FULL NOVELXO Chapter 25
The day that Valentino comes to take me and baby Ava home, I’m in a spiral of joy and despair. I know the conversation is coming, but when I see him pull up to my parents’ house, I turn to look at him.
‘I thought you were taking me home with you?’ I ask him.
‘This is where you feel safe, right? I don’t want to keep you and the baby at the beach house because if you need something or Frankie or Cecilia has to get to you, that’s a pain in the ass. I just want to make your life easier, Lia.’ His smile is faint as he glances over his shoulder at the baby’s car seat. ‘I want to make our lives easier.’
Valentino gets out of the car and grabs every bag possible, and the baby, of course. He’s such a dad, and it’s the sweetest thing in the world to see. He’s even made matching bracelets for me and Ava. So sweet and a bit possessive, as they both say Barrone Baby on them. There are so many sides to him, and I hate that I boxed him into the version I met. We didn’t have enough time together before I fled, but I’m happy to be home.
A part of me wishes that when I open the door, my parents are going to be on the other side of it, but somehow, I doubt that I’ll ever see them in New York again, unless Saul Caputo’s locked up. Shit.
‘Val?’ I ask him as I unlock the door and step inside. The shock of the transformation makes me forget everything I’m about to say.
The last time I was here, the place was cleared out. Now, the pictures of my childhood are back on the walls with new furniture and every inch of space cleaned. New pictures are hanging from the photographer at the hospital, some of when Frankie came to visit me in Pilsner, and one of Valentino and I deeply in love staring at Ava.
Tears fall from my eyes as Valentino takes me through the refurbished home. The nursery is a soft cream color with yellows, blues, and pinks scattered throughout. There’s a state-of-the-art bassinet crib thing that rocks itself up and down, side to side, in motions like the baby is in a moving vehicle.
Everything a new mom can wish for is here. It actually looks like my entire wish list off my baby registry.
‘Frankie put this all together,’ Val says as he begins to put bags down. ‘When your parents get back, we can figure out the living situation then. I can put them up somewhere or you can move or stay. Whatever you need, Lia.’
Ava makes a noise, but when we look, she’s still sleeping. We put her in her fancy new crib and step outside of the nursery.
‘I’m sorry,’ we both blurt out at the same time.
Valentino takes my face into his hands. ‘I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I’ve been in a lot of pain. That’s not fair to dump my shit all over you and expect you to handle it. A lot of the stuff I’ve been using pain to get over has very little to do with you. Meeting you is just forcing me to confront it so it doesn’t become a problem for us later.’
‘Yeah, because I don’t want to wake up to see Twyla in here breaking your bones. Was that really a thing, Val?’
He sighs, lowering his eyes. ‘Yeah. Hera showing up showed me I wanted the physical pain to match the emotional shit, but I’m working through that. I didn’t mean to blow up at you at the hospital. I’m sorry for that.’
‘Enough apologizing from you. It’s my turn. I was scared shitless that someone could just show up and love me. My parents, I think they only know how to be there for each other. That’s fine when you don’t have a kid to raise. It made me not trust you even though you are the only man to show up for me, wallet and all.’
‘My ego is what kept my wallet in this,’ he jokes and I shove him playfully.
‘Val, I’m scared to let you love me and then have some bullshit happen like my parents offering me up as a fucking virgin sacrifice.’
‘You’ll be happy to know that once you belong to me, Lia, you’re mine forever. I’ll never offer you up, give you away, or walk out on you. I’ll never leave even when you push me out. I’m going to show up for you every day, you and Ava, no matter what. I have something I want to ask you.’
My heart flutters, skipping a beat, wondering what he has in mind. I swallow. ‘What’s that?’
‘Will you do me the honor of giving me your phone number?’ he deadpans.
I burst out into laughter before hurling fists at his chest. ‘You fucking jerk. You made me nervous.’
‘Lia, I said I wanted you to trust me and give me time to show you the kind of man that deserves you. What kind of asshole would I be if I just said ‘hey marry me, right now’? You just had our baby and I want us both to be in a better place to accept love and everything that comes with it. I will say that I love you. You don’t have to say it back, but I just want you to know.’
‘I love you, too, Valentino. I don’t want anyone else to love me the way you do, and I don’t want to be in love with anyone else. I want you and just you.’
He kisses me.
Valentino Barrone’s soft lips press against mine before slipping his tongue into my mouth. The slight pressure of it against mine ignites passion inside of me that I remember vividly. I have to push him away.
‘The doc said like six weeks. Besides, I have to get images of you and fucking Twyla out of my head.’
Valentino jerks his head back in disgust. ‘We weren’t sexually intimate, Lia. It was nothing like what you do to me. She used a lead pipe the first two times to fracture my hand. And a bat the last time to fracture my arm. I promise it was all released, like a rage room. What I have with you is something I’ll never do and will never have with anyone else. I need you to understand that.’
I take his face into my hand, pulling him closer to me. ‘I get it, Val, I do.’
‘So, four to six weeks then, right?’ he asks, shifting the mood back to our sex life.
I tip my head up and down, pushing onto my tip toes for a kiss. We move through the house, getting comfortable. Val orders food and we sit up for hours, talking and tending to Ava. When night falls, I ask Val to stay, and for the first time in eight months; I sleep beside the man I love with our beautiful daughter under the same roof.