Alessio laughed huskily. “I’ll be home in a few days—for at least a few months, by the way.”
“Oh?”
“And then I’m only coming back for a few days to settle some stuff. We’re taking time off.”
“By we’re do you also mean—”
“Corrado, too. We’ve been working on it.”
Huh.
For a brief moment, Ginevra said nothing because she just wanted to take that information in. She knew the boys wanted to be more permanent with her in New York, but it took a lot for them to even get a couple weeks at a time with her. The League always had something on the go that one, or both, needed to handle. She accepted that was just a part of their life together, and since she wanted them ... well, this was a sacrifice she needed to make.
“I should probably start finalizing rooms for the brownstone with the designer, then,” Ginevra said. “If we’re all going to be there.”
“Don’t forget the reading nook in the bedroom. It’s the only thing I wanted.”
Ginevra laughed. “Well ...”
“We’ll get back to it. Seems like we have time. Or we will.”
“Soon,” she said.
“Soon,” he echoed.
“I miss you, Les.”
“Yeah, I know. Love you, huh?”
“More than the moon and the stars.”
It was true.
Nothing about her life would be the same because of these men. Ginevra was fine with that.
• • •
“So, Les will be coming home soon, then?”
“Seems so,” Ginevra replied, pushing another dress aside on the hanger to look at another. None of them really screamed Sunday services appropriate, but she was determined to find something new. Same as Cara. “And he said something about Corrado getting time off, too. I won’t complain about any of it, let me say.”
“I bet. My favorite part of the day was when we were all home. As loud and busy as it was ... none of it mattered when all my boys were in the house and their father was home, too. I miss those days.”
“Does the mansion seem ... empty now?”
“Sometimes,” Cara admitted, “but someone is always coming or going and that keeps me more than busy enough not to think on it for too long.”
She stuck the sucker back in her mouth that had been her second companion all morning and mumbled, “Ah.”
“You know,” Cara said, peering over the rack of hanging dresses to meet Ginevra’s stare, “I can’t say I have ever seen you walk around with a sucker in your hand all day.”
Ginevra pulled the ginger sucker from her mouth with a pop and a sheepish smile. “Sorry—not very appropriate, is it?”
Cara laughed and waved it off. “Just thought it was a new thing.”
“It is.”
Then, the woman on the other side of the rack gave the sucker another look. She hadn’t paid it much mind earlier in the day as they moved from one boutique to the next looking for the perfect hat to go with Cara’s Sunday dress she planned to wear to church.
“Is that ... a ginger sucker? I swear I can’t forget that smell.”
Ginevra tried to shrug it off. “Yeah, I picked some up just to try.”
“I used those when I was pregnant with the twins. It helped to keep the nausea at bay, but it did nothing for the morning sickness. Can’t imagine why anyone would want to just suck on one of those like they’re actually good.”
Not knowing what to say, Ginevra opted to say nothing at all. That probably wasn’t the right thing to do considering her silence had Cara staring at her longer and harder than before. All at once, the woman’s eyes widened before her gaze darted back and forth between the sucker Ginevra held and her face.
“Are you ... are you pregnant?” Cara asked.
She was not a good liar.
At all.
“I—”
“You don’t have to tell me. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry. Let’s pretend like I didn’t say anything.”
“I am,” Ginevra blurted out, “but I haven’t told the boys yet. I wanted to do it when we’re all together, but that’s hard when you know, they’re gone one right after the other. And how do I tell them that anyway? I don’t know which of them is the fath—”
“Is that going to matter?”
Ginevra really didn’t have to think about it. This thing between her, Corrado and Alessio had never been about the separate relationships. It was the life they made together. “No, it won’t. How do I tell them, though?”
Cara smiled softly. “Well, that’s part of the wonder. You can tell them however you want. But me ... well, I am telling my husband as soon as he picks up his phone.”
To make her point, Cara even pulled out her phone and started dialing.
“Make sure he doesn’t tell anyone else!”
Cara grinned as she put the phone to her ear. “Oh, we won’t. No worries.” Then, Gian must have finally answered his phone because Cara turned her back to Ginevra as she started shouting, “Gian! Gian, guess what I know that you don’t know ... no, Corrado didn’t start a war with the Marcellos—would you stop worrying about that, God. Listen, this is important. We’re going to have a grandbaby!”
7.
Alessio
“THAT’LL be—”
Alessio tossed a fifty-dollar bill over the driver’s shoulder and stepped out of the back of the taxi as the man mumbled his thanks. He could have called someone to pick him up, or even drove one of their many cars still in storage in Vegas home, but he didn’t.
The flight was faster.
He’d already been away long enough.
The cab pulled away from the curb in front of the brownstone, but Alessio didn’t move. He took in the twisted metal gate that opened to a pathway leading to the home. The few potted plants and hanging flowers Ginevra hung up were new. They must have come after he left the last time, and he just ... wanted to take it all in.
He was home.
Where he belonged.
Les wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.
Dragging in a lungful of air that tasted nothing like Vegas, he pulled out his phone as he opened the gate to see a text from both Dare and Cree. One hoped he arrived safely—the other demanded he call to let them know he got there fine.
Both had him smiling.
He would call.
Later.
Dare and Cree would understand.
Right now, Les had more important things on his mind. Like the man and the woman waiting for him inside that brownstone. They knew the time of his flight, and when he should be arriving in New York, but they didn’t know when he was actually getting to their home.
Well, here he was.
He found the front door unlocked, and the familiar noise floating down the hallway that greeted him had Les smiling wider than ever.
“See, you can’t even beat me at Tetris, Corrado. You really need to stop.”
“I’ll find a damn game I can win,” he heard his other lover mutter.
Les took in the entryway and the fact it was finally decorated. Hooks lined the walls with coats and sweaters hanging from each one. A large mosaic-designed vase sat near the side of a decorative table in the hallway filled with umbrellas. Shoes lined the floor near the wall. A long carpet kept the floors clean where people had to take off their shoes.