Page 64 of A Treasure To Keep
Giovanni turns around, and almost immediately, El rears her fist back. When her body lurches forward, her body stops. Enzo wraps his hand around El’s fist, keeping her in place. He shakes his head when El turns to him, letting her know it’s a bad idea to punch Giovanni.
El yanks her hand out of Enzo’s grasp, turning away from us and strutting off back to where Luci stands. Luci places her hand on El’s arm, confirming that she’s okay. Once I see El’s head nod, my shoulders relax. At least she didn’t let the glitch known as Giovanni’s appearance ruin her day.
I subtly turn my head to Enzo, taking the opportunity to thank Enzo while El is distracted. “Thank you. That man is a lowlife piece of shit. He thrives on getting negative emotions out of El.”
“I can tell. She doesn’t deserve that. You’re a lucky man to have El as your woman.”
“You think I don’t know that? I’ve known that since the day I met her.”
The rest of the shopping trip goes by, thankfully uneventful. El seems to have shaken off her encounter with Giovanni by the time we are done. I occasionally catch Enzo glancing around the rest of the store. Normally, I’d say it’s Enzo doing his duty, watching for any potential danger that may come Luci’s way. Except something about how he’s acting after Giovanni’s visit makes it appear that he’s watching out for him. Watching out for El and our son.
I’m scanning through the registry El put together. It’s as lavish and long as I assumed it would be. And this doesn’t include the massive amounts of items she’s purchased already or has been gifted to us. The worst thing our boss did was put an infant and children section in last year at the store. That’s where she’s spent most of her employee discount lately.
Hours after arriving, El practically skips over to me after Luci pays for her items and grabs both of my hands. She always has this demeanor after a good shopping spree. Happy? Content? Shopping drunk? All three? Regardless, her bright eyes and smile show that Giovanni’s visit didn’t ruin her day.
“Are you ready to go home?”
“Only if I can have chips and salsa?”
“Of course. Not the extra spicy kind. It gives you heartburn.” Her nose wrinkles when I kiss it, reminding her of what happened a few days ago. I’d hate to see her in that much pain again.
“In my defense, I didn’t have heartburn this entire pregnancy until then.”
We walk out of the store, hand in hand. I make sure to open the door, waiting until she’s comfortable in the driver's seat before shutting the door.
As I circle the car around to the passenger seat, my pocket vibrates, and an unknown number appears on the screen. By what it says, I can only assume it’s Enzo.
Unknown:
Remember, cherish her. You two deserve each other.
Me:
Always have and always will.
Chapter 70
Marco
After months of yelling, stubbornness, and amendments on my side, we have an agreement drawn up. At least a draft that we can somewhat agree on. Ultimately, I’ll be at El’s beck and call until our son is eighteen. I bet she’ll get off on that.
The only thing I managed to keep was that my son gets my last name. We can’t forget about how we compromised by hyphenating the last name with Andrea’s, since El will take his last name when they get married. This agreement also ensures that I’m on my son's birth certificate. I don’t believe El has enough hate for me in her soul for me to put Andrea’s name down, but it gives me a security blanket.
I couldn’t get any guarantee that I’d be able to support her in the room while she’s in labor. Something about it not being legal to force El to allow me in the room while she’s pushing a human out of her body. I guess that sounds fair. Her main reasoning is that she wants a limited number of people in the delivery room. No distractions while her son is ripping his way out of her body. Her words, not mine. And in her opinion, all I would be is adistraction. If I’m not in the room, I got word from Andrea that he will tell me when El goes into labor and when our son is born. Out of the three of us, Andrea has done the best job of staying neutral.
The one thing that’s up in the air is actual custody. That had to wait until after the baby is born. At least it should wait. El plans on breastfeeding, meaning it’s hard unless she pumps enough for me to take my son alone. Until then, I’ll ask every day if I can come over and help care for him. Especially since Andrea isn’t able to take much time off. All I need is Wi-Fi and a computer to do most of my job. El doesn’t know it yet, but we will become best friends once our kid is born.
I’m going through the small print of our agreement when a knock appears on my office door, revealing Alessandro in the doorway.
“What’s up, man?”
“Luci has everything set up for El’s baby shower. If you don’t want to be here, this is a good time to head out. I don’t think I can be gone all day, but if you’re willing to drive separately, we could go somewhere.”
“Aw! Like a date? I can’t remember the last time we had one. I thought you weren’t interested in me anymore.” He shakes me off when I run up to him, wrapping him in my large arms. Ever since we were kids, I knew exactly how to push his buttons. Whether he’ll admit it or not, he hates that he loves me.
“I was going to see if you wanted to go axe-throwing. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s a bad idea. The axe could slip directly into your left kidney.”
“No way. That sounds awesome. Let’s do it. I’ll race you outside!” I race past Alessandro, jumping to kick my heels together when I exit the room.