Page 31 of Final Reckoning

Epilogue

Christmas, five years later

“Mama?”Gavriella tugs gently on my sleeve. “May I please have more turkey?”

“Of course, baby.” I smile at her, then at Matteo, who’s on her other side. “Can you reach the turkey, babe?”

He puts a slice on her plate, and she dimples at him. “Thank you, Papa.”

“You’re welcome.” He says it with a quiet warmth that never fails to move me. Gavi adores her father, and he returns the favor.

“Papa!” four-year-old Benedict calls. “Can I go outside and play?”

“It’s snowing outside, little one,” Carlo says.

“I know! I want to play in the snow!”

“I’ll take him,” Sophie says. She’s eight now, the eldest of all the children here tonight for Christmas dinner.

“Let’s wait until some of the grownups can go too,” Heather tells her. “Maybe you could start a movie in the family room for everyone to watch in the meantime.”

“Okay. Come on, Benny.”

He thinks about pouting for a moment, then follows her. Most of the children are still eating.

There are three long tables, holding a total of forty-seven people: twenty-five children and twenty-two adults. Plus one on the way, because Jade is pregnant with her and Romero’s second child. Three-year-old Emiliano sits between them.

Matteo and I are hosting Christmas dinner at the old Callahan farm. We rebuilt the farmhouse, and now we live here with Gavriella and our one-year-old twins, Vincenzo and Violetta.

“A toast,” Matteo says, raising his glass. “To Jade and Gina. Congratulations on your wildly successful show.”

We all cheer, clink glasses, and drink. Most of us are sipping champagne, except for Jade. “Speech!” Kosta calls.

Gina and Jade both give each other bashful you-go-first looks. Finally, Jade clears her throat. “I always loved my dad’s photography growing up, but I never imagined doing it myself. And then, a few years ago, I started taking photos and fell in love with it. And like Dad, I found myself really drawn to photographing wildlife.

“I feel really fortunate to be able to follow my heart this way. And when I saw some of the paintings Gina was doing, and how well our styles complement each other, it just made sense for us to do a show together, especially one that would benefit the sanctuary.”

That would be the Patrick Callahan Wildlife Sanctuary, named for our dad. Matteo and I run it, here on the farm. In addition to providing a habitat for rare and endangered species, we rehabilitate injured animals and return them to the wild.

“Mama?” This time it’s Raul, Dante and Heather’s middle child at four years old. “Can I be excused?”

She smiles at him. “Yes, you may.” Heather’s a kindergarten teacher now, and she loves it.

Raul scrambles from his seat at the same time that his baby sister Catarina starts to fuss. Dante picks her up and cuddles her against his chest, and she quiets immediately. I smile at Heather. “So many daddy’s girls.”

“Can you blame them?” Heather says. All the women laugh, and all the men grin.

“Your turn,” Jade says to Gina, but baby Gemma lets out a wail.

“She’s teething again,” Gina says, picking her up. Carlo roots in the diaper bag, looking for Gemma’s teething ring.

At the next table over, Victor is helping four-year-old Renia, and Frankie is feeding two-year-old Pietro. “Frankie!” I call. “How’s the restoration going?”

“Great!” She beams at me. “You know how I love the classics.”

Frankie used to work for Carlo in his private security and investigations firm, but once she got pregnant with Renia, she and Vic agreed that she should do something less potentially hazardous. So now Frankie works at Revved, restoring cars, and Vic still runs the café, so they can see each other all the time.

Rico handed over the keys to the Revved garage to a couple of the younger cousins, and he and Mickey moved up into the mountains, to the same town where Brando has his restaurant. Rico has a small repair shop up there, but his manager oversees the day-to-day operations.

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