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)
Wasn’t that the point of a library?
Even if it was a personal one.
“It is quiet,” she said.
Despite the very busy day they’d had at the Guzzi mansion with the photographer, his team, and photoshoot that lasted well over four hours. Somehow, though, it went off without a hitch. Their newborn grandson, Marcus, even went along with everyone else’s plans. Truly a miracle in and of itself.
Cara was going to have beautiful photos to show for it. And that was really what she wanted, which she got. She usually did get what she wanted, anyway.
His sexy smile had her own growing. “And imagine, we have two of the loudest ones under our roof and their wives.”
Cara laughed. “Plus a newborn.”
“I told you, didn’t I?”
Well, her husband told her a lot of things. Most times, Cara tried to listen even when she thought Gian was just blowing smoke out of his ass to appease her. It wasn’t like it would be the first time he did it.
Shaking her head, Cara went back to her book, asking, “What did you tell me?”
“That you were worrying for nothing about those two—Bene and Beni, I mean.”
Her gaze focused on the words at the top of the page in the book. She read the same sentence over and over again, deciding how to respond to her husband. He wasn’t wrong, but sometimes in her heart, she still felt heavy about what had transpired between their youngest twins over the past year and a half.
“They’d never been apart and then all of the sudden, they were in two entirely different countries,” she said quietly. Sure, over the years the twins had given her many reasons to worry about the two of them. Their wild ways and constant partying when she wished they would focus more followed them for most of their teenage years and even into their adulthood until they both settled down. Still, they were her youngest, too. Her babies. It wouldn’t feel right to not worry about them when they had always seemed to need her a little more for different things than the rest of her kids did. “How could I not worry?”
“Because it needed to happen. At least this time, they separated themselves. They couldn’t live like that, could they?”
It wasn’t the first time they had needed to ask that question.
*
The day the twins cried ...
One couldn’t properly describe how it felt to be awake and aware of your surroundings, but unable to move or do anything more than talk. Having been through a c-section before, Cara knew what to expect and that made going into it easier. She didn’t tremble in the paper gown while they inserted the needle into her spine for the spinal, and she didn’t shake or chatter her teeth nearly as bad when the anesthesia started to flood her body.
Beside her, Gian sat on a stool holding her hand. In his own hospital gown, booties, and a cap and mask, his gaze continued to drift between her and the curtain ahead of them. The one keeping their doctor and his team hidden from view.
They’d told her when they began.
Explained what would happen next.
It was strange to feel your body being moved ... the pressure that she couldn’t explain and how heavy it felt in her throat when the whispers behind the curtain started to get a little more excitable and loud.
“Almost,” they heard the doctor call over. “Twin A—”
“Benito,” Gian spoke up.
“Beni,” Cara said softly.
Gian spoke a little louder, agreeing. “Beni.”
“Beni will be here in less than ten seconds.”
Those ten seconds passed quickly. Beni’s cry was as immediate as the doctor’s sharp, “Wait, wait a second!”
Maybe it was the panic in the person’s voice. Or even the confusion. Either way, it had Gian moving from his stool despite the warnings from the nurse on Cara’s other side that was tasked with monitoring the machines alongside the anesthesiologist.
“Gian,” Cara called.
He’d already moved beyond the curtain. His hand didn’t let go of hers, though. She counted the seconds. The hushed murmurs between her husband and the doctor followed the same pulling and pressure and then ... more perfect, beautiful cries. There was seven seconds between the first cry and the second that sounded distinctly different. They hadn’t even announced Benedetto—little Bene—the same way they had his brother.
Everything moved faster, then. The nurse said nothing as she came to separate Cara’s hand from her husband, the woman’s face clouding Cara’s vision as she promised everything was fine and she would meet her babies soon. She also explained that the other nurses were taking the twins to the warming bassinets on the other side of the room.
Gian would follow.
She didn’t know how long she waited.
Occasionally, the doctor explained what he was doing at that point.
Cara just didn’t care to hear.
Soon enough, though, while the surgeon continued his work behind the curtain, Gian retook his position on the stool next to Cara’s prone form. Only now, he had the twins wrapped in white cotton towels with matching blue caps pulled over their tufts of dark hair.