AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When I looked up, Scarlett already had her phone out and was showing Julia the video. I jumped up, wanting to relive that moment myself. The three of us pored over the screen, Scarlett and Julia gushing in the way women do.
“Is that…?” Julia’s head shot up, her gaze darting between Scarlett and I.
“Two heartbeats.”
I spun round to find Christopher peering at Scarlett’s phone over my shoulder.
“Congratulations, man,” he said, shaking my hand before pulling me into a hug.
I slapped his back a few times. “Thank you, Brother.”
“Honey, can you believe it?” Julia squealed. “Twins!”
He placed her lunch order in her lap and bent down to kiss her forehead. He then checked on Diana before looking back at me.
“I just hope you’re going to be able to keep up with your godfather duties,” he said. “Looks like you’re going to have to cut down on those work hours.”
I frowned at him in confusion. I knew that they’d decided to have Scarlett as Diana’s godmother, but he hadn’t said anything about me. To be honest, I wouldn’t have blamed them if they wanted to keep me out of it.
“Suddenly a father of three and godfather of one,” Scarlett piped up. “Forget about cutting hours, Luca will have to retire.”
They laughed, and I sniggered along but still couldn’t process what had just happened.
“Christopher, you’re sure?” I asked.
He and Julia looked at each other and then back to me with huge smiles. “You’re my family, Luca,” Chris replied. “Since we were kids, you were pretty much the only family I had.”
“Of course, we’re sure,” Julia said, holding out her arms for a hug.
All three of us—Christopher, Scarlett, and I—piled onto the bed in fits of laughter and awkward placements, feeling like everything was really okay for the first time in days.
Chapter 28
Scarlett
“So,whenthebaby’sborn, he’s going to be two babies?” Leo asked, sprinkling an array of herbs into his meatball mixture.
It had been the same question a hundred different ways, ever since Luca and I broke the news to him when they started cooking dinner. He just couldn’t wrap his little head around it, and I didn’t blame him. We were both still getting used to the idea ourselves.
“No, one doesn’t become two,” Luca explained patiently. “There are already two babies.”
Leo stared at my belly and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “How can there be two of them?”
“Mi amor, please, maybe you should try.” Luca threw up his hands in exasperation and resumed kneading his pasta dough with renewed vigor.
I laughed, setting down the freshly washed tomatoes that Leo asked me to dice. “I’ll tell you what, Leo, let’s finish up getting dinner ready, and we’ll go over all your questions again.”
It was a lame attempt but worth a shot. I was starving and knew from experience that the Moretti men had a habit of turning cooking into an extended practice. They savored every step, with running commentary on everything from the origin of herbs to who could make the best tomato sauce.
“Okay,” Leo finally agreed. “When you finish dicing up the tomatoes, I’ll show you what to do next.”
I nodded, biting back my smile to show him what a serious apprentice I could be. Cooking with my boys was fast becoming one of my very favorite things. Sometimes I’d lose time watching them and think about how one call from Chris to help out his friend had literally changed my whole life.
It all would’ve ended up so differently if I’d said no. Or if Luca had refused to work with me. But I didn’t, and he hadn’t, and now we were about to embark on a whole new chapter of life as a family. Of five!
Deep in thought, my knife hit something solid in the middle of one of the tomatoes. “Ew, gross, I think something’s wrong with this one.”
Leo jumped off his stool and rushed over to me, swiping up the tomato before I could manage a closer look.
