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)
Camilla cleared her throat. “I don’t know—Tommaso has waited for this for a long time. I kind of feel like blurting it out might be ... anti-climactic.”
“He’s not going to care. Trust me.”
“Yeah, maybe not.”
“Why don’t you go to the dining room and relax,” Tommas suggested, but not really posing it as a question. He didn’t think Camilla being on her feet and serving people food was right, considering. He thought she had more than earned sitting down today, and being served instead. Tommas could help his wife. “And don’t worry about anything.”
“I promised to help Abriella—”
“Like I said, don’t worry.”
Camilla, like most people who had spent more than ten minutes around Tommas, knew better than to argue with him. Once she was heading down the long hallway toward the dining room, Tommas moved into the kitchen.
Abriella glanced up instantly. “Where’s Cam? She just disappeared.”
Tommas said nothing, simply crossed the kitchen, rounded the island, and caught his wife in his embrace. Before she could say anything, he was kissing her.
A happy, loving, long kiss.
A lingering kiss.
A fierce, hot kiss that left nothing unsaid about just how much he loved this woman.
A kiss that spoke of their familiarity, and love. Of their many years together, and all the memories they had made in that time. From their life, to their children. Their home, and their perfection. All their flaws, and their now-fused souls.
Because he didn’t have a fucking soul.
Now without this woman.
Pulling away, Tommas still kept Abriella pulled in close to him as he stroked the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone. Her flushed cheeks, and wide smile made him grin, too.
“What was that for?” she asked.
“Because I love you.”
“Mmhmm. And?”
“What makes you think there’s more, Ella?”
She pointed a finger at his face, and wiggled it a little. “I just ... know you, Tommy. I see when you have secrets to share.”
“Only you,” he muttered, chuckling.
“Spill.”
“I don’t know if I sho—”
“Tommas, I swear ...”
“You always use that threat, but never follow through.”
“Do you want me to follow through with it?”
Her kind tone belied the sly gleam in her eye.
Damn.
This was exactly why he loved his wife.
“You can’t say a word,” he said, dotting kisses from her cheek to her ear.
Abriella shivered. “I won’t.”
“You have to let them tell you when they are ready, Ella.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but—”
“Cam is pregnant.”
His wife stilled.
Tommas held her tighter.
Finally, Abriella pulled back just far enough to stare him in the face. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
She grabbed his face with her palms. “Really, really?”
“Guess you’re finally going to get that grandbaby, Ella.”
Her quiet, yet still excited squeal somehow managed to echo in the kitchen. Tommas laughed, and then shushed his wife with another kiss.
But really, he wanted to shout it, too.
But it wasn’t his news.
He shouldn’t even know.
So, he would just ... have to wait.
Whispered Surprises
Camilla hugged the cup of tea her mother-in-law had brought out from the kitchen for her, and watched from her chair as Tommaso lit up an entire fucking room. Sometimes it still amazed her how this man was capable of doing that—so enigmatic, and electric. He was a lot like his father in that way, she thought.
People tended to gravitate toward them, and paid attention when they spoke. It wasn’t like they could exactly help it. Tommaso just ... took over a whole room, and he didn’t even have to try. Sometimes, Camilla thought he didn’t even realize it.
Like this was just who he was.
Engrained in his being.
And Camilla was in no way immune to the daze that everyone else suffered from when Tommaso started doing his thing. In fact, it was a favorite part of her day to simply sit back, and watch her man.
Because he was her man.
Entirely hers.
And wasn’t that something to be proud of?
Camilla smiled, and tipped her tea up to take a drink of the hot liquid as Tommaso clapped his cousin Joe on the back before reaching over to smack his other cousin, Cory, on the side of his face with a gentle pat. Those two brothers regularly made it their mission to show up at her house at least three times a week, but often times, more. Joe was quiet, while Cory was loud.
Yet, when the three of them got together ... that all went to hell. It was like they couldn’t help it. Camilla didn’t even mind, really.
She was so caught up in watching her husband that she didn’t notice her mother-in-law had come to sit beside her at the table again. Dinner hand long been served, and so had dessert. Now, the families that made up the Chicago Outfit would simply spend their evening catching up, and being a family.
It was important to them, she had come to learn. This thing they called the family. Some weren’t related by blood, but the way they acted toward one another, they might as well be. They protected these moments in their life like nobody on the outside would ever understand. Sure, disagreements happened ... but they were quickly resolved, and without much fanfare to say they had even happened in the first place.