*Cat*
It felt like hours since Elio had left to go to the eting Franky set up with Ignacio. I paced my room for a few minutes, feeling like an idiot. I was the little woman left at ho to wring her hands and wait for the outco.
I really hated this part of things. I wasn’t so damsel in distress, nor was I a wilting violet who’d fait at the first sign of action. Well, I’d probably panic afterward, but during everything, I’d hold my own.
Elio needed to trust that about . We were partners. Even as I thought it, I knew he thought of as a partner. He would never have let within a hundred feet of Ignacio if he thought him a threat, which was exactly why I was ho pacing the emptiness of our room wringing my hands.
“Enough, Cat,” I told myself, and I changed into sothing that was comfortable, but not the sa house clothes I’d been in when Elio left to et with his n and Ignacio.
I went to the nursery to check on Emilia and found her awake. My clever baby was entertaining and would help keep from becoming a B-movie version of a worried spouse.
We sat together on the nursery floor. She wasn’t quite ready for blocks yet, but I’d pulled them out to give sothing to do with my hands. Emilia was moving a little more, sitting up on her own and staying up longer than she had before. She smiled, clapped her hands, gurgled at , and tried to eat the blocks while I attempted to build her a tower.
It was how Elio found us when he got ho– attempting to build, and Emilia continuously breaking down my creation.
“What a sight,” he said, a small smile on his handso face.
His smiles always shot straight to the core of . I loved to see his eyes light from within with laughter or just a sense of joy. He didn’t seem to have the capacity for laughter and cheer that many people have, but each ti our baby or I brought that look of joy to his eyes and lips, it made happy and made my belly swim with butterflies.
“How did it go?” I asked, still, putting blocks in place for Emilia, as if I wasn’t half as anxious as I truly was.
I didn’t think Elio bought my act for one mont. He tilted his head and lifted one of those dark brows in question.
I crooked a finger at him.
He walked over and sat with Emilia and , putting a block of his own on the tower I was making and Emilia was intent on demolishing.
Emilio chuckled at our daughter and picked her up to cradle her in his lap.
“I think she’s hungry,” I said.
I stood and went to the cabinets over the changing table. I mixed a bottle and ca back to them and gave him the bottle.
He smiled when our daughter reached her little hands out making give- motions with her fingers.
As he looked up, our eyes t over Emilia’s gulping form, his smile turned grim.
“Ignacio will never co near you again. If he does, it’ll be the last move he ever makes.”
I loved the way Elio wanted to protect . I didn’t need protecting as much as he thought, but I respected the need in him. I had the sa need in to protect him.
After feeding and putting Emilia down for the evening, we went down to the kitchen to plan our own al, since the cook was off work for a family day. It would be far more complicated than Emilia’s.
“What are you thinking of?”
“I’m not sure, just not anything too heavy,” I said, looking through the fridge and discarding choices.
“So, steak’s out?” Elio asked.
“I can grill one for you and grill a piece of chicken for . I suppose you’ll want a baked potato too?” I asked, smiling up at him.
“Mashed potatoes?” he asked.
“How are you Italian?” I teased, pulling out the ingredients for mashed potatoes and the salad I wanted to slice my grilled chicken over.
He shrugged and gave that lopsided grin that had endeared him to long before it was appropriate for to want him.
“ man, you woman,” he said in his best impression of a caveman.
I chuckled, “That’s what you think,” I said, putting potatoes on to boil, and the chicken on the built-in grill. The chicken would take longer to cook, so while I put my salad together, I’d let it grill a little longer than the steak.
As I put a drink in front of Elio while I prepared our al, the phone rang.
“It’s Franky. I have to take this.”
“No worries,” I reassured him.
“What’s up?” Elio asked.
He was quiet for a mont, but I watched his face. His eyes turned to dark shards of ice. His jaw tensed. His lips thinned in anger. As he listened, he seed to grow tenser by the second.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
He listened so more and his teeth clenched. I could swear I heard his teeth audibly grinding together.
