Ten minutes later, a car pulled up. Savio, Remo and Nino got out.
Savio came to the gate, inspecting his car with drawn brows before he looked at me. I waited for the inevitable outburst. Men and their cars were a relationship that I’d never understand.
“With the car in that position, we can’t open the gates,” Nino said coming up behind Savio. “I’ll have to disable the electricity so we don’t get zapped when we climb over.”
“I thought now that Adamo can’t steal our cars to crash them, my Bugatti was safe. But you, Kitty, keep me on my toes.” Savio reached for the fence and began to climb over before he landed with a low thud on the other side. Shaking his head, he touched my neck. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I’m sorry. I wanted to pick up Carlotta and no one was home to drive me, so I thought…”
“You thought it was a good day to crash a three-hundred thousand-dollar car.”
My heart thudded. “That expensive?”
Savio chuckled. “Don’t worry. I wanted a new car anyway.”
“Didn’t you only buy the damn thing six months ago?” Remo asked as he inspected the fence.
“You’re not mad?” I asked.
“No. But we’ll have to do something about your driving skills. I think I need to teach you more than I thought.”
My cheeks heated.
Remo gave him a dark look. “Since we know where your priorities lie, it would be good if your next car was an automatic.”
It took sixty minutes to drag the car away from the gates and open them despite their compressed state. After that, Savio drove me to my mother in Nino’s Tesla, because that one already had child seats in the back.
“I baked cannoli for you,” I said, feeling guilty for my mess up.
“Trying to make up for what you’ve done? Which makes me think you might have planned the whole thing.”
“I didn’t!” I gasped. “And you’re really not angry?”
“Life’s too short to get pissed off about every little thing.”
Crashing his Bugatti was a small thing? I touched his wrist with the speared watch. When I brushed the scars there, he tensed but didn’t pull back. “Thanks. Do you think Remo shares your mantra?”
“Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t care about material things or money. He’ll have the thing repaired and won’t mention it again unless he wants to rile you up… so probably at dinner tonight.”
We grabbed flowers on the way, which was Savio’s idea, and made me really want to kiss him.
Mom looked pale, with a red nose and hollow cheeks. Dad’s death had left its marks, and Carlotta’s care took a lot of energy as well, but she shared my stubborn streak and rarely accepted help from us.
Her face lit up when Savio handed her the flowers and she gave me a pleased smile. “A gentleman after all.”
For some reason, the comment made me blush, which Mom chose to ignore and which Savio answered with a cocky half smile.
Carlotta sat on a blanket on the floor and played with a wooden train that had been Diego’s before it was mine. Her head shot up and a big grin split her face. Some color finally filled her cheeks, but she was still a small, thin child. Much smaller than other kids at eighteen months. She pushed herself up, rushing toward me. I picked her up and crushed her to my chest.
“She looks like a little version of you,” Savio said with a smile, which filled my belly with familiar butterflies.
“Say hi to Savio,” I told her.
“Hi Savio,” Carlotta piped, grinning sheepishly.
“Are you sure you’ll be fine taking care of her? She needs to take her medicine and if she turns blue, you need to take her to the ER right away and her scar…”
Savio touched my mother’s arm. “She’ll be taken care of. Nino will notice if something is wrong, and she’ll have my nephews and niece for company.”
Mom nodded slowly and finally led us to the door. After a kiss to her cheek, I followed Savio to his car with Carlotta in my arms.
Savio helped me put her in the seat then we headed back home.
“You sure nobody will mind?” I whispered.
He gave me a stern look. “Gem, you’re family, so your sister is family too. It’s fine.”
God, I loved him. My heart thudded wildly as I considered telling him. Yet, knowing Savio’s reluctance to talk emotions, I swallowed the notion.
Once back in the driveway of the Falcone mansion, Savio lifted Carlotta out of the seat and she clung to him, so I let him carry her inside. He handled her with so much care and gentleness that the anger I’d felt in the past felt like an unnecessary weight I wanted to lose.
