Chapter 32 The Announcement

Nico

After we cleaned up and dressed again, it was time to go pick Grace up from her grandparents' house. Marco, our driver, came back to pick us up for the relatively short trip. Allie and I sat in the back of the SUV and snuggled on the drive over, both of us taking the opportunity to scroll through our phones to read the numerous text messages we'd received. Most of them were questions regarding the video I posted, specifically the marriage and babies comments I'd made.

"Since our families and friends are dying of curiosity, why don't we see if everyone is available to come over Saturday. We can grill some burgers or something simple, and then tell them all together," Allie suggested.

"Do you think they will be able to wait two whole days?" I asked, knowing how pushy our loved ones could be.

"We can just tell them we are still talking things out and focusing on the move for now. That should stall them. I'll need to hide my ring though. If my parents see it, they will definitely notice. Well, Mom will anyway. Dad will probably be clueless."

"Uh, no, he knows it's coming. I asked him for his blessing the other day."

Her mouth gaped open, and her eyes widened in surprise. "You did?"

I smiled at her. "Of course, I wanted to do things right. That's part of the reason I was so fucking stunned when he pulled that angry-dad routine in the driveway. He'd just given me his blessing, then acted like he wanted to rip my lips off for daring to kiss you."

She giggled. "I still wish we'd thought to get that on video."

"Shit, I'm glad you didn't. I'll never live it down the way it is. If it was on video, you guys would play it every chance you got."

She laughed and nodded. "Yep, we definitely would. OK, so Saturday at 6:00? I'll text my people, you text yours."

We spent the next two days packing up more shit at Allie's house, then schlepping it over to our place. Gracie wanted to help us, mainly because she was convinced we would forget something precious of hers. By the time we got her down to sleep each evening, I'd been dying to get my hands on Allie. I had no idea how fucking amazing it would be to go to sleep with her in my arms every night and wake up to her snuggled up to me the next morning. She'd been worried that Gracie would have trouble with the move and the changes in our relationship, but the kiddo had taken it all in stride.

She'd woken us this morning by poking my shoulder and giggling. I'd come awake with a start, dislodging Allie from where her head laid on my chest.

"Shi...shoot princess," I stuttered out. I really ought to try to clean up my language now that she was around full-time.

"I'm hungwy, Uncle Nico. Is it time for bweakfast?"

"Uh, I'm not sure. Hang on," I said, reaching for my phone on the bedside table. I focused my bleary eyes enough to see that it said 6:14. Fucking hell. It was 6:14 on a Saturday morning. "It's a little early. Are you sure you aren't tired still?"

She shook her head, her soft blond curls flying everywhere. "Nope."

Allie stirred enough to say "Grace, it's too early. Go back to your room and we'll get up in a little while, OK?"

Gracie pouted, and her lower lip trembled a tiny bit. "Hey, princess, what's wrong?" I shifted to pull her in for a hug, and she scrambled onto the bed. I barely avoided a bony knee to the crotch. That would have been one hell of a wakeup call. I was suddenly extremely glad that Allie had reminded me to put on a pair of boxers after we'd made love last night.

"Can I stay in here with you guys? It's lonely in my room."

My heart melted. "Of course you can, princess. Here, let me scoot over a little and you can lay down between your Mommy and me."

"Just remember that morning snuggles are fine, but at night you sleep in your own room, Gracie-girl," Allie said with a kiss to her temple. At my questioning look, she explained, "We struggled with that a few months back. Morning snuggles turned into middle-of-the-night snuggles and then bedtime snuggles. I had to put my foot down before I ended up with a permanent bedmate."

"Got it," I responded. "Now you have a different permanent bedmate."

She smiled, and we all settled in quietly. Within a few minutes, Gracie's soft breathing and lack of chattering indicated she actually was still tired. It didn't take long for me to fall back to sleep either. When I awoke a couple of hours later, Allie was gone, and Gracie was starfished in the middle of our bed. I'd been relegated to the side of the bed, so close to the edge that my ass was half-hanging off. I carefully slid out of bed and padded into the walk-in closet to grab a pair of sleep pants.

I left Gracie sleeping and went off in search of my woman. I found her sitting at the kitchen nook reading her Kindle, a mug of tea in front of her. This morning's mug said, "Great sex is like a Brazilian wax...your hair gets pulled and your coochie hurts afterward."

