I sigh contentedly. “Let’s just start over, baby. One day at a time.”
“I would like that very much,” he replies in a raw voice, choked with emotion.
We sit quietly for a few minutes. I need to gather my nerve to ask him the one question I need answered.
“Tomas?”
“Yes?”
I swallow in my throat. “Are you happy about the baby?”
I sense his head turning into me, his hot breath on my ear. “I can’t wait to meet our baby, darling. Does that help?”
Shifting toward him, I place my lips over his and kiss him ever so softly, just enough so he knows I never stopped loving him or wanting him. “More than you know.”
I lean my head back into the crook of his shoulder as his arm holds me tighter, savoring this quiet moment together while watching New Yorkers rush by going about their daily lives, the sounds of the city forming a cacophony around us. But we sit quietly together in our cocoon, reveling in the feel of each other, finally together, ready to start anew.
* * * Tomas
Tribeca
Two weeks later
Calm. Remain calm. Just breathe.
I couldn’t wait another day to do this. Luciana and I have talked every day since I saw her in Union Square, and I’ve gone with her to meet her doctor, who is very nice and friendly, which I like. And I probably came at the wrong time, judging by the look on Luciana’s father’s face when he opens the door.
“Tomas,” he sighs, “you’ve lived in New York City long enough to know that New Yorkers call ahead before they stop by someone’s home. We’re about to sit down to dinner.”
Shit. This is not starting out well.
“I apologize, sir. I promise to keep this short. I just need to see Luciana.”
He gives me another pointed look and exhales. “Fine. Come with me.”
I follow Mr. Gibbons to their dining area where Luciana is sitting at the table with her mother. She instantly jumps up from the table, rushes to me, and kisses me softly on the lips.
“Hi, baby. What’s going on?” she asks. I know she’s nervous because her eyebrows are narrowed and her hands hold tightly onto my forearms.
“May I speak to you privately?”
“Of course.”
She takes me by the hand and leads me to her room, shutting the door behind her.
“Please sit,” I ask of her, pointing to the bed.
Her lovely blue eyes look me over, trying to figure out what’s going on. “Okay,” she replies suspiciously.
She does as I ask. I move closer to her, looking her directly in the eyes.
“Luciana, I want you to know again how sorry I am for how I left you like that…”
She tilts her head at me curiously. “Tomas, it’s all right. We’re past that now.”
“And I know we’ve had our ups and downs.” I gesture with my hand resembling the thing that I don’t know the name of in English.
She laughs and smiles. “A roller coaster.”
“Yes, it’s been a roller coaster for us. But honestly, I think I would’ve been bored with anyone else. You have brought much joy to my life, and I know that you’re the one I want to be with always.”
I slowly lower myself to the floor, leaving one knee upright. I hear her gasp as I pull the ring box from my jacket pocket, the one my mother gave me.
Her hands are closed over her mouth, and tears are falling down her face. She’s never looked more beautiful.
“Oh my God,” I hear her say muffled by her hands.
“I love you, Luciana. Will you marry me?” I propose to her, not taking my eyes from her face.
“Yes!” she shouts, sinking to the floor to grab me, kissing me again and again.
She holds me closely to her. I can feel her luscious curves shaking in my grip as tears of my own escape my eyes. “Thank fucking God,” I hear her mumble into my neck, and I burst out laughing. I love my Luciana so much. My Luciana with the dirty mouth.
I laugh to myself because she just echoed my own thoughts. “I know. Finally. I’m so happy, darling.”
“Me too. Now, you need to do something for me.”
“Anything.”
“You have to ask my father for my hand in marriage.”
Shit.
I gulp nervously. “Oh, yes, I forgot that part.”
I rise to my feet first, helping my fiancée and future mother of my child to hers. She takes my hand once more to lead me back to the dining area. “Daddy!” she calls out.
I hear him growl in reply. “What? I’m eating.”
“Tomas has a question for you.”
We reach the table, where Mr. Gibbons looks me over with narrowed eyes. “Does he now?”
She pats me on the back. “Good luck, Prague Boy.”
I watch as she sits back down at her place at the table, glancing back at me and giving me a quick wink and smile.
I love that fucking woman.
Oh my God, I caught it. And I love it.
CHAPTER SIX
Northern Italy
Present day
I’d never been so nervous in my life than that moment,” Tomas admits.
“Hey, you needed a little torture after what you put me through, ditching me like that,” I counter.
“What’s that American expression? I was ‘shitting blocks.’”
I laugh quietly under my breath, turning around to make sure Marika and Mimi were still asleep. “Shitting bricks.”
“Ano. Shitting bricks. I could say the same about the day the girls were born.”
I sigh. “Oh yeah. That day, I could’ve shit an entire apartment building.”
* * * Lucy
Lenox Hill Hospital
New York, NY
Maternity Ward
Five years ago
“Oh my God!”
“Luciana…”
“Are you fucking kidding me with this?”
“Please, darling…”
“You are not touching me EVER AGAIN! And if you come near me with another ice chip, I’ll shove it up your ass!”
They weren’t kidding. Giving birth to a child really does feel like you’re pushing a watermelon out of your vagina. And it’s not just one baby. I’m in labor with two babies. TWO. I’m really paying for something I’ve done in a past life, like maybe being one of the people who contributed to lighting Joan of Arc’s pyre.
When my ob/gyn first detected the two heartbeats during one of my ultrasounds, Tomas and I started crying from the happy news. The sounds of them were so strong, beating almost in tandem, and we joked saying we knew they were our kids since they seemed so in tempo and Tomas and I were opera singers. But then we left the appointment, and that’s when the panic set in. Two kids. At once. We barely said a word to each other on the way back to my house. We were in total shock. But then we told my parents, and they were over the moon for us, so excited at the prospect of two grandkids at the same time. They started saying how they’d help out any way they could with babysitting, midnight feedings, all of it. Hearing all that calmed us down, knowing that we weren’t on our own.
Finally, the contraction is subsiding. I’ve got needles poking me everywhere and two fetal monitors sitting on my belly like some giant seat belts with the extensions. I look hideous.
But God bless Tomas. Despite the perspiration on my face and clamping onto his hand with a death-like grip, he keeps reassuring me that I look beautiful, telling me how much he loves me. And hearing him say all that in his smooth Czech accent doesn’t hurt either.