Maksim smiled and bounced in her arms. “We e–eat, Ma-ma!”
~*~
“Ma-ma!”
“All right, Aleksandr, I’m watching.”
Aleksandr waved his little arms as much as his Spider-Man arm floaties would allow, then jumped into the pool. The boy was a fearless fish, just like his father. He knew how to swim without the floaties, but Carter never allowed it unless Nathan was with him because he was not even close to being as good a swimmer as Nathan was. He was damn near professional. Once Nathan had seen how comfortable Aleksandr was in water, he taught him how to swim. Ever since Aleksandr was about nine months old, he and Nathan had been coming out to the pool and swimming without Aleksandr’s floaties. Yes, Carter had been nervous about it at first, but then she and Maksim actually sat and watched them one night. Her fears were instantly put to rest. Nathan was amazing with him, plus she loved to watch Nathan spend time with the boys. Swimming was his and Aleksandr’s thing, but sports … Sports was something all three of her guys could agree on.
“Ma-ma, some more.”
Carter reached to her left and picked up Maksim’s plate. After piling it with more fruit she handed it back to him. Everyone else was playing in the pool, but Maksim sat with her at their table under a netted gazebo, snacking on fruit. Soon they would go lounge in the large pool … emphasis on lounge. Where Aleksandr was more like his father, Maksim was more like her. The art of relaxation came naturally to them when they weren’t angry. Maksim didn’t swim, he floated, lounged back on whatever floatation device held him up in the pool. Today it was a huge UFO that he could sit in comfortably. It had the cutest little water gun attached to the front of it. It was Maksim’s favorite pool float out of all the floats he had, simply because spraying his cousin and brother with the spray gun attached to the front amused him immensely.
“You two are so boring,” Gabe said as he and Sofia walked into the gazebo. “Bring your behinds out here. We’re celebrating.”
Celebrating?
A small, confused smile spread across her face. “Why is everything always a party with you, Gabe?” The man could turn any gathering into a celebration.
“Umm, probably because I once was confined in a basement, and now I’m free!” He plopped down in the chair next to her and lifted Sofia to sit on the table. Sofia started eating some of the cut fruit and Gabe looked over to Carter with a smile. “So, my love. Are you going to celebrate with me?”
Carter smiled and nodded. “All right, my free brother. What are we celebrating today?”
“The future,” he replied with a bright smile. “And our happiness. We’re celebrating life, our freedom, and the fact that we both wake up every morning with smiles on our faces … and the fact that I think I may be in love.”
He’d said the last word a bit softer, and Carter immediately knew he was about to tell her something.
“Umm, Gabe …” As soon as she’d said his name, his smile slowly widened. Carter squealed and turned to face him. “Spill now, Gabe. What is it? Who is it?” Carter bounced in her seat.
Gabe laughed. “I’ll only tell you if you promise not to judge, me, and don’t tell anyone.”
“I promise, now spill.”
Gabe smiled, shook his head, and sighed. “All right. Well …” He hesitated, and Carter motioned for him to continue. “Okay, well. You know Dante ended his relationship with Casey a few months back—”
Carter screamed and jumped up from her seat joyously. She danced around the gazebo as Gabe and the kids laughed, finding her antics thoroughly amusing.
“What on earth is going on over there?” Anastacia yelled as she held on to Aleksandr’s hands and pulled him around in the pool.
Carter picked up Maksim and rested him on her hip as she ran from the gazebo. “Gabe has a boyfriend!” she announced.
“Carterina!” Gabe yelled behind her. “You seriously can’t hold water! I don’t even know why I tell you anything at all.”
Carter rolled her eyes. “Relax Gabe, its Mom.” Carter walked to the stairs of the pool, pulling Maksim’s float along with her. “I’m so excited! We can have double dates now.”
“Calm yourself, Carter, you didn’t even let me finish telling yet.”
Carter settled Maksim in his float and pushed him toward his grandmother.
“Are you talking about Dante?” Anastacia asked, making Carter’s breath catch in shock.
“
Mother
,” Gabe yelled.
Carter gasped and clutched her heart when her mother said the words.
What? Gabriel told Mom first? How could he? I’m his sister, his twin for God’s sake. How could he be so cruel?
Carter turned to him with a wounded expression. “You told Mom first?”
Gabe bit his bottom lip and looked away.
“Oops,” Anastacia said through a chuckle. “Sorry.”
Carter sat on the steps entering the pool and ran her hands over the water. “I don’t see how this is funny,” she whined.
“Oh stop your pouting, Carterina,” Anastacia chided with amusement in her tone. “This is why your father called you baby girl … because you always pout like a baby.”
Carter crossed her arms over her chest and turned her head away. “I’m not pouting,” she muttered. “Why am I always the last to know everything?”
They always kept her out of the loop. They would go on their shopping sprees and lunch dates and gossip up a storm while she wasn’t there, but on the days she could actually hang out with them they always wanted to just stay at her house with the kids. They were such jerks.
Coming to sit by her side, Gabe put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side. “I’m sorry, my love, please forgive me.”
“Stop babying your sister, you’ll make it worse.”
Gabe chuckled. “Mum, stop. You’re being ridiculous.” He kissed Carter’s forehead. “Pout away, my love. I should have told you sooner. You know how much we hate gossiping without you.”
Bullshit
. Carter elbowed his lying ass in the side and he laughed. “You’re such a liar. You both love doing this to me.”
“Carterina, you can’t keep a secret—”
Carter cut off her mother with a gasp. “I can so! I’m bad a-word at keeping secrets, Mom. I get it from you!”
“You used to be good at it, but then you got married,” she stated with a shrug.
Carter’s mouth dropped open. “What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, offended.
Laughing, Gabe looked away, and Anastacia smiled wide. Okay, what the hell was going on? What did her being married have to do with keeping secrets and being excluded from gossip time?
