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I don’t know if it was God that made me have those dreams to keep Jules alive in my head or if it was just my mind not willing to let her go, but I thank whatever it was. She may have been gone from my life for seven years, but she was never truly away. She was always with me, just as she always will be.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Luca
I’M A NERVOUS FUCKING wreck. My knees bounce up and down and my palms are sweaty. Nausea swirls in my stomach so much I feel like I’m going to puke my brains out.
Shit!
I didn’t know this was going to be so hard. I thought I had prepared myself, but I was fucking wrong. I don’t think anything would have prepared me.
Jules sits beside me on the couch, her nerves
no better than mine. I take her palm in mine and find it just as damp.
I gather all my strength and pull my shit together. Worrying won’t help either of us. It’s been two weeks since we realized Aria was our child. Those two weeks have felt like two years.
I’ve turned into a damn coward. What if Aria refuses to believe we’re her parents? What if she doesn’t want us as her parents?
I grind my teeth and blow out a hard breath.
“You ready?” I ask in a low voice.
Jules blows out her own deep breath. “Yes.”
Mom and Dad are due to be here any minute now. It’s time Aria knows the truth. I still can’t fucking believe it. She’s our precious little girl.
I drop to my knees in front of Jules, forcing her legs apart and wedging myself between them. Putting my palms on her cheeks, my fingers in her hair, I bring her head up so I can see her face. Tears run a river down her cheeks, but I can see the unmistakable joy in her eyes.
“She’s ours, baby,” I rasp, then repeat it again. “She’s ours.”
“I still can’t believe it,” she says softly after several minutes. “I’m so scared I’m going to wake from a dream, and I won’t have any of this.”
She launches herself at me, and I fall back on my heels with the force. We both laugh and cry, a blubbering fucking mess, but deliriously happy. I pull back and kiss her over and over again. Simple kisses, but they mean so much.
I look deeply in her eyes. “Believe it, Jules. Believe every single minute of it. This is our time, and nothing can take it away. You, me, and Aria… nothing or no one will ever change that.”
A knock sounds at the door and we both tense. I help Jules to her feet and go answer the door.
Aria’s carrying a baggy of carrots as she prances in the house. “Hey, Uncle Luca and Jules!” Mom and Dad look somber as they follow her in.
I take a moment to look at Aria. Really look at her. I’ve always thought she looked so much like Theo, but it wasn’t him she took after, it was me. She looks like me. She has my eyes, my nose, and my high cheekbones. I look closer, and although Aria definitely favors me more, I see Jules in her too. Their eyebrows arch the same, and Aria has Jules’s full lips. They even have the same smile. Now that I see it, it’s a wonder I never noticed before, but I know it’s because there was no reason to look for a resemblance.
“Uncle Luca, are you okay? Why are you and Jules looking at me weird?”
We laugh; so do Mom and Dad. I know it must hurt them to find out Theo lied about so many things, but in the end, Aria is still their grandchild.
“Come sit with Jules and me, boo. We’ve got some news to share with you.”
She shrugs and takes a chomp of her carrot as she goes into the living room.
Jules and I were there when Mom and Dad told Aria the news about Theo a couple days after she came home from the hospital. She took it surprisingly well. She was upset and sad, but I think she somehow knew Theo wasn’t coming home even before Mom told her so. She and Theo have never had a very close relationship. In a sense, I think Theo did love Aria, but I also believe he kept himself distant from her because she wasn’t his. I also think he held some resentment toward her because of who her real parents were. Aria was a constant reminder of what he wanted but never had. He cared for her but was never the best father. She’s always been closer to my parents, Ella, and me than she was with him.
I just hope the news we’re about to drop on her is something she can accept.
Mom and Dad stay quiet as they sit on the love seat, but I feel their anxiety. I pat the cushion between Jules and me and Aria comes over and flops down. Her head turns back and forth, looking at us curiously. Reaching behind Aria’s back, I grab Jules’s hand. Some of the tension wanes from her face. She’s nervous, and damn it to hell, so am I.
I look back at Aria. “There’s something we need to tell you and it’s going to be confusing and may hurt, but we’ll try our best to explain it to you.”
