heels, surveying the bikes in front of him, and then staring up at the dark sky overhead. “On another note, I had a phone call with Dare earlier.”
Alessio made a noise under his breath, bitter and annoyed. “Right, well, I should go find Corrado and Ginny.”
“Or you can accept that when people care about someone else, sometimes they make bad decisions or say things without thinking them through because their feelings sometimes get in the way. All things considered, Alessio, I think you should be able to understand that better than anyone else. Stop ignoring his calls—he’s the only father you’ve ever had, blood or not. Attempt to keep what you have, regardless of what your pride thinks about it.”