“STOP BEING NERVOUS,” she chides as she fusses with my sweater. “She wouldn’t have given me her address if she didn’t think we’d be coming over.”
“Are you micromanaging my feelings right now?”
Her grin is sheepish. “Only a little.”
Shaking my head at her, I mock, “Reassuring. If you’re micromanaging, you’re nervous too—”
Before I can finish that sentence and she can choose a rebuttal, the elevator doors to my sister’s apartment open.
I can tell she’s as surprised as I am because, not only does she startle enough to jostle the baby in her arms, she stops fussing with her daughter’s cowlick and stares at me with wide eyes.
For a moment, both of us just study one another.
It’s weird because there’s nothing masculine about her at all and yet, I can see myself in her—it’s as if I put one of those social media filters over my face that predicts what I’d look like as a chick.
Aside from that, I can see why Gracie once called her prissy. She’s immaculate. Her makeup, her hair—it’s like she just came off a movie set.
Someone clears their throat.
My gaze skitters toward the source and I find a man standing there. I already know from Gracie’s pep talk on the way over here that this is Jennifer’s husband and the father of her two daughters—Luciu Valentini.
“Welcome to our home,” he says simply once he realizes my attention is on him.
“Thank you,” Gracie replies in my stead, tugging on my sleeve to drag me out of the elevator.
The kid in Jennifer’s arms starts playing with her hair but that doesn’t jerk her attention away from me. If anything, it makes it all the more apparent that I’m right at the center of her focus.
“Hi.”
She swallows. “Hello.”
Luciu mutters something that sounds like, “… you well, bedda mia?”
Her gaze darts off him and onto me before she takes a hesitant step closer. “I wish I’d known that I had a baby brother. It might have made things easier when I was growing up.”
“You had it tough?” I ask gruffly.
Her nod is slow.
“I’m sorry. I wish I’d been there to kick the ass of whoever needed it.”
“It made me a survivor, and now I have Luciu for that.” She licks her lips. “I still need a baby brother, though.”
I never expected her to say that.
It makes me scuff a hand over my jaw as I mumble, “I need an older sister too.” This might be premature but I’m going with my gut. “You know, to be my best man?”
A grin peeps through her shock. Man, that’s Paddy’s smile through and through. This shit is fucking weird.
“You’re getting married?” she demands.
“I am.”
“And you’d want me to be your best man?”
Kow’s the only other person I’d have asked and though he’ll be offended, I figure he’s yet to apologize to me for being a douche, and if he takes over those duties, one of us will end up in the hospital. Not just because his idea of a bachelor party will probably put us in jail…
Gracie will definitely kill me if that happens.
“Yeah. I like to do things the nontraditional way.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Gracie chimes in. “He’s as traditional as they come.”
Jennifer shoots a look at her husband. “Can’t be worse than Luciu.” As he snorts, she murmurs, “I’d love to be your best man.”
“Saverina could be a flower girl if you want?” Gracie tacks on before she nudges me with her elbow again. “Introduce yourself, Liam.”
“They’re babies,” I mutter. “How do you introduce yourself to babies?”
Jennifer’s smile is rueful as she shifts the one in her arms onto her hip. “Saverina, this is Uncle Liam.”
Her eyes turn big and wide as they settle on me. Then, louder than the commentators at a game, she screeches, “Unka Lee-Lee.”
Gracie bursts out laughing while I let loose a wry chuckle.
Luciu snickers. “You’re in luck—Bella doesn’t talk yet.”
“Be thankful for small mercies, eh?” I drawl sheepishly, even as I stroll closer to my nieces and stroke Saverina’s cheek with one hand and allow Bella to gnaw on the other.
Those baby teeth, man, they fucking sting.
This close to Jennifer, it’s weird to see even more of my father in her features. I find myself tracking them—the slant to her nose, the shape of her eyes. How her mouth quirks into a grin as Saverina practically throws herself at a startled Gracie, somehow knowing she’d be open to catching her.
“So, we came over to invite you to a family meal we’re holding today,” Gracie says primly even as Saverina, who’s fascinated with the blue tips in her hair, starts yanking on them like the color will slide off with enough force.
As Jennifer and Luciu share another look before they both nod, that’s probably when it hits me—Gracie and me… we’re not alone anymore.
We never will be again.
