Page 73 of Secret Babies For My Brother's Best Friend

“She’s amazing,” Julia said when I joined her on the deck. “You just know your wedding’s going to go off without a hitch with her at the helm.”

“She’s something else all right,” I chuckled. “She matches the Italian… passion that Luca and his family brings to things.”

Julia gave me a knowing wink. “I hear you. But also, that passion is what brought us here, so quit dragging the thing you secretly love.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” I said, starting down the steps and onto the lawn. “Help me find my babies.”

The mansion’s sprawling backyard was unrecognizable with first, hundreds of people and second, the tables, seating, and decorations set up for the twins’ big day. It made it even harder to conduct our search.

“My suggestion is this: find Leo, find the twins,” Julia said with confidence. “He hasn’t left their side since they were born.”

I sighed heavily, fighting another bout of queasiness. “Great. How am I supposed to spot one particular nine-year-old when there are at least a hundred of them here?”

“Good point.” Julia’s face fell as she scanned the crowd, noticing just how many kids were running about, all of them close to Leo’s age. “New suggestion: Give up, move away, and start a new family with someone else, in a smaller house.”

I snorted with laughter just as Chris popped up, a sprightly Diana on his arm.

“There she is!” he exclaimed, holding out his daughter to Julia. “There’s Mommy!”

Julia put her hands behind her back, pointedly not taking the handover. “Were you looking for me, Princess?” She nuzzled Diana’s nose with her own.

Diana cooed and blew raspberries, her tiny hands clutching at Julia’s hair.

“Daddy wants a chance to play with his friends now, please,” Chris said.

But Julia backed up, hands still clasped out of sight. “Mommy hasn’t had all of her play time yet, so Daddy’s going to have to hang in there a little longer.”

Chris’ face fell, and he replaced Diana on his hip. “Okay, truthfully, Daddy got a whiff of a special package Diana’s been working on, and he really doesn’t want to collect it.”

Julia and I burst out laughing. Chris had developed somewhat of a reputation for being a sickly diaper changer, especially when it came to Diana’s “special packages.” It was always hilarious to watch him gag and puff his way through it, eyes usually tearing up with the effort it took him to breathe as little as possible.

“I’m serious, honey,” he said. “This is one of the bad ones.”

“Then you better get cracking with it,” she said between laughs.

He gave me an imploring look as a last ditch attempt, but I shrugged. “Sorry, bro, I have my hands full with two of them.”

“Fine,” Chris sulked. “You ladies enjoy your down time while I go deal with the apocalypse.”

He traipsed back into the house, the whole while begging Diana to go easy on him. It was the cutest thing, I had to admit. I’d seen the same kind of thing happen to Luca with the twins. He always showed a more tender side with Leo, but once the babies arrived that became even more noticeable. It was one of the things I loved most about him.

“There!” Julia cried out, pointing manically across the lawn.

In the distance, Luca was kicking a ball around with Leo, a twin on each hip. As if sensing my attention, Luca looked up, and I waved him over. He waved back, a huge smile on his face, and started making his way to us.

“Looks like Gianni and Marcella aren’t going to have a choice when it comes to loving soccer.” Julia chuckled.

“Please, it’s football if you talk about it in front of Luca,” I said with a laugh. “And yeah, he won’t have it any other way.”

She nudged me with her shoulder and smiled. “You’re so lucky to have gotten your pigeon pair on your first try. Beautiful boy and a beautiful angel girl to round up your family.”

I swallowed, suddenly needing some space from her conversation. “I’ll go tell Rita we’re ready for the cake,” I said, starting for the kitchen.

Julia tugged my arm. “Hold up. I wanted to ask you something.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I’m asking the question,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me.

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