I barked out a laugh, startling Allie. "I think we should test out that theory," I said, pointing to her mug. She looked at it and flashed me a naughty grin.

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed, lifting her face for a quick kiss as I leaned toward her. "Where's the kiddo?"

"Sprawled out in the middle of our bed sound asleep, as of three minutes ago at least. I'd almost fallen out of bed by the time I woke up."

She laughed. "Yep, that's actually why I got up. She smacked me in the back of the head and then dug her pointy little toes under my thigh, so I finally gave up before I sustained serious injury."

"If you have bruises on your thigh, I'd be more than happy to kiss them and make them all better," I said with an exaggerated leer. I ran my hand up her bare leg, to the edge of the lacy panties she was wearing under her sleep shirt. I braced one hand on the back of her chair as I leaned in a bit more to nibble on her neck, kissing my way up to her lips to give her a proper good morning kiss.

It quickly turned heated, and I bent to scoop her out of her chair to set her on top of the table. That was a much better height for what I had in mind. Allie draped her arms across my shoulders, sliding one hand through my hair as I deepened the kiss. I skimmed my hand up under her sleep shirt, trailing over the soft warm skin of her stomach before reaching up to cup her tit. I groaned when I touched bare skin. She wasn't wearing a fucking bra.

I pulled her shirt up and tucked it under her arms, ducking my head to wrap my lips around one hard nipple while my fingers gently tugged on the other. Allie gasped and arched her back, giving me better access to two of my very favorite things in this world.

"I really like starting the day like this, Sunshine."

"Uh-huh," she said breathlessly, her fingers tangling in my hair to hold me closer to her tits. Her nipples were so fucking sensitive, she couldn't get enough. That was a good thing, since I could happily die with my face buried between them. Or even better, my cock buried between them. I still had that fantasy from the pool to recreate. I groaned at the thought and sucked harder on her nipple before switching to the other one. I don't want it to feel neglected, after all.

"That feels sooo good," Allie moaned, running her hands down my back now and back up under my arms to my bare chest. She rubbed her hands over my own hard nipples, and I moaned at the contact. She stopped and tweaked them, tugging on them lightly, then flicking them gently with her fingernail. My hips jerked forward, and I groaned loudly, probably too loudly given the fact that Gracie could wake up at any minute. Oh shit, Gracie!

I reluctantly removed my hands and mouth from my favorite toys and lowered her shirt, absently noting the saying on the front, "I may rise, but I refuse to shine". Allie made a sound of protest as I stilled her hands on my chest.

"We need to stop while we still can, sweetheart. Gracie could come down at any minute and I don't want her to see anything she shouldn't."

"Ugh, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. You distracted me with all of this," she complained, circling her hand in a vague circular motion toward my body.

I waggled my eyebrows at her. "You like my bare chest, huh?"

She laughed and smacked my ass as she hopped off the table, crossing over to the pantry. "I like your bare everything," she said with a smirk. She came out a couple of seconds later with a bottle of spray cleaner and grabbed some paper towels off the roll by the sink. At my questioning look, she motioned toward the table.

"I need to wipe this off really quick. We're not eating with my butt print right there."

I snorted. "It's not like it was your bare ass, Sunshine. Which reminds me, thank you for not putting on a bra under that shirt this morning. That's a definite improvement over those mornings I stayed over at your old place. Of course, if you'd run around braless then, I would have made a move a hell of a lot sooner."

"Oh yeah?" she said with a smile, arching a brow at me.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself. Probably would have thrown you down in the middle of the kitchen floor and fucked your brains out."

"Mommy, I'm up!" I heard yelled from upstairs, just before the sound of tiny feet on the stairs. How the hell does she do that? They must teach Cock-Blocking 101 at that preschool of hers.

Gracie ran into the kitchen, and I took a seat at the table to hide the erection trying to fight its way out of my sleep pants. She grabbed her mommy's waist and hugged her, as Allie bent to kiss her on the forehead. They discussed breakfast options, and we ate and cleaned up quickly. There was apparently a lot to do before our guests arrived this evening, according to the boss anyway.

"OK, Nico, you're in charge of cleaning the grill and pool areas. If you can get the hamburger patties ready, too, that will help," she directed me.