“I’ll et you and Leo at the warehouse in fifteen,” Elio all but growled.
Elio looked pissed. I waited for him to tell what was going on.
I turned off the stove and built-in grill and started putting away our half-cooked al. I had a feeling this was going to be really bad.
“We were hit by MS13 tonight. Frankie says four of our n were killed and three are in pretty bad condition, but they’re being treated by our personal physicians.”
I looked at his grim expression. I didn’t want him handling this alone. I could help and I was determined to.
“Wait,” I said as he turned to go upstairs for his keys and stuff.
“I don’t have ti, Cat.”
“I know, but I want to go with you.”
Despite his admonishnt a mont ago, he stared at as if he didn’t know what to think or say. I waited for the verdict. I wouldn’t push this. It had to be his choice.
He nodded. “Fine. Be ready in five minutes.”
I called Mom before he could change his mind and raced up the stairs to slip into slacks and a nicer blouse. I was the Don’s woman. I had to look the part because perception was everything.
I was ready in four minutes and had slipped my piece into a front-loading waist holster in the front of my slacks, and put my phone and wallet into my jacket pockets. I did not carry a purse to this type of outing.
“Locked and loaded?” Elio asked, passing by to head out to the garage.
He got into the black SUV nearest the second bay of doors.
I nodded and saw Mom running into the house from the back before following him into the garage.
“Emilia taken care of?” he asked.
“Yeah, Mom just ca through the door right before I left out this one.
“Good,” he said, and raced out the garage as soon as its door lifted.
On the way to the warehouse, a feeling of rightness fell over . This was the way things were supposed to be with Elio and .
Elio’s protective nature had always been strong, but before I beca pregnant and gave birth to our daughter, it wasn’t as strong within him as it was now. Granted, a lot had happened and I’m sure that had a lot to do with Elio’s insistence that I be protected, but I wasn’t fragile or stupid. I knew how to take care of myself and could protect myself, he’d seen to it.
Now, it felt like we were on the sa page again. We were a couple. We were real partners.
I loved my life with Emilia. I loved her with all my heart, but listening to Anna talk about school made realize that I wasn’t just a mother, and I didn’t want to be just a mother either. A part of felt guilty about that. I often wondered if there must be sothing wrong with that I didn’t just want to be a housewife and mother.
There was nothing wrong with being a homaker. It was the most valued position in the world. Children were precious, and caring for them was paramount. I respected won who chose to be full-ti homakers, and I actually thought them rather brave because it was so hard to say that what was you were in today’s society. I couldn’t say it’s what I wanted for myself, though.
I was glad that Elio was a good man and would allow to do more than what a lot of n in our culture thought of as won’s work. Yes, the majority of the childcare and dealing with the household staff still fell to , but he was willing to let in on his business dealings and was even trusting tonight to co along to a eting concerning their n and what they were going to do about Ignacio and MS13’s hit on our n.
He wasn’t going to hold back from going back to school when I was ready and trying to pursue a career outside our ho.
While I felt like Elio and I would more than likely butt heads over protection, I didn’t think he’d ever try to hold back from pursuing my dreams. To him, won weren’t just to be married off and have children.
It was a philosophy many of the n in mafia life believed. Won should be left out of the loop. We shouldn’t be pulled into their dangerous lives. We should be homakers and deal with the children. Children were only brought before their fathers for discipline or to be shown off to guests, especially if they were girls.
I knew that with Elio, it would be different. If we ever have a boy child, I thought he’d be ecstatic to have soone to carry on as the head of the family, but he wouldn’t treat Emilia any better or worse for being a girl.
Yes, our lives would be better for Elio’s willingness to see as more than one-dinsional and to allow to be a part of his life on all fronts. Tonight, he was allowing to be his rock and his equal.
This felt right.
This felt like a new beginning that would make our relationship stronger and solidify our partnership as friends, lovers, and a power couple.
Reviews
All reviews (0)