The common room was deserted but the French doors were open, so everyone was probably at the pool. “How about we check on the sweets your sister promised me?” Savio suggested.
“Nonna always said sweets are the way to a man’s heart,” I said, remembering her secretive smile whenever she told me.
“Your nonna was a very wise woman.”
In the kitchen, I quickly filled the cannoli with the cream, but Savio and Carlotta were already stealing half of it before I got my hand on it. I swatted his hand away, but his quick reflexes proved difficult to outsmart even in the kitchen.
With Carlotta on his lap, he finally settled at the table and stuffed his face with my cannoli. Carlotta dug in, too, which made me smile even more considering how bad of an eater she’d always been in the past.
“Delicious, Gem. Like all of you.”
My eyes widened and I gave him a warning look. Even if Carlotta had no clue what he meant, I’d kick his ass if he said something like that again.
He took another bite. “I’ll definitely keep you. A woman who can bake like that needs to be my wife.”
“I am your wife.”
“See, I made the right choice.”
I shook my head. The door swung open and Kiara came in with Massimo and Alessio. They were a year and two years older than my sister, but much taller than their age gap suggested. Savio set Carlotta down, but she was too shy to approach the other kids. Savio bent down, took her hand and introduced her.
My heart melted.
Kiara came to me and squeezed my arm. “Things going well between you two?”
I nodded.
“I’m so happy. I always hoped Savio would find a good girl who’d take care of him after everything he and his brothers have been through.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I only smiled. I’d take care of him if he let me. Carlotta spent the night at the mansion so Mom could get a full night of sleep. The Falcones had a spare bed that we put in our bedroom. Carlotta was used to sharing a bed with Mom, though, so she cried until we allowed her to join us. Within minutes she fell asleep and lay curled up between Savio and me.
He gave me a knowing look over her tiny form. “You’re playing dirty. Do I really scare you that much?”
He didn’t scare me, nor did his touch, but my body’s reaction to it, definitely. It was like I was losing control of my body.
Carlotta was a cute kid and she got along well with the other kids. Gemma was beaming all day, impossibly happy that her little sister was doing better. I had to admit I was relieved when we returned the little girl to Gemma’s mom the next day. Sleeping with a toddler in your bed was a challenge and eventually I’d given up and slept on the sofa.
“I still feel so bad that you had to sleep on the sofa,” she said after we’d taken Carlotta home. Her guilt over something like that was too adorable.
“You can make it up to me by having a movie night with me. Popcorn and all.”
“Really? Like a date?”
“Like a date. I want to stream a few fights that took place in L.A. last night.” With Carlotta around, we hadn’t been able to watch them live. I could have joined my brothers in the common area, but I didn’t want to leave Gemma alone with her sister.
“With the Madman from L.A.?” Gemma asked curiously.
“Fuck, I love that you know these kinds of things and enjoy more than girl things.”
That evening we settled on the sofa together and I locked into the Darknet part where we always streamed our fights and races, so people could watch them and place bets.
Gemma came in with a bowl of popcorn that smelled divine. I grabbed a handful and stuffed it into my mouth, groaning at the salted caramel note.
“I made the caramel and added some sea salt.”
I pushed another popped kernel into my mouth. “It’s perfect. I want this every evening.”
“Won’t you get bored of it soon?” she said in a strange voice, voicing it in a way that suggested she didn’t mean popcorn.
“If something is this good, how can I resist?”
Turning on the stream, I wrapped an arm around Gemma’s shoulder and pulled her against my body. She was dressed in sweatpants and a tight Tee, her hair pulled up in a messy bun. “You really went all out for our date.” I, too, was wearing sweatpants and a shirt but I couldn’t resist teasing her. It was too much fun.
She frowned. “What’s the use of dressing up for movie night?”
“You’re sexy as fuck as you are anyway. No need for fancy clothes or makeup.”
Obviously pleased, she snuggled against me, the popcorn wedged between us.
“I always dreamed that it would be like this. Us being together.”