City driving sucked.
Bad.
Shoving the phone into her purse, Haven exited the SUV and headed for the front stoop of the house. She didn’t bother to knock on her in-law’s door. The last time she did that—years ago—Kim made sure she understood just fine that they were welcome anytime, and the door was always unlocked. Haven still thought she should probably knock, but hey, it wasn’t her house.
She hadn’t been wrong, either.
The house was loud and lively. She barely caught sight of her youngest darting between the doorways in the entry hallway before the girl was out of sight completely. Following behind her was Kim, who laughed just as loud as the girls.
Nothing unusual to see here.
Then, when her oldest daughter came out of the living room with a tablet in hand, Lynn just happened to see her mom standing at the front door. Smiling wide, the girl—all of seven—reminded Haven so much of her younger self. Yet, the girl took a lot from her father, too. Like Andino’s dark hair, the shape of his lips, and even the color of his eyes.
“Hey, Ma!” Lynn called excitedly.
Haven barely managed to drop her purse before her kid had come down the hallway to greet her with arms thrown wide. She caught Lynn in a hug that she hoped voiced just how much she missed her oldest when she was away from her for a whole day. Before long, her other two girls came around the corner to say hello to their mom, too.
Hugs and kisses galore.
She loved all of it.
Haven wore many hats—some days, she got to be just herself; a tattooed woman in her thirties who liked to keep crazy colors in her hair and ran a strip club in the evenings. Other times, she had to put all of that aside to be the woman that stood beside her crime boss husband. She was a friend, a daughter, and more.
Her favorite hat to wear, however, was mom.
“Missed you, Ma,” her youngest, Emily Cecelia, said in her little girl voice that had not entirely cleared of a childish babble. It always made her smile. “I wuv you.”
Haven grinned. “I love you, too. Did you have fun with Nana?”
“Well,” came a familiar voice from down the hall, “Giovanni just fell asleep upstairs about ten minutes before you came, if that tells you anything about how our day here went.”
Laughing, Haven stood to greet her mother-in-law. She shared a hug with Kim while the girls continued to mill about around them. Rose, her middle child, didn’t let go of her legs, though.
“They played him out, did they?” she asked.
Kim shrugged. “Gio still thinks he can do all that he used to do—we don’t point out that he can’t, you know.”
Ah.
Yeah.
“Thanks again for looking after them today—I know they’re a handful.”
Kim shrugged and smiled fondly at her granddaughters who—without even needing to be told—were already pulling on their jackets and shoes. Or rather, Lynn was helping Emily, and Rose was putting her shoes on the wrong feet.
Kids.
It was a work in progress.
Haven loved it, though.
“Oh, I’ll never complain about getting them. Not after I spent years hounding Andino for grandbabies.”
Yes, her greatest wish.
Then, Kim gave Haven a look. She could tell her mother-in-law was carefully choosing her words when she asked, “Did you hear anything about your next round?”
Just like that, Haven’s mood dipped a little. She was mindful not to show it. All of them were extra cautious not to put adult problems on her girls, but sometimes, they slipped up. Not lately, thankfully.
“The office called today,” Haven replied. “We’ll be going in soon for it.”
“Oh, that’s good, then. Is this the last one?”
That made Haven sigh.
“It is.”
Their last round of IVF.
Their last chance at one more baby.
Before this, it had seemed like all Haven needed to do was jump in bed with Andino and somehow, they’d end up pregnant again. And then a couple of years passed after Emily Cecelia’s birth where nothing happened. They tried for a while on their own before going for a specialist consultation. On the surface, everything seemed normal, but for whatever reason, Haven’s ovaries simply decided they no longer wanted to drop eggs even though they produced them just fine. More than one option was offered—they tried every single one to no avail and with no baby yet.
Here they were now.
IVF.
One last time.
“Saying good luck doesn’t seem appropriate,” Kim murmured.
Haven ran her palm over the dark curls atop her middle child’s head, and laughed under her breath. “You know what, it’s as good as anything, Kim.”
“Well, good luck, then.”
Yeah.
They needed it.
THREE
Haven’s SUV was already parked in the driveway by the time Andino arrived home, but that wasn’t anything unusual. They could both be in the city at the same time, and somehow, his wife would always arrive home before him—and she normally grabbed the girls on the way by his parents’ place, too.
“Want me to leave the Rolls in the driveway tonight?” Nate asked from the front.
Andino sighed, considering it. Sometimes he had the enforcer keep the car parked at his home, and other times, he asked for it to go somewhere else. That way, less people knew he was at home and the hours he liked to keep.
One couldn’t be too cautious.
“Where’s your car?”
“Well—”
Andino chuckled. “Drive the Rolls home, but if you get it back here tomorrow with a fucking scratch, Nate, I swear to God …”
“It’ll be in the driveway waiting for you tomorrow morning in perfect condition, boss.”
Yeah, it better.
He didn’t have to say it out loud.
Just as Andino was about to exit the car, a call rang through to the Bluetooth.
“It’s John,” Nate said, glancing in the rearview.
“Put it through to my phone—don’t leave until I’m in the house.”
“Got it.”
Despite the fact that Andino frequently and severely missed Pink working for him—he thought he would never get an enforcer as good as that man—Nate wasn’t so bad. When it was just him and the guy, he was a lot more tolerable, too. That said good things for him even if Andino wasn’t willing to admit those things to the man.
It was what it was.
Andino didn’t plan to change.
And … well, he never really told Pink he missed him although they crossed paths regularly given that the man acted as John’s underboss now. He didn’t think it needed to be explicitly said considering the fact that Pink had worked for Andino for well over a goddamn decade.
Times changed.
It always did.
“John,” Andino greeted into his phone as he stepped out of the Rolls. The first thing that caught his attention was all of his girls’ toys scattered over the front lawn. Haven liked to let their daughters play out some of the excess energy from long drives before they went into the house, and he suspected that was the culprit for the mess. “What are you up to, cousin?”
Home is where my heart is.
That was the only thought running through Andino’s mind as he took his time to pick up a few toys and carrying them over to the cedar chest on the front porch where they kept them stored. He had a lot of roles to play in his life, but his favorite ones revolved around this home and the people within it. Haven gave him everything, and he didn’t think he told her that nearly enough. He made a mental note to do it more often.