Page 48 of Marrying the Enemy

“Mama said we could go in the pool when you got here,” Maya said, all big dark pleading eyes. “Will you come in with us? Please?”

“And throw me like you did before?” Jayden asked. “Please, please, please?”

“You remember that?” Dom hadn’t been in a pool with these kids in well over a year.

“Jay. Maya. Can we please say hello properly first? This is your new Auntie Eve.” Astrid came up behind the children, blond hair in a ponytail, freckled face clean of makeup. She wore a loose sundress that billowed over her baby bump. “Hi, I’m Astrid.” She shook hands with Eve, eyeing her with open curiosity. “This was unexpected news. Congratulations, Dom.”

She hugged him.

Dom honestly couldn’t remember that ever happening and stiffened in surprise.

Astrid’s smile faltered as she stepped back before he’d even thought to return her embrace. He caught the flicker of something across Eve’s expression, but Astrid spoke again.

“I said we would see about swimming,” she reminded the children while setting a quieting hand on her bouncing son’s shoulder. “Jevaun’s parents said they’d take them if we want adult time. Jevaun can drive them over.”

“I don’t mind. We brought our suits.” Dom glanced at Eve.

She nodded.

“Wash up first,” Astrid told the excited children, pointing them to the outdoor shower. “Uncle Dom doesn’t want to come out of our pool looking like a unicorn. Jevaun will come in with you, but can I persuade you to visit with me in the shade, Eve?” Astrid waved at a pair of comfortable loungers placed in the shadow of the gazebo. “I’m dying to put my feet up. We have a housekeeper come in for a few hours every morning while we’re here, but mostly we try to simply be a family. It’s relaxed and messy and makes me appreciate the nanny, let me tell you,” she added in a rueful aside. “Let’s get some drinks for everyone, first.”

Eve started to follow Astrid inside, but flicked a glance at Dom that was vaguely amused, as though she was conveying that she expected an interrogation and was willing to be a sport about it.

Dom watched her go, protective hackles raised, but also something more possessive. A voice in his head protested, Evie is mine. He didn’t know where it came from. A lifetime of being on the periphery, he supposed.

Which was where he liked to be, he reminded himself, but that exclusion didn’t sit as well this time. It was so disconcerting, he made himself move into the pool house to get changed.

“This invitation probably feels like a setup,” Astrid said once she and Eve were settled on the loungers watching the men play with the children in the pool. “It is a little. When my sister called to tell me Dom was married, and to who, and that you were honeymooning here, she said, ‘You have to invite them over and get the scoop.’”

Eve couldn’t help her wistful smile. “I always wanted sisters. I love my brothers, but they’re so much older, they’ve never really felt like confidantes.”

“I used to think brothers were just harder to be close to, then I met Jevaun’s family. You don’t realize how dysfunctional your own family is until you meet one that works. They’re so tightly knit, it makes me wish...”

Her troubled gaze fixed on Dom. He was helping Jayden balance on his shoulders before he stood up, launching the boy into deeper water.

Eve waited, but Astrid only reached for the glass of lemonade on the table between them.

“So what is the scoop?” Astrid asked. “Obviously, you two met in Australia. We’ve all read about that.”

“I’m not pregnant. I’ll quash that rumor before it starts,” Eve said drily.

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Astrid smoothed her sundress over her bump. “I was hoping for more cousins in our mob.”

“It really doesn’t bother you, that I’m a Visconti?”

“Oh, I had to place an emergency call to my therapist, believe me.” She grinned cheekily. “But it was more about me and my relationship with our father. How is your father taking it?”

“I’ll let you know when he starts talking to me again.” She grimaced, wishing she was joking.

Astrid made a face of sympathy. “Mom is pretty upset, too. But—Did Dom tell you how Dad reacted when Freda came home pregnant at sixteen?”

“She’s the one who is a lawyer? He only told me she has a son.”

“Yeah, he’s great. I love that little man to bits, but it was a whole thing. Dad threw her out and wouldn’t let any of us talk to her, but Dom found her a place to live—a nice place—and bought her groceries and paid her doctor bills and yelled at Dad until he came around. But that took years. I was kind of shoved into the eldest sister role and there were so many expectations on me.” Her brow furrowed with anguish. “I was genuinely terrified Dad would rather ruin Jevaun than let me marry him so I introduced him to Dom and Dom told Dad that he could keep driving his daughters out of the house or he could smarten up. That’s his version. I have no idea how it actually went. All I know is that we had a beautiful wedding and Freda was there. So I absolutely support Dom marrying whoever he wants, but I also know that if Dad were still alive, things would be really hard right now.”

“I know,” Eve said pensively. “And I won’t pretend my family are a bunch of innocent victims. My dad and brothers have fueled the fire at different times, but Dom said your father never really got over losing his brother. That it made him bitter and looking for someone to blame.”

“That’s such an understatement.” A sheen came into Astrid eyes as she looked to the pool again. “Dad was so proud of the fact that he had never hit us. That was his bar of good parenting because his father used to give them the belt. But the way he talked to us and things that he did, they were still abusive. Mom was totally codependent, feeding his moods and opinions so he wouldn’t turn on her. I’ve had eight years of Jevaun and counselling and I was still a nervous wreck that Dom was coming over.”

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