Page 119 of Married With Malice

My fingers stroke his damp hair as my heartbeat returns to normal. Luca raises his head, kisses each of my breasts and rolls back, taking me with him so that our positions are reversed. He seizes a throw blanket and tucks it around me. His powerful arms form a protective cage as he cuddles me close.

I shut my eyes and let the other senses dominate for now but I won’t keep my eyes closed for long. I’m not ready for sleep and neither is he, not for a while yet. This night will be stamped on my heart forever so I want it to last and last.

This is what everyone wishes they had. This is complete happiness.

26

LUCA

Three days after baby Margaret’s joyous homecoming, the call comes in just after lunch when we’re all in the living room.

Anni sits in a rocking chair with Margaret in her arms. Zeus and Apollo, who have appointed themselves as Margaret’s constant guardians, sit at her feet and keep watch. Sadie slumps tiredly on the sofa beside Cale. Hardly a minute goes by without him asking if there’s anything else he can do for her.

I’ll never stop being bowled over by the sight of the infamously ferocious Cale Connelly doting on his wife and his tiny daughter. Cale has stepped right into fatherhood as if it’s his destiny. Last night I found him slowly pacing the floor at two a.m., holding his baby girl and trying to soothe her back to sleep with a soft lullaby. Actually, I think it was an Elton John song but whatever.

Peggy stops by to evaluate whether anyone requires food or a sweater or indispensable life advice. I’m leaning against the wall and staying out of the way but she comes to a halt in front of me and conducts an appraisal anyway.

“Come to the kitchen before you go back out to work,” she says. “You’re still skin and bones.”

I’m not now, nor have I ever been, ‘skin and bones’, but all I say is, “All right, Peggy.”

She sniffs, finding fault with my tone. “Be more like your brother.”

Since our arrival, Peggy has made it very clear that she regards Cale as the ideal standard that all men need to live up to. For the time being, I’m falling short of this benchmark.

Cale is now rubbing his wife’s shoulders and wears a smug grin. “Peggy’s right. You should be more like me.”

Sadie playfully pokes him with an elbow. “You had to work to win Peggy over.”

“Peggy loved me from the start,” Cale insists.

“Peggy tried to hit you with her broom the day you met.”

“I don’t remember it that way.”

“Well, you’d just been shot so you were a little out of it.”

“Peggy shot you?” I say, knowing this is highly unlikely but wondering why in the hell I’ve never heard anything about this story before.

“Nope,” he says. “I just happened to walk into the path of an anonymously fired bullet.”

The look he throws my way communicates that he won’t be elaborating on the matter at all.

Anni doesn’t seem to have heard any part of the conversation. She just keeps rocking the baby with a smile on her face. Watching her like this, happy and holding a baby, makes all kinds of things happen to me. It’s an excellent look for her. The days we’ve been here have been hopeful and healing. Nothing short of a dream.

There’s just one problem with dreams. They don’t last.

This thought has hardly finished running through my mind when my phone goes off in my pocket. I’m not psychic and yet I know exactly who is calling before I look at the screen.

All the energy in the room changes in an instant. I glance at my brother and know that he can see right through me. He’ll also know that I have no choice but to take the call.

Anni is now staring at me too. She’s stopped rocking in the chair and her forehead creases with worry.

“I’ll be right back,” I say, aware that none of them are fooled by my breezy tone.

The phone keeps bleating in the palm of my hand, signaling my uncle’s impatience.

I don’t answer him until I’m outside with the front door closed behind me. “Hey, Richie.”

---