Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
She gave him three children—another two were on the way.
How could he tell her no?
“Thank you,” she murmured before leaning in to press a quick kiss to his lips.
Gian followed behind her as she headed, smiling to himself. “Always, cara mia.”
*
“Still the same?” Cara asked softly.
The doctor raised thick, dark brows and chuckled. He passed Cara a nod before giving Gian a look over his shoulder. “Stubborn boys—you better watch that if they’re already showing it this early, hmm, Gian?”
He would have laughed, but ...
“I mean, we came into this knowing she’d be having a second cesarean this time around—a natural birth was a pipe dream, Cara.”
She sighed. “I only wanted to dream.”
A dangerous dream.
He opted not to point that out.
Dr. Belled shrugged one shoulder, and then hit a button on the keyboard to freeze the frame. “And yes, they’re still exactly the same in there. Twin A on the left, head up and facing his brother. And Twin B in the on the right doing the same, little knees tucked right up. Look at their hands. I’ve never seen another pair of twins always be holding hands like that before.”
That was what he’d taken a picture of.
Given this pregnancy was Cara’s second multiples pregnancy and they’d had the usual issues that came along with pregnancy concerning multiples, their checkups and tests were always doubled. They had more than a dozen photos of the twins throughout the progression of months and they were always holding the same hands.
“I think it’s sweet,” Cara said.
“It is,” Gian noted, his gaze taking in the grainy image on the screen. It was much harder to see anything discernible in the ultrasound photos now that the twins were far larger.
“Have we picked names, yet?” the doctor asked, giving them a smile.
Cara laughed, returning just as fast, “Have you decided which one will be born first yet?”
Gian chuckled under his breath but put his hands up in mock surrender when the doctor’s and his wife’s gaze turned on him like one of them wanted him to pick a side. A long-running joke between the two, he knew better than to get between it. Given the positions of the babies and the fact they would be having a caesarean, the doctor could choose either Twin A or Twin B to be born first and he wouldn’t tell Cara which one it was.
So, she wouldn’t tell him the names.
“Don’t look at me. This is between the two of you,” Gian said. “And it’ll finish between you two, as well.”
“You’re not fun, Gian.”
“Plenty fun, actually.”
The doctor didn’t look like he believed it.
Cara laughed. “Oh, it doesn’t matter. We decided Benito and Benedetto for names .... but I just can’t decide which is which.”
That quieted Dr. Belled.
Gian wasn’t surprised at all—his wife told him this very thing many times. He didn’t know how to help, unfortunately.
“Well,” the doctor said, “I suppose once you see them ... you’ll know.”
This time, it was Cara’s turn to grow quiet.
Belled nodded, adding, “Mothers always know.”
“Except about which twin will be born first, apparently,” Cara said, giving the man a look.
The doctor laughed under his breath, turning fast in his chair to face the screen once more. “I’d hoped you had forgotten about that.”
“Of course, not!”
Their noise had the nurse knocking on the door to check if everything was okay. Check-ups were always fun with these twins.
Chapter 2 – Vanna POV
In the middle of the Guzzi mansion’s large grand entry, the photographer’s assistants moved with light shields catching the reflection of the beauty lights and brightening the space even more than it already was. In a way, Vanna was grateful to be on the back side of those lights because after several rounds of photos between standing and sitting on the ornate red and gold loveseat they were using as a prop for their family photos, her head started to ache.
All the tip your chin up a little mores and the head to the right—to the RIGHT, oh I meant your left, my right. Anybody could appreciate the production and work that went into the art of photography but sometimes the subjects just needed a break. Vanna wasn’t going to complain, as far as that went, because she was grateful for all of this. Somehow, she hadn’t even thought about it.
Not the newborn photos.
The family shots.
None of it.
Somehow, in the midst of becoming pregnant, giving birth, and then learning how to take care of a newborn, Vanna’s brain disappeared. Okay, maybe that was a little ... rude. It didn’t disappear, it just sometimes took a fucking break.
Cara called it Mommy Brain.
Apparently, so did everyone else.
Nonetheless, where her attention wasn’t ... well, her wonderful mother-in-law stepped up to handle everything. All Vanna and Bene needed to do for this shoot was show up with a few different outfits for the photographer to look through and their baby boy. Cara handled the rest, and the photographer made everything else relatively simple. There had even been a woman there to do Vanna’s hair, and another that did a set of nails for her before she beat her face to the fucking Gods.