Page 50 of Blood & Lace
I snorted so hard I hurt my nose. Lucero was beet red. I was pretty sure if he could wiggle his huge body between the floorboards, he would have at that exact moment, as his motherand I laughed over his reactions. She picked up a container and shoved it at me while I was still laughing. Inside were the best brownies known to man. I immediately stopped laughing. Lucero reached for one, and I yanked the container against my body and hissed.
"Come on, share. Those are my favorites."
"Yeah, well… I'm just meeting my mom-in-law so I get dibs," I said.
"You heard him, now back off," she said, wielding that spoon like a weapon. "Go help your brothers."
I raised a brow. "Whatareyou and your brothers doing, anyway?"
"Nothing!" he said quickly, looking like he'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "It's not all of my brothers, just Nash, Damian, and Elia."
"How many brothers do you have?" I asked.
"A lot!"
"They're not all our biological children," his mother explained. "My husband, the saint that he is, has adopted many over the years. Usually they grow up, start their own families, and move away. As children do." She sighed. "Some have stuck around though. The rule was always that if you proved yourself and you wanted a spot in the family, you would have one. If not, you would have our love and support when you left."
I stared at her. She was incredible. My stomach ached, and I took a step away. I had never been intimidated by a woman that was so short she was even smaller than me. Her gray hair, tipped in springy, purple curls, caught the light as she moved around. Some part of her reminded me of my own mother. My chest ached.
"What's wrong?" she asked, her brows furrowing.
"Nothing," I said quickly. "I’m fine, Mrs. Marino."
"Lilian." She smiled. "Just Lilian."
"Lilian," I whispered.
"So, are you and my Lucero going to have any children? I'm excited for the sound of little feet again."
I nearly choked on my brownie.
15
ONYX
Lilian pouredme another glass of wine, and I drank it without protest. Being around this many people who were all so close was… odd. I hadn't had a family gathering since I was a child. Being young and free, weaving between the adults legs as we screamed, with Adam on my heels with a water gun in one hand and a water balloon in the other. My shoulders dropped.
"You got sad so quickly," Lilian said as she reached out and tucked a strand of platinum blond hair behind my ear. "Really? Are you okay, figlio?"
I blinked up at her. My chest ached even more. If this whole marriage thing wasn't bullshit, I could see myself growing close to someone like her. Going shopping, eating brunch, gossiping and laughing at whatever crazy thing the Marino's did that week. But then I remembered I needed Lucero gone. Not just for me, but for him as well. He couldn't see it yet and I needed him to. I was not the one for him. If anything, I would drag him down with me.
"Yes," I said softly as I squirmed on the stools we were perched on. "Sorry about that. Kinda started daydreaming."
She patted my hand. "Happens to the best of us."
"Would you hold the goddamn thing straight!" someone shouted from the living room.
"Says the one wearing a dress," a voice retorted.
"Yeah, and in this dress I could stab your eyes out, Nash, so I suggest you fucking hold it straight!"
"Elia, Nash. Enough," I heard someone say, and then rapid-fire Italian. That voice I knew.
Damian.
"I shudder to imagine what they are doing in there," I said.
"All I was told was that it was a surprise, and then they got hungry." She shrugged. "What's a mother to do?"