"Anything for you, love," I answered with a grin and a kiss to her cheek. As I headed back upstairs to change into an old pair of shorts, I heard her giving Gracie her orders for the day, which apparently included picking up anything left out in her bedroom and being a good girl for her Mommy while she cooked.

The day flew by, with Allie spending most of it in the kitchen. I had helped as much as I could with my limited cooking skills. I was damned good at chopping though and could manage a pretty good clean-up as we worked. By the time late afternoon rolled around, Allie had prepared numerous side dishes to go with the burgers and Italian sausages that I would be grilling, along with a double batch of her chocolate chip cookies. Both of our mothers were bringing things too, and my Nonna was making her cannoli. Allie jumped in the shower as soon as I finished mine. Once I was dressed, I helped Gracie get ready, overseeing her bath and making sure she put on the clothes that Allie had laid out for her. I dried her hair, which I had done a few times in the past, and then she decided she wanted pigtails. I could do ponytails with no problem, often pulling my own hair back if I went too long between haircuts, so I figured pigtails wouldn't be a big deal. I was wrong.

"I don't think they're s'posed to look like that, Uncle Nico," Gracie said, looking at herself critically in the mirror. One pigtail was high up on the side of her head, the other resting on the top of her ear.

"No, no they are not, princess. I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be even, so let me try again."

My second attempt got them even in height, both high up on the side of her head. Unfortunately, I was so focused on the height that I didn't realize one was above her ear and the other halfway back on her head. Gracie didn't bother commenting on that one, she just gave me a very judgmental look and shook her head.

"I'm clearly going to need more practice with this. We need to either get Mommy to help us, or I can do a ponytail and you can wear your princess crown today." She chose the crown, so with that crisis averted, we made our way back downstairs.

"I think your Mommy is still getting ready, so why don't you help me get the tables ready?" We were eating poolside, and I had wiped down all of the tables and chairs earlier.

Our guests started arriving a little before 6:00, and soon the house was filled with Allie's parents, Scott, Emma and their baby boy, Hannah, Dean, Aunt Ellen, and James, plus my parents, Becca and Nonna, and all the guys from the band. Josh had brought Becca's friend Min, who he'd been dating since they met at Becca's party. Lana arrived with Michael and his wife Jayne.

My dad and Steve fired up the grill. Even though it was my house, those two were the self-designated Grill Masters at most family gatherings. Allie and I had agreed that we would make the announcement once everyone arrived, so I grabbed her hand and walked out to the middle of the patio. Allie surreptitiously fished her ring out of the pocket of her shorts and slid it on her finger, and I called for everyone's attention. I could see the excitement and anticipation on their faces. They all had a good idea what was coming.

"You all know that Allie is the love of my life, and we've made it official. We're getting married!"

There were cheers and shouts of joy, and somebody - Tony I think - yelled "It's about damn time!"

Our parents swarmed us, my dad getting to Allie first. He swept her up into a big bear hug, swinging her around for a second as she laughed and clung to him for dear life. He gave her a big smacking kiss and set her back on her feet, before turning to give me a big hug as well.

"I'm so fucking happy for you both, son!" he said, smacking my cheek lightly. Yeah, I got my foul mouth from him. "You did good, kid."

My mom and Colleen were huddled with Allie as they all looked at her ring and cried. Steve clasped my hand, and we did the one-armed man-hug thing. He smiled and welcomed me to the family, before reminding me with a mock frown that Allie had better be sleeping in her own room until we actually tie the knot. I laughed and then bent to hug my Nonna, who was beaming ear-to-ear.

"Your Nonno would have been so damned proud of you, Nico. He would have loved your Allie, and Gracie would have wrapped him around her little finger. I'm happy for you. Thank you for bringing those two angels into our lives."

At the sight of the tears in her eyes, I felt my own well up a little. I gave her another big hug and kissed her cheek. "I love you, Nonna, and I can only hope that Allie and I are half as happy as you and Nonno always were."

With a final squeeze, she released me and stepped back. Before she walked away, she wagged her finger in my face and said "Whatever you do, don't screw this up. If you do, fall to your knees and apologize and don't do it again."

Once everyone had congratulated us and exclaimed over the ring, it was time to eat. Our parents, Aunt Ellen and Nonna were sitting huddled together at a nearby table, planning the wedding if I had to guess. Everyone else was spread amongst the other tables, leaving Allie, Gracie, and me to have a table to ourselves. We had told Gracie about our engagement the night before, and she'd taken it in stride. She was excited about the wedding, mainly because she wanted to "wear a princess dress and be the flower girl." I hadn't said anything to Allie yet about adopting Gracie, but I knew I would work up the nerve soon.