Gabriel turned back to her. “It’s nothing, sweetheart. It’s normal.”
“What’s normal?” she asked, still confused and very much offended. “Tell me you meanies. If my kids and niece weren’t around I’d be cursing up a storm right now.”
“It’s nothing, baby girl, it’s just that your brother couldn’t tell you when his relationship with Dante started because he and Dante were having an affair. Dante didn’t even want to tell his brothers.”
Carter still wasn’t getting their point. “Okay?”
Gabe sighed. “I knew that if I told you, you would tell Nathan.”
“
What?
”
“Don’t even act like you wouldn’t,” Anastacia said.
She would have, it was an uncontrollable reflex now. Whenever someone told her something shocking or exciting, the first thing that would pop in her head would be
“Oh my God, I can’t wait to tell Nathan!”
but she couldn’t help it! Her husband was her best friend. Unable to even form a lie to counter their rude accusation, Carter changed the subject. “So, are you and Dante official now?”
Gabriel nodded. “Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
“Yes. We’re discussing it. I would rather him talk to his father first. I’m not really interested in having a closeted relationship. I told him that, and he said he’d try.”
Carter’s brows rose in surprise. Wow, they must have been very serious for Dante to be considering that. “Really?”
Gabe nodded. “Yes, we even talked about marriage. It’s something he’s always wanted.”
“What?” Anastacia yelled.
Carter grinned both because her mother was just as shocked by Gabe’s announcement as she was, and because of what Gabe had just revealed. “You guys are—”
“We’re just talking about it,” he said quickly.
Anastacia was already squeezing him tightly. “Aww, Gabriel, my precious son.” She kissed his lips. “I will get to see my other baby marry now. And you and Dante will give me more grandchildren, yes. You know I want lots of grandchildren.”
Gabriel chuckled and kissed their mother’s cheek. “I said we just talked about it, Mother.”
Carter clapped her hands. “I am
so
planning your wedding, Gabe. And you have to make me your best man.”
“Who else would fill the role so perfectly?”
Carter squealed and hugged her brother tightly. “Now all we have to do is get Mom and Cesare to stop beating around the bush, then we will all be married.”
As soon as Carter mentioned their mother and marriage in the same sentence, Anastacia frowned.
“Don’t make me curse in front of my grandchildren, Carterina.” She turned away from them and rejoined the kids in the pool.
Carter huffed. “But you said you wanted marriage, Mom. Remember?”
“Do you remember that I’m still married to your fa—
Silas
. He may be trying his hand at being father of the year with you two, but he’s still holding me hostage. He scarred me. I will never marry again.”
“Boooo,” Carter and Gabriel called at the same time.
She waved a dismissive hand at their antics and began to play with Maksim, Aleksandr, and Sofia who swam, chasing each other in the water and giggling.
“That is such a cliché thing to say, Mum,” Gabriel said. “You can’t give up on marriage because of Silas. You’re a woman only in your forties. You have too much life left. Marry the man, you know he wants to.”
She rolled her eyes. “Marriage is for young people. I love my relationship the way it is now. I have a bad track record with men, and I’m not going to mess the first perfect relationship I’ve had in my life up by becoming his wife,” she explained with a shrug. “Every man I’ve ever loved has disappointed me. I loved Angelo, he cheated on me, had a son, and moved to America. I loved Silas and he betrayed my trust, attacked me, and took both of my children away from me for twenty-three years. Last but not least, I loved Robert and he died, then came back to life and left. Cesare is perfect. He and I are happy. This is all I need.”
Carter and Gabriel were speechless when she finished. Damn. Okay,
maybe
they couldn’t blame her for being a little fearful about taking her relationship with Cesare to the next level.
“Okay,” Carter said. “We will let it go—”
“After you answer one question,” Gabriel interjected quickly.
Anastacia rolled her eyes. “What?” she asked, frustrated.
“Are you not willing to marry Cesare because you still can’t let go of Angelo?”
The question rattled her. Anastacia opened her mouth and closed it.
“Do you think she loves them both and is still having trouble choosing?” Carter asked Gabriel.
Gabriel nodded his head. “She must. But I’m sure she loves one more than the other.”
“Of course she does. She has to, right?”
“Then why would she not choose the one she loves the most?” Gabriel asked Carter.
Carter gave her brother a look as if he should already know the answer to his question. “I think she has, but that doesn’t make giving up Angelo easy.”
Gabriel frowned. “But what if it’s Angelo that she loves more—”
“And she can’t bring herself to hurt Cesare,” Carter finished. “Or she could love them both—”
“The same,” Gabriel finished, shaking his head. “Thus making the decision impossible. Damn, that’s sad.”
“Okay, you two, that’s enough,” Anastacia chided with a frown. “No more talk about my love life.”
Gabriel chuckled and Carter giggled softly.
“Fine,” Gabriel sighed. “I guess as long as you have a good guy that treats you like a queen and keeps you,” he wiggled his brows suggestively, “satisfied. Then that’s enough.”
Anastacia frowned in confusion.
“Gabe, you’re bad,” Carterina giggled. “Don’t listen to him, Mom, he’s a hoe.”
Gabriel smiled wickedly. “I’m not a hoe, I just want to make sure our sexy mother is being taken care of in that … department.”
Anastacia snapped back and shook her head, wondering what the hell her children were talking about. “In what department?”
Gabriel chuckled. “You know. I mean, you’re still a young woman with natural urges and desires that need to be fulfilled by a skilled man. If mine and Carter’s … umm,
need
was genetically inherited from you, then I know you need to be …
serviced
often.”
“Serviced!” Carterina laughed loudly, but Anastacia was still confused. “Do not ever refer to that as being
serviced
again.”