Page 43 of Hello Goodbye Amore

“Are you telling us that this… man…? That you expect us to accept…?” His mother was never at a loss for words. Ever.

“Yes. Chase is special to me, and he has been for a long time. I was too scared to tell you about it when I was in college, afraid of how you would react, and I was right.”

“Then what changed?” his father asked gently. Antonello was coming to appreciate his quiet thoughtfulness more and more.

“I found someone—two someones, actually—who mean more than my fear.” He cleared his throat. “And I came to realize that your opinion wasn’t all that important. That I deserved to be honest about myself and that I wasn’t going to let you and Mom dictate the rest of my life.” He met his father’s gaze straight on.

“Are you going to let him talk to us that way?” his mother asked, anger in her voice.

His father smiled. “Our son is a grown adult and can make up his own mind. And I for one am proud of him. I know he will look after the family interests and is more than capable of seeing the family and the business into the future.”

“But—”

“That’s enough, Contessina. It’s time for Antonello to see things into the future and for him to make his own decisions about his life.”

She held firm for a few seconds and then lowered her gaze, knowing she wasn’t going to get any further. “But the boy, Ricky… he could be our grandson.” He had never seen his mother close to tears before.

“I know. But that would make him Antonello’s son.” He stood next to Antonello’s mother. “Do you remember when you were first pregnant, and my mother told us how we were going to raise our children? She even decorated the nursery and picked out names. You told her to back off and that it was our baby and we were going to make those decisions. Well, I hate to tell you this, but you have turned into my mother.”

“I have not,” Contessina protested, and Antonello chuckled.

“Look, we all want the same thing, but for different reasons. I don’t want Chase to leave. He has only a few more months and then his project will be finished and he’s supposed to go home. I don’t want that to happen. I want him to stay, regardless of whether Ricky is my son.”

His mother nodded. “So what do we do?”

“Well, you can start by not calling the police on him,” Antonello said. “And he’s coming to dinner. Be nice to him and don’t scare him off. You know you can be frightening. I like him, Mamma, and so does Isabella and even Paolo. He’s a good man.” God, he had messed things up more ways than he could count, and now he had a chance to make it right. Antonello was not going to blow this chance.

ANTONELLO’S LEGbounced on the thick rug, and he had to intentionally stop it. Chase sat next to him on the edge of the sofa that had been in the room for three hundred years. Ricky sat on his father’s lap with Chase’s arms around him like Chase was afraid Ricky was going to make a break for it and run amok through the house.

Antonello’s parents sat in their usual places, drinks in hand, with everyone looking at each other but no one saying a word. “That’s really pretty,” Ricky said, looking up to point at the ceiling fresco. “With the lady flying over everything.”

Thank God the kid found something to say, or else Antonello’s head was going to explode. Chase had messaged only a few hours ago to say that he didn’t have someone to watch Ricky, so Antonello had said to bring him along. He had been hoping this meeting would be less stiff.

“Remember what I told you,” Chase whispered.

“I know, Daddy. Don’t touch anything.” Ricky put his hands in his lap and leaned back. “I won’t, but everything is pretty. When we go home, can you paint my ceiling like that? I want elephants and a giraffe and a polar bear. But not scary ones.”

Chase chuckled. “I don’t think that’s something I can do, but maybe they make wallpaper that we can put up that has animals on it.”

“Do you like animals?” Antonello’s father asked, and Ricky began enthusiastically listing all his favorites, including lions, tigers, chickens, horses, and sheep.

“I have one of those,” Ricky said.

“A sheep?” Antonello’s father asked, confused.

“Yes. I sleep with him. I wanted to bring Sheepy with me, but Daddy said that wasn’t a good idea. So he’s at home on my bed.”

“Ah, a stuffed sheep.” His dad seemed more at ease.

“I have lots of stuffies. I want to get a puppy, but Daddy says that I can’t get one here because we are only here on loan. But maybe when I get home and if I’m good, I can get a real puppy.” He smiled and looked around. “You should have a puppy here. It’s big enough, and they are good company. Unless they poop. Then it’s stinky.”

Antonello turned away, chuckling. The conversation was really stilted if it had gotten to talking about poop. “I never had a dog.”

“Really?” Ricky asked. “Why not?” He turned to Antonello’s mother. “Are you ’lergic? My friend Larry is ’lergic to dogs and cats, so his mommy got him a lizard. They keep it in a ’quarium, and it sticks its tongue out. But you can’t really pet it.”

Antonello’s mother turned to him with a quizzical expression. “He’s asking if you have allergies. And no. Mamma and Papa are not allergic to animals, they’re just allergic to fun.”

Ricky laughed. “No one is allergic to fun.” He slid off Chase’s lap and went to Antonello’s father. “Are they?” He suddenly seemed confused. “You do look kind of grumpy.”

---