Page 4 of Surprise Baby for the Mafia Boss

Once we became teenagers, Grazia started to notice my interest in Luca. Especially as his height began to tower over ours and his features became more and more chiselled.

All of the girls in school tried to be his girl. He still had more than enough time for his sister and I, though, always making sure that we were okay, even if it meant ignoring his girlfriends.

Grazia had made me swear I would never go after him, claiming it would be weird and ruin our friendship. I did pinky-promise her then, but we’re adults now, and Luca needs a strong woman by his side. One day, Grazia will realize that too, I’m sure. Plus, we’d be sisters, which is a major upgrade from best friend.

Another person who will benefit and be very glad about a union between Luca Baldini and myself is Daddy. He’s never asked me outright, but we both know what a marriage with a Baldini would mean for our family.

“I have a driver.” Luca says as he lets go of me and walks towards the car. Of course he has a driver, that’s who drove me. His driver isn’t going to be the one to hold him at night while he releases his grief and looks for comfort.

I follow him to car, my heels clicking with the quick steps I need to take to keep up with his long strides.

“I know, I just think it’s important for us to be there for each other right now.”

The car cruises through the familiar streets, the engine humming, and inside, we're wrapped in a thick silence.

Luca has his head buried in his phone, which is pretty typical for him, but I can’t imagine how he’s managing to get work done at a time like this. I'm here, drowning in the weight of both our grief, itching to crack through the wall he's put up.

The Baldini's private airstrip is only a few miles from the mansion, this limits my alone time with Luca. I've got ten minutes, at best, before we get there. I know his attention won’t be on me once we’re surrounded by his family, so I decide to break the quiet before it’s too late.

My voice comes out shaky, "Your grandmother, she loved you so much." Ginny did keep talking about Luca and how much she loved her grandson, as well as the hopes she had for his future.

She also sometimes spoke about how much she worried about him due to his impulsive decisions and his desire to prove himself which sometimes clouded his judgement. She had mentioned how he needed a strong-willed girl to be by his side and keep him focused, and I had a feeling she was talking about me.

I put my hand on his knee, trying to bridge the gap that has always been there between us. Luca, still glued to his phone, looks up and glances between my hand—now resting on his knee—and my face, like he's trying to decode some secret message.

His blue eyes are the kind that seem to pierce through to your soul, but today they look softer. They’re slightly red and he’s not opening them fully.

"What?" he asks, and I push on.

"Your Gran...Nonna…she kept talking about you while you were away. When she got sick, I spent a bunch of time with her, reading to her and hearing her stories. She had some incredible ones to tell." I can't help but notice that I've captured his attention.

"Grazia was so busy with her studies, it just made sense for me to share the load of taking care of Ginny. I wanted to make sure the nurses were doing a good job." That’s probably all news to Luca, who was only used to seeing me as Grazia’s friend.

I did spend a lot of time at the Baldini’s home in our childhood. But even now as an adult, I still do. They were more tightly knit than my own family, and Ginny had happily taken me in as more than just a friend for her granddaughter. Plus, the more I got to sneak a peek at Luca, the better.

My visits to the mansion had increased in the last couple of months, though, drawn in by the heavy reality of Ginny’s fading health. Even so, her passing was a shock. She had seemed okay just the day before she died.

“You read to her? I know her eyesight had been getting worse lately…” His thoughts seem to trail off and so does his sentence.

"I did. She loved The Secret Garden, especially," I say.

"We got really close in the last few months. She became the gran I never had growing up." I check Luca's face for some sign he's catching on, but he stays quiet, lost in his thoughts.

Just as I'm hoping to break through to him, his phone pings again, cutting our interaction short, and the last few minutes of the ride slip away in a heavy silence.

I brace myself for whatever's waiting for us at the family mansion.

***

I walk into the foyer behind Luca. It's an overly dramatic entry, the reds and golds of this room have always made me feel like I'm stepping into a game of Clue.

The rest of his family is in the kitchen, the oversized black and white tiles on the floor serve to confirm my feelings of being in a classic board game.

Everyone looks up as we enter. Grazia frowns, seeing me walk in with Luca, but they’re all busy discussing arrangements so there isn’t much time to bring more attention to the situation —or ask any awkward questions, thankfully.

I go to pour myself some water. All the crying has dried out my throat. I hope that my eyes and face aren’t too red. Everyone is welcoming Luca back and they’re all softly offering words of comfort to each other.

It amazes me at times, how this tough, hard family can become so soft when life calls for it.

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