Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Marcus would leave home.
Corrado and Chris would become closer to their own graduation.
Beni and Bene would ... well, become more difficult than they already were without their older brothers around to keep them under control. He doubted that he would see all five of them together as often as he did right now.
It was the natural progression of life, though, and he knew that, too. That didn’t make it any easier to come to terms with, either.
What Gian didn’t know ... was that things would change even more than he was aware. And faster than he realized. Things he hadn’t planned for, and never expected, would change the face of his sons’ lives in more ways than he counted on.
Some, they were ready for.
Others ... not so much.
He gave Chris a look, unsurprised to find his son hadn’t even taken his clothes off to sit along the edge of the pool. He certainly wouldn’t do that alone—his deep seated fear of water too much for him to contain—but with his twin at his side, it made the terror a bit more bearable. That, and he liked to do what his brothers did. He liked to be with them, even if that meant sitting alongside the pool while the rest of them swam.
“What are you doing hiding on the stairs?”
The sweet voice of his wife had Gian turning a bit to watch Cara come down the stairs. In her hands, she carried a tray of ready drinks for the boys. Pink lemonade, it looked like, in glasses filled with ice. She was always thinking of their kids, and he loved that.
“Here, let me carry it,” he said.
Cara happily handed the tray over. “Are you spying?”
“Appreciating, actually.”
“Oh?”
Gian shrugged as the two of them turned on the stairs to watch their boys down below. Bene was now threatening to pull Marcus into the water by his ankles, and Beni was promising to help his twin in whatever way necessary.
Marcus was simply smirking.
A silent try it.
“I was thinking, soon ... they’re going to be gone,” he murmured. “I mean, within the next few years, anyway. And what are we going to do with this big house, then, mia cara bella? When it’s quiet, and we don’t have to worry about waking up to an empty fridge because they all decided to clean it out overnight? What do we do when they’re not here?”
Cara smiled, and leaned in close enough to bump her shoulder with Gian’s before she leaned up to kiss him sweetly. “We wait to let them fill the house again, of course.”
“Pardon?”
“With grandbabies.”
Well, he hadn’t really thought of that.
“Still different,” he said.
“But a good different, Gian. And like you said, we still have a few years with them like this. So, while we have it, wouldn’t it be better to be down there, you know, with them, instead of up here watching them have fun? Participate, and all that.”
“I planned on doing that.”
Cara grinned, murmuring, “But only after you appreciated, hmm?”
“Exactly.”
A king made an army of princes.
Given to him by a queen.
Surely, he was allowed to watch his kingdom grow.
“Yes, something to drink!”
Beni’s shout before water splashed drew Gian’s attention to his kids. Now, the youngest twins were cutting through the water at a fast speed to make it to the other side of the pool where they would simply be able to take their drinks from their father. Chris and Corrado stood from the edge of the pool to walk over, and Marcus decided to dive down from the diving board and also swim across the length of the pool.
“Best water them,” Cara said, “or they don’t grow, Gian.”
Right.
Cara distributed the drinks to their boys while Gian was happy to hold the tray for her. He listened as their conversations changed from threats of drowning to a game of baseball. All eyes turned on him, expectantly.
“You’ll play with us, won’t you, Papa?” Corrado asked.
“Yeah,” Beni added.
“Make it an even team for both sides,” Marcus said, pulling himself out of the water after his mother took the glass from him.
Right.
Because he had his whole baseball team in these boys.
As long as he agreed to play, too.
“Why not,” Gian murmured.
Story of his life with these kids.
Why the hell not.
Regrets
“Where is Chris?”
Gian hadn’t even closed the front door to the mansion before his wife managed to notice something was wrong after her husband returned back from his trip to Vegas where he had business to do with The League.
Not surprising, though.
Cara always knew when something was wrong between her husband or with her boys. It was simply who she was—he never bothered to attempt to hide anything from her.
“He ...” Gian stopped himself from saying more, and lifted his head to find Cara standing at the bottom of the left staircase rounding their home’s gran entry. If he had allowed for this to happen, he thought he should at least stare his wife in the face and tell her at the same time. Wasn’t that only fair? “He decided to stay—to join The League. Alongside Corrado.”