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I peppered kisses on her stomach before I dropped my forehead to the soft skin. “Hey,” I whispered. “We can’t wait for you to get here.”
Her hands wove through my hair.
“I’m scared to believe it’s true,” she confessed.
I kissed her stomach once more and got to my feet. “You’d better get used to it, Mommy.”
She covered her mouth with her hand, a sheen over her eyes. “It’s another miracle.”
Vivian barged into the closet. “Hey, are you two coming upstairs? The Salvatores are here, everything isn’t ready, and the rest of the family is due up any minute.” She stopped short when she saw our faces. “What’s wrong?”
I looked to Muriella. It was her call how she wanted to play this.
“Everything is right,” she whispered.
A crease formed on Vivian’s forehead. “Then why do you look like you’re about to cry? I thought you liked going on dates with Stone now?”
“Because I’m so happy.” She slid her hand into mine. “Let’s go upstairs.”
I glanced at her in disbelief. I thought she’d want Vivian to know right away. Vivian eyed us both suspiciously before leading the charge.
‘Daniel,’ Muriella mouthed.
I kissed her temple and grinned in understanding.
When we got upstairs,Daniel gave us an odd look as we entered the kitchen behind Vivian. We weren’t going to be able to hide this from them. Not that we wanted to.
Muriella halted in the doorway and looked in surprise at a woman standing by the island. “Valentina?”
The older woman beamed. “Hello, Muriella.”
My wife’s eyes flicked over to the man we both knew who was standing next to Valentina. “Is he…your husband?” She pointed toward Donato Salvatore, whose hand went to the woman’s thigh.
She placed her hand on top of his, affection in her eyes. “I put up with him.”
He kissed her temple. “I don’t know why, but you’re stuck, lady.”
The man had been nothing but kind to me, though it was difficult to reconcile this teddy bear with the one who hadn’t cracked a smile in front of his men.
“You told them,” Muriella said before she turned her accusing gaze to me. “That’s why you set the date up when you did. You knew what I was going to do.”
“I asked you to lunch because I wanted that third date you owed me,” I said squeezing her fingers. “Nothing more. Nothing less.”
She glared at Daniel. “She told you.”
He stared back without a word.
Valentina answered for him. “Muriella, when we met all those years ago, I thought it was pure coincidence. Now I believe our paths crossing at the church was divine intervention.”
“You knew who I was,” she said, her voice sharp.
Vivian was quiet, hands behind her back as she rocked on her heels.
“I did. But I didn’t speak to Donato until you asked for the plane.” She stood and crossed the space between us. “Bella, I didn’t know the circumstances, but I did understand the fire in your eyes.”
“Why give me the guns?”
“I wasn’t sure if someone was coming after you. I wanted you to have protection, though you already had it anyway.” She flicked her eyes over to Daniel. “You probably feel I betrayed your trust, but families have to look out for one another. If something had happened to you and I could’ve stopped it, I couldn’t have lived with myself.”
