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I can’t help but burst into laughter, though, when Donna happily flings a spoonful of spaghetti sauce right into Ricky’s lap – leaving him gaping and furious, but equally flabbergasted by the fact that he can’t exactly yell at a baby.
“Christ,” is all he manages to mutter at last, amongst the laughter of everyone else around the table.
“I’ll get you a napkin,” Carina grins, getting up and disappearing into the kitchen to fetch one.
And I know exactly why she started this tradition because together, we’re stronger. As a family, we’re stronger. Through the good times and the bad, the tears and especially the laughter, we become bonded.
I have the family I chose, and the family that chose me. And I would never want to be without either one of them.Extended EpilogueCarina“Oh, God, Tommy,” I say, feeling his arms wrap around me from behind. “I didn’t know you were there.”
He chuckles deep into my ear as he kisses my neck. “I was just checking the rest of the house. Do you know what I found?”
“What?”
“No one.” Tommy gives the skin at my collarbone a significant nip. “We’re alone.”
“Except for the kids,” I point out, though his kisses are incredibly distracting.
“The kids are asleep.”
I frown. “It’s the middle of the afternoon. They can’t be.” Donna is five, and Tommy Jr had his fourth birthday last week – and then there’s Andrea, who’s only two. Normally they run around, wearing me ragged, never pausing for a moment. Having all three of them asleep at once – it doesn’t seem possible.
“I left them in front of a Disney movie, snoring their little butts off. They’ll be out for a good while, it looks like.”
I bite my lip. “If that’s true, then, Tommy…?”
“Yes?”
“Why are we still standing around down here?”
Tommy whips around in front of me, grinning as he lifts me into his arms. I resist the urge to scream and potentially wake the children as he carries me up the stairs, heading straight for our bedroom – the one with the lock on the door.
“It’s been too long since we did this,” Tommy says, unzipping the back of my dress and helping me wiggle out of it.
“We had sex last night,” I frown. If there’s one thing that can be said about our marriage, it’s that the passion has never died. He still can’t keep his hands off me, and I feel the same way about him.
“In the daytime, I mean,” Tommy says. His eyes dart over to the window with a wicked grin. “Do you remember…”
“What? This?” I say, doing my sexiest walk over to the window in just my lingerie. Then I stumble and swear, realizing I’ve tripped on one of the kids’ discarded toys, a miniature plane that seems to have become embedded in the carpet.
Tommy laughs as he follows me, helping me stand and regain my balance. “A lot of things have changed, huh?”
“Good thing some things stay the same,” I say, reaching to cup the bulge in the front of his pants.
“That’s true,” he says. “I’m never going to be able to resist you in lingerie.”
As he finishes undressing me, I think about how far we’ve come, and yet how we’ve managed to remain the same. Still so in love, sharing every day together, working together, raising the children together. As he slips inside me and I start to feel stars run through my veins again, I think of all the things we share, our family, the business and everything that comes with it, and our home. And when we both collapse on the bed afterward, panting for breath and contemplating round two, I think of what’s yet to come. The thing he doesn’t know about yet.
“So, Tommy,” I say, casually, turning to face him. “What do you think about Lorenzo?”
Tommy cocks an eyebrow. “You mean, Enzo? Uh, I think he’s doing a good job.”
“No, honey,” I say. “What do you think about Lorenzo as a baby name?”
It takes a moment for the penny to drop. “You mean, we’re…”
“Going to need another crib?” I grin. “Yes, baby. We are.”
Tommy pulls me into his arms with a shout that will almost certainly wake the kids downstairs, but for a moment, I don’t care. I have everything I could have asked for in the world, and every time I think it might be enough, the universe gives me one more thing and breaks my heart with the sheer happiness I thought it would be impossible to feel.
The stars are in my veins for a different reason now, buzzing and fizzing beneath my skin. And I know that no matter how long we’re together, Tommy will always find a way to make me feel like this.
And I always will be his, his captive.
Because he captured my heart the first moment I saw him.