I had music playing on the outdoor speakers, and Gracie was bobbing her head in time to the beat while she ate her cheeseburger. Once we all finished eating and desserts were brought out, we all mingled and nibbled our way through the goodies. By this point, Matt, Tony,Josh, and James had joined us, and Gracie was dancing around next to the table. Her ears perked up when a familiar song started to play. I'd been trying to teach her the words to Stairway to Heaven, which had been one of Alex's favorite songs. It was one of mine, too. As with most songs, Gracie tended to sing what she heard, not matter how many times we tried to tell her the correct words.

"There's a lady who's short, all the chickens are cold, and she's high on a stairway to heaven," she belted out in perfect time along with Robert Plant. Matt's jaw fell open, Tony snorted, Josh chuckled, and James choked on his beer as they heard Gracie's version. She continued on, humming along in parts she didn't know, and making up her own lyrics for most of the rest. She grinned at their reactions, thrilled to be the center of attention.

We were all laughing and cheering her on, and Tony piped up "I can't wait to hear what she does about the 'bustle in hedgerow' line."

"There's a muscle in your head, yo," I deadpanned.

Matt, Josh, and Tony howled, and James almost fell out of his chair laughing. Luckily, Tony grabbed his arm and steadied him at the last moment. Allie and I grinned at each other and shared a look. We'd had the same reaction the first time we heard her sing it, too.

By the time the song ended, Gracie had stopped dancing and was just spinning instead. After a few moments, she clutched her stomach and whined, "I'd better stop or I'm gonna fwow up."

"I'm going to throw up," I corrected gently.

"You're gonna fwow up, too?" she asked, seeming more excited by the prospect than I thought she really should be. "Why you gonna fwow up? Are you sick?" She called out to Allie, who was now talking with Nonna a few feet away, "Mommy, Uncle Nico's sick. He's gonna fwow up!"

Allie stopped talking and turned around, looking at me with concern. She walked over to us and reached up to touch the back of her hand to my forehead. "You don't seem hot," she said, looking me over closely for signs of this sudden mystery ailment.

I shot her a cocky grin "That's not what you said last night...twice." She huffed out a quick laugh and rolled her eyes at me, a faint blush crossing her cheeks. "Uncle Nico will be just fine, Gracie-girl."

Nonna, who had walked over to shamelessly listen in, decided to weigh in on the matter. "If he's anything like his grandfather was, you're both doing more than fine after a couple of rounds of mattress mambo."

She waggled her eyebrows at Allie and nudged me with her elbow like we were frat boys sharing locker room stories. No. Oh nonononono. Not just no, but hell no. I don't think I can ever unhear the phrase mattress mambo, and I'm gonna need a gallon or three of brain bleach to wipe out mental image of my grandparents having...ugh...no, just no. I gave a full-body shudder. I think I really might throw up now.

Allie, the traitor, threw her head back and laughed, then wrapped an arm around Nonna's shoulder. She leaned her head close to Nonna's and I heard her say, "if your husband was anything like Nico, then you were a lucky woman indeed." My chest puffed out with pride for a split second with the confirmation from Allie that I can satisfy her so well, until I realized that she was comparing my sexual prowess to my Nonno's. Shit, now there's a boner killer.

By the end of the night, everyone ended up carpooling to get home as they'd celebrated a little too much. Tony, who rarely drank much, had driven a tipsy James home, Emma, sober because she was still breast-feeding, drove for her, Scott, Hannah and Dean, and Michael dropped off Josh and Min at her place before driving Lana home. Becca had volunteered to drive a very drunken Matt home, threatening him with great bodily harm if he puked in her car, and my mom and Colleen were driving the dads, Nonna and Aunt Ellen. Colleen and Steve had arranged earlier for Gracie to spend the night with them, and we would pick her up once they got home from church.

"I had planned on finishing what we started in the kitchen this morning since we have the house to ourselves, but I don't think I have the energy, Sunshine," I said with a wide yawn as I climbed into bed. She was already there, looking half-asleep.

"Me, too, but I expect you to make it up to me in the morning, honey." I pulled her close to me, kissing the top of her head and falling asleep within moments.