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“If your sister blows bubbles on it.”
I carried him over to Clara. “Hey Clara, can you blow a special bubble on Clemente’s knee to make it all better?”
She nodded and, with a look of deep concentration on her face, she slowly dipped the wand in the mixture and then waved the wand how I’d shown her.
Clemente instantly forgot about his knee, fascinated by the bubbles and scrambling to get down from my arms so that he could have a go too.
“It’s great you could bring Clara and Clemente over today,” commented Debi. “We haven’t seen them since your wedding.”
“And we hadn’t seen them for a while before that,” added Danio. “Which is a shame as we used to see them all the time. They’re our only cousins who live close by, although technically we’re only second cousins.”
“The children definitely seem to enjoy spending time with you,” I observed. Clara and Clemente seemed happy and relaxed here. “Now that the wedding is out of the way, hopefully Lorenzo will have more time to bring them over, or I could bring them by sometimes and you could come over to our place.”
Debi grinned. “That would be awesome.”
“Lorenzo’s just texted to say he is pulling up in the drive now,” hollered Marco from the open doorway. “Let’s get dinner started—I need to go back out to work afterward.”
As we sat down at the dining table, Marco’s other two brothers joined us. I had met them briefly at the engagement party and wedding. Alessio, who was his deputy and Consigliere, had a serious, intense gaze which, quite frankly, creeped me out. The other brother, Camillo, looked like a thug—he had thick muscles, huge arms and endless tattoos.
I got Clemente and Clara seated and had just sat down myself when I heard footsteps in the hallway and Lorenzo appeared.
He halted as soon as he saw the children, his gaze darting around and then lasering in on me. “Anni, explain what you are doing here,” he demanded.
The stern censure in his voice carried through the room, making everyone stop what they were doing and look at me in the ensuing awkward silence.
Before I could formulate a response, Clara slipped out of her chair and scampered toward to her father, her arms reaching up to him.
He scooped her up into his arms with ease. “Mia preziosa,” he crooned at her, his voice immediately softening when he spoke to her.
She snuggled deep into his hold, happy to see him and finding comfort in his arms.
Carrying her back over to her chair, he set her down on the seat and kissed the top of her head.
Then Lorenzo strode over, grabbed me by my arm and hauled me to my feet. “I need a word with my wife,” he snapped.
CHAPTER 26
LORENZO
As I dragged Anni down the hallway and into Marco’s study, she tried to pull her arm away from me. “You’re hurting me.”
Pushing her into the study, I slammed the door shut. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I snarled.
“Marco invited us for dinner.”
“So you just thought you’d come here without telling me first?”
“I didn’t think I needed your permission. Anyway, Marco told me thatyouhad already arranged to come here for dinner—something you forgot to mention to me, like you’resupposedto do if you’re going to miss dinner at home.”
“I don’t need to ask my wife permission for anything I do,” I hissed, my jaw tightly clenched.
“No, you don’t. But you do need to let me and the kids know, so that Clara won’t worry something’s happened to you and think that you might be snatched away from her.”
Her words made me hesitate for a moment, but then my anger at her made me carry on. “I don’t want my children coming to any Fratellanza gatherings.”
“This isn’t a ‘Fratellanza gathering’. This is yourfamily, Lorenzo. You told me that Marco is practically a brother to you.”
“I don’t want them to hear any gossip about their mother. I’m trying to protect them from the ugly rumors.”
