Page 223 of Made in Love and Blood

A snort echoed from Vanna.

Salvatore pushed his daughter’s wedding to the top of his priority list the moment he could stop praying that the smallest of his babies would finally make it off supplemented oxygen and be released from the NICU. It only took six weeks for her to get those walking papers, but they assured she would a week after her birth. His little Dove Darling got released once her weight hit five pounds, a week ago. He’d let Carina go ahead with the wedding planning a month earlier, giving her a timeline that made her squint at him for days every time he entered a room.

She could do it, he told her. He had all the faith.

“Well, where is he?” Carina asked again.

Salvatore didn’t know, and he didn’t want to admit it because Carina would have his nuts for losing the kid with less than two hours to go until showtime. “He was with Larkin and Carmen last I saw.”

Vanna filled in details he didn’t have. “Carmen is practicing her walk down the aisle downstairs. Or she was, after I put the presents on the table.”

“Oh, I bet I know exactly where Nico is,” Salvatore muttered.

“So, go get them,” his wife replied, turning him toward the door. “And don’t forget the gifts you’re supposed to give her now, not after, Sal.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

In the doorway, he turned back again to find Carina settling in beside Vanna once more. The low, one-inch, heeled boots she opted to wear with her dress made him sigh. The doctors told her three months, and yet, somehow his wife snuck in a pair of wedges into the hospital closer to home that they got the babies and her transferred to a couple of days after their birth.

“So, is Sissy helping with them?” Vanna asked as Salvatore finally turned to leave.

“If I ask,” Carina replied. “But...I want to do this.”

“You are doing it, beautiful. Look at them, you’ve already done it. What do you mean?”

Carina’s sigh sounded further away as Salvatore strolled down the hallway, but he didn’t miss her fading words, either. “Yeah, I know. Anyway, Sissy’s already said where she’s going as soon as they need her. Which, she should. Right?”

“Those two will be grateful for the help, that’s for sure.”

Eventually, he lost their conversation entirely the farther he walked down the hallway. It took him a few minutes to navigate the wing into his daughter’s side where, unsurprisingly, he found her bedroom door closed, and with a quick check, locked.

Salvatore knocked hard. A shriek followed. Then, a scuffle.

“Nico,” Sal called loudly on the other side of the door, “I know you were told to stay out of the upstairs for this exact reason.”

Frankie’s muffled, breathless voice answered. “Nico’s not in here!”

Yeah, he didn’t believe that. “Open the door, Frankie.”

“No?”

“Open the door, girl.”

“Daddy—”

“Open it.”

It took another minute.

Not a single inch of Salvatore felt shocked to find Nico grinning from where he leaned against the footboard of Frankie’s bed. His daughter, on the other hand, wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“Get out,” he said.

“You got it, boss,” Nico murmured, winking at Frankie as he passed.

“Terrible, both of you. It’s tradition to wait to see one another. Couldn’t you just try?”

She just rubbed the top of her swollen stomach, looking entirely too pleased with herself. “Too late now.”