Matteo chuckled. “Missing our little poo machine?”
I shrugged. “I do. It’s the first time we left her with someone else for so many hours.”
Matteo stroked my hair. “She’s fine. Luca and Aria are taking care of her.”
“We’re lucky,” I said quietly. “Without them, we wouldn’t be here today.”
“Yeah, they are our better halves,” Matteo joked.
“They are.” I traced Matteo’s tattoo. “Sometimes I worry about Isa.”
Matteo’s eyes became sharp. “Why? You know I’ll protect her.”
“I don’t mean an outside attack. I worry about her growing up in the Famiglia with all its old-fashioned rules. The outside world changes but our world remains mostly the same. Girls still remain virgins until they marry. Even if we don’t teach her those values, she’ll be surrounded by them.”
Matteo shook his head. “I really don’t want to think about our innocent little daughter ever having sex. I can see how crazy Luca gets when anyone comments on Marcella being ten and how it could be time to look for a good match for her.”
“As if anyone could ever be good enough for Marci in Luca’s eyes. I feel pity for the poor idiot who’ll have to marry her.”
Matteo grinned like a shark. “Luca and I will have a long conversation with him.”
“You two are impossible,” I muttered. “But it isn’t only that. What about arranged marriages, bloody sheets, cutting the bride out of her dress and all that?”
“How about we try to survive the first ten years before we worry about teenage years, and marriage and bloody sheets?”
I huffed. Matteo pulled me closer and kissed me. “Not all arranged marriages are bad.”
“Luca and Aria are the exception.”
“I was talking about us,” Matteo said.
I opened my eyes in fake shock. He growled and rolled on top of me. “Everyone always said I needed to teach you manners, where did I go wrong?”
He nuzzled my neck in a distracting way.
“Wrong woman,” I whispered then sucked in a breath when he licked a particularly sensitive spot at my throat.
“Just the woman I need,” he growled, but his wandering hands distracted me from a reply.
We fell asleep in each other’s arms but sometime during the night I woke and couldn’t fall back asleep. I carefully untangled myself from Matteo and tiptoed out the door and toward the nursery. The mansion was big enough so that every child had their own room and every baby their own nursery.
I hoped Isabella was there and not in Aria’s and Luca’s bedroom with them. I opened the door and froze at the sight before me. The small night light cast a yellowish glow in the room. Luca was asleep in the armchair and Aria was curled up on top of him. Isabella was fast asleep in her crib but I assumed she had kept them awake most of the night if they’d decided to sleep in the nursery. She’d been a bit fussy these last few days but I’d hoped she’d settle down tonight.
I took a step inside and Luca’s eyes shot open, tension radiating through his body, his arm coming protectively around my sleeping sister. Then his eyes settled on me and he relaxed. He yawned and glanced at the clock. It was four a.m.
He rose with Aria in his arms, cradling her to his chest and came slowly toward me.
I mouthed, “Thank you.”
Luca nodded. “Will Matteo be more tolerable tomorrow?” he asked in a low voice.
I rolled my eyes at him but couldn’t stop a smile from forming.
Luca shook his head and muttered something I didn’t catch before he walked off with Aria’s sleeping form.
I watched them a moment longer before I moved silently toward the crib. Isabella looked so peaceful and cute, I had to stop myself from picking her up and cuddling her. I didn’t want to wake her. I dragged the chair a bit closer and sank down with my chin on the rail so I could watch my baby. I reached out for her and stroked her cheek then her reddish-brown hair. It was a bit lighter than Matteo’s but darker than mine. Her eye color was still difficult to determine, a mix of blue and brown, but she had my freckles. They graced her cheeks and nose adorably.
“I knew I’d find you here,” Matteo murmured as he came in, his sweatpants hanging low on his hips. Those abs still got me every time. He leaned over me, his chin lightly resting atop my head.
“I still can’t believe she’s ours. She looks so innocent and peaceful.”
“She can scream like a little fury,” I said with a small laugh. “She’ll drive us crazy soon enough.”
“Ohh, I have no doubt about that.”
We watched her a little while longer before we returned to our bedroom with the baby monitor and fell asleep almost instantly.
The next morning, Aria and Luca already sat at the breakfast table when we dragged our asses down. We joined them, Isa wedged on my hip. She was clingy this morning, maybe because of our separation last night or maybe because she was caught up in some kind of development phase. I didn’t try to let mom guilt overwhelm me. If I wanted to stay sane and protect my marriage, Matteo and I needed the occasional day or evening off.
After some fussing, I finally managed to get Isa to recline into her baby seat and sank down on the chair beside her.
Cradling her still flat pregnant belly, Aria had an expression of utmost baby bliss on her face as she watched my daughter. I stifled a laugh. My sister was the born mother. No wonder she couldn’t understand that Matteo and I didn’t want more of these little poop machines. She gave me a sheepish smile when she noticed my attention. I winked at her.
“Do you think Lily and Romero will join us tonight? We haven’t had dinner together since we both gave birth,” I said.
Aria gave a delicate shrug. Matteo of course was less restrained. “Even if they come over, I doubt Liliana can tear herself away from admiring the little poop machine.”
“They have two, I doubt Sara is out of diapers yet,” Luca commented.
Aria sent both men reprimanding looks. “Lily is a very caring mother.”
Matteo’s cough sounded remarkably like a cluck.
“What does that make me, a cuckoo?” I joked. Isa laughed as if she could understand what was going on. For a second, I felt horrible because I had almost become the cuckoo to drop her off with Aria. She would have had the perfect life with my sister, but I couldn’t imagine giving her away anymore.
Aria looked flustered. “Of course not. I just don’t want us to make Lily feel bad for being a bit over caring with Flavio. Every mother handles the newborn phase differently.”
“All right, Dalai-L’Aria,” Matteo said with a wink.
She pointed her fork at him. “Remember you’ll need to be on my good side if you and Gianna want more couple time.”
“As if you could ever say no to them, if they ask you for a favor,” Luca muttered.
I stifled a laugh at the caught look Aria gave him.
Lily and Romero actually joined us in the Hamptons with their kids that afternoon, and even had an almost adult-only dinner (if you didn’t count Marci and Amo) with us. The rest of the kids were already asleep. It almost felt like old times, apart from Marci’s pouty-face because Luca had told her to turn her music down in less than favorable words for the band members. He’d compared their songs to castrated cats. Amo of course couldn’t shut up about castrated cats since then, making mew sounds all the time to provoke Marci.