Page 373 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

For his family.

To allow them in.

Sometimes, he still found it hard to let them in.

The pregnancy was one thing he continued to try to open up for them, but especially for his mother and father.

“Luciano, then,” John said.

Siena smiled wider. “Luciano Johnathan Marcello. And he will be perfect, John.”

So perfect.

Just like his father.

Siena hung back in the entryway of the living room. Just out of view of Leonard and John where they sat on opposite ends of the couch while they talked. Without question, when Siena asked for the man to be at their home when they arrived, Leonard agreed.

“I didn’t want to bother you,” John said. “I know you’re—”

“You’re not a bother, John. You’ve never been.”

“Even if all I want is to talk?”

“That’s what I do best,” Leonard replied, never missing a beat.

Siena smiled at that.

Satisfied that her husband had what he needed, and desperately hoping everything that was weighing on John would release him soon, she stepped out of the room to leave him and Leonard alone to their chat. They didn’t need her there, she hadn’t been invited into it, and she never felt like it was her place to join anyway.

She was fine leaving them to it.

In the kitchen, her in-laws waited with a green tea hot and ready for her. She took it from Jordyn with a smile who offered the same back.

Lucian’s gaze drifted over Siena’s shoulder to where the darkness of the hallway led to the living room. “Better now?”

Siena nodded. “Much better.”

“Good.”

They hadn’t asked to come. John did. Siena figured … that was progress. Then again, their whole marriage had been that. Every day they spent together was simply one step at a time when at one time, they weren’t supposed to be at all. She’d take every single step with John as long as he wanted her to.

The rest?

It was all a bonus.