Page 29 of Italian Daddy's Girl
Eight Years Later
Luna giggles as I hug her to my chest. I smile, stroke my hand through her hair. “Quiet or they’ll find us.”
But she can’t stop laughing. Something about hide-and-seek always makes our four-year-old go nuts.
We’re crouched down behind a trellis, ripe grapes all around us. I can hear Jack laughing as he skips along the rows. “Mommy, come on!”
“Theywon’tfind us, Daddy,” Luna insists.
“Only if we keep the giggle monster away,” I say, and that sets her off even more.
I bite down to try and stop a laugh from escaping me.
“Mommy, I hear something!”
That’s the thing with this place.
It’s where people come to find the thing they didn’t even know they were looking for. That special vintage. A tour to top off their holiday. The perfect snap for their social media.
Or the woman of their dreams. A woman who gave a mafia man two kids and is growing another in her perfect body. A woman who runs the vineyard while being a nationally recognized artist. A woman who is the best mother these glorious, charismatic, hilarious kids could ask for.
Jack leaps out, hands at his sides, laughing. People say he has my eyes. But whenever I look at him or Luna, I see Bella through and through.
“Got ya!” Jack laughs.
“Nope!” Luna ducks and runs away.
Jack giggles, chasing after her. “Hey, this is hide-and-seek, nottag!”
But he chases her anyway.
My heart floods with a fresh wave of love as I watch them.
Then my Bella walks around the corner and more love rushes in. No matter how much swells in me, there’s always room for more. And as I look at my wife, I know that my lust meter is never going to stop going up either.
Eight years has made her more beautiful. Curvier. More confident. She wears a summer dress that reminds me of the first time we met, hanging from her five-months pregnant body, her figure so full I almost lose it right here.
She smiles, reading me. Always reading. Always knowing.
“Later,” she murmurs, wrapping her arm around my waist.
“I love you so much,” I say, kissing the top of her head, breathing in her scent.
“I love you too. And this life we’ve built. More and more every day.”
The End
