Page 4 of Maldives & Mistletoe

THREE

Abriella and Tommas

ABRIELLA

“Where are Alessa and Adriano?” Theo asked as he kept his two-year-old nephew occupied by pulling on the leather cord around his neck. “Hey, be easy, Cory.”

The boy beamed up at his uncle, and yanked on the leather cord again.

Theo gave the toddler a look.

The toddler looked right back.

“You’re impossible,” Theo told the boy.

Cory let out a loud squealing laugh because to him, this shit was funny. He lived for this nonsense with his uncle. No one else let him get away with as much crap as Theo did when it came right down to it.

“Just like your father,” Theo added.

“No, he is not,” Damian—Cory’s father—said absently as he cleaned a mess off the front of his other son’s shirt. Chocolate, or something. Kids were always getting into everything. It was impossible to keep them clean for a spread of a couple of hours. “He’s just like you, Theo. He doesn’t get that shit from me or Lily.”

“Accurate,” Lily said, glancing away from the windows overlooking the plane that was taxing up to the gate. “You’re the bad influence, Theo. Don’t even try to deny it.”

Theo looked like someone had just smacked him in the face with a shovel before he made a noise under his breath. “Listen, it’s not pick on Theo day, okay. Find someone else to bother.” He patted Cory on the top of his head. “He’s just fine the way he is, even if he does get it from me.”

If it were any other time or day or fuck, even place, Abriella might have laughed. No, she definitely would have laughed, and then promptly pointed out that Theo asked for all of this. From Cory’s behavior, to the way everyone liked to point this shit out to him. But it wasn’t any other day, and she was just about done with this damn day.

“Did you text Adriano?” Theo asked Tommas.

Tommas nodded as he took his son from his wife’s outstretched arms. Tommaso squirmed, unhappy that he was being passed on to yet someone else’s arms instead of being put down on the floor so that he could run and play. All the energy in the world, but Abriella didn’t know where her son got it from. God knew she had a hard time keeping up some days.

“No!” the two-year-old shouted.

“Almost on the plane,” Tommas told their son.

There was nothing Tommaso liked more than flying. But even the promise of getting on the plane soon was not enough to make the toddler happy.

Abriella sighed. “This was a bad idea. We should have flown privately, or—”

“Kind of late now,” Theo muttered.

At least, Abriella thought, Theo was finally understanding why this hadn’t been one of his and Eve’s greatest ideas. Not that Abriella felt the need to point that out any more than it already had been over the course of the morning.

The kids were doing that well enough on their own, frankly. It only took one of the toddlers to start acting up for all the rest of them to follow suit.

“Oh, good, we didn’t miss the fucking plane,” a familiar voice grumbled behind Abriella. “What a whole damn mess this day is.”

She spun around on her heels to find Adriano and Alessa approaching with their two girls. One in their father’s arms, and the other in their mother’s. At the moment, Alessa and Adriano looked about like the rest of them did.

Exhausted.

Over it.

On their last freaking rope.

“Don’t cuss,” Alessa said, rolling her eyes.

Adriano scowled. “Today is the day for all the swearing, Lissa.”