Chapter Twenty Three

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

LUCA

The warm early morning sun peaking through the curtains wakes me up. Blinded, I blink a few times to orient myself and remember where I am.

Telluride.

Date with Leigh.

Gondola.

Coffee table.

Bedroom.

I roll over and check the other side of the bed to make sure it wasn’t all a dream.

It wasn’t.

God, she’s beautiful when she sleeps. She’s beautiful all the time, but seeing her like this—her blonde waves splayed across the pillow and the morning light dancing from her bare shoulder down the curve of her body half covered with the thick, fluffy comforter—a knot forms in my throat at the idea of waking up every day to this. And I can’t deny I’d do just about anything to make it a reality.

Last night was?—

Rolling on to my back, I sigh and drag a tired hand over my face.

It was everything I could have hoped for and absolutely don’t deserve.

Leigh stirs beside me and snuggles over into my side, chasing the warmth of my body like a fox burrowing into its den. She lets out a sleepy hum as she tangles her legs with mine and nestles into my chest.

Content to stay here all damn day—or at least until the guys decide they’ve had enough of babysitting—I wrap my arm around Leigh and hold her close.

Thirty blissful seconds are all I get before there’s a knock at the guesthouse door.

So much for all day.

“Who is it?” Leigh mumbles sleepily. “Is it Zach?”

“I’ll go see.” I press a kiss to her forehead. “Even if it is, I've got him. You sleep.”

She utters more unintelligible mumbles as she rolls away from me, burrowing into the blankets and drifting back to sleep.

It’s a simple act. An indulgence she wouldn’t have allowed herself a few days ago. It’s progress. Hope.

With a pep in my step and hope in my heart, I make my way out into the living room, tugging on my jeans along with my sweater from last night.

The knocking starts again just as I reach the door.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” I mutter. As I tug it open, I find my twin with one hand raised and the other wrapped around a piping hot cup of coffee.

“Why the hell are there a shit ton of boxes being delivered at eight am on Christmas Eve?” he asks, pushing past me into the kitchen to get out of the cold.

“Good morning to you too,” I mumble, closing the door behind him.

When I turn around to follow, I see Enzo has stopped at the corner of the kitchen island, his eyes glued to where my boxer briefs are strewn across the coffee table. “I take it things went well last night?”

“You could say that.”

Enzo shakes his head and sets the cup of coffee—presumably for Leigh, considering neither of us drinks the stuff—down on the kitchen island. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I do.” There’s a renewed confidence in my voice that wasn’t there yesterday.And God does it feel good. Nothing can bring me down. Not today. Not when Leigh and I are finally in a good place.

Enzo raises a skeptical brow but doesn’t push the subject. “And the boxes?”

“Oh, they’re the presents for Zach that I had Carson pick up from Leigh’s apartment in New York.”

“All of them?” Accusatory disbelief laces his tone. “I just don’t see Leigh going overboard like that on gifts. You, on the other hand…”

I shrug, rounding the kitchen counter to grab a cup and pour myself a glass of water. “Okay, so maybe I also bought him a few things.”

“A few?”

“Okay, a lot of things,” I admit, knowing damn well I’m never going to hear the end of it from Leigh. But I don’t care. It’s my first Christmas with Zach. I’m allowed to spoil the kid.

“Speaking of Zach.” I glance in the direction of the main house. “Where is he?”

“He’s in the main house drinking coffee and watching that male stripper movie with Holt.”Enzo says it with such nonchalance that it’s entirely impossible to tell if he’s serious or not.

I slam down my glass and reach for my jacket, ready to make heads roll. “Fucking hell, Enzo. He’s two.”

My twin tips his head back and lets out a rough laugh. “God, what kind of uncle do you take me for?”

“The kind who has never been around a kid in his life.”

“I resent that statement. I dated that one girl from back home who had a kid.”

“You were going to marry her, Enzo, and it was a puppy, not a kid. And afterwards you decided you were never dating anyone with an attachment to animals again.”

“It was the same thing. She dressed the damn thing in clothes.” Enzo huffs and eyes the bar cart in the corner, and I’m fairly certain if I keep down the avenue of the woman in question, he’ll make his way over there and pour us doubles of the first alcohol he finds.

I shake my head and drop it. “What’s Zach really doing?”

“He’s dressed, has a fresh diaper, and is eating pancakes while watching Scooby Doo with Bash and Holt.”

“The new one or the old one?”

“The old one, duh,” Enzo scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Again, what kind of uncle do you take me for?”

A good one, but I’m not about to inflate his ego. He already knows I’d trust him with my life and that of my son.

My gaze softens as I connect with his, and we share a twin moment. “Thank you for taking care of him.”

“You’re welcome,” he says with a tilt of his head. “You and Leigh deserved a night to…reconnect.”

The way he says reconnect, like he’s wary of it, has the hairs on the back of my neck raising. “You don’t sound convinced.”

“That’s because I’m not sure if what I have in my pocket is going to make things better or worse.”

“What is it?” I ask, eyes narrowed on his jacket.

Enzo reaches into his coat to the inner pocket and pulls out a folded-over envelope that is far too large to be a Christmas card.

Shit.

The moment I see it, I already know what it is. So much for nothing being able to bring me down today.

“They came in,” I choke out, swallowing past the fear in my throat.

Enzo nods and extends the harbinger of my fate to me. “The guy who delivered the boxes gave it to me.”

I eye the offending envelope and take it into my shaking hand. “Do the guys know they came?”

“Are you kidding? If they did, it’d already be opened, and you’d have both of them banging on your door, demanding answers one way or the other.”

I nod and drop it onto the island like it burned me. “Do me a favor and don’t tell them.”

“Of course, but why?” Concern drips from his words, and I know his big logical brain is trying to figure out what the hell I’m playing at.

“Because I’m not going to look at them.” I slide them back over to him. “In fact, can you take them and put them in my room?”

His eyes go round, and he looks down at the envelope and back up at me like I’m insane. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I think so.” I give the wishy-washy answer for his benefit, so he doesn’t sound the alarm and hold a family meeting to discuss my answer. But I’m confident in my answer.

“You don’t want to know?”

I shake my head. “I don’t need to know. I want this with Leigh either way, and Zach is amazing. Even if he’s not mine, I’ll raise him as my own.”

“Fuck.” Enzo runs a hand through his hair. It’s the one thing we both do when we’re caught off guard. “That’s a lot to take on after one weekend.”

“When you know, you know.” I shrug and glance toward the room where Leigh is sound asleep. “They’re it for me.”

Enzo chews his lip for a moment. “All right.” He nods. “You know I’ll support you no matter what. So will the other two assholes.”

“Thank you.” How did I get so damn lucky to find these guys?

Enzo picks up the envelope and tucks it back into his coat. “But you gotta come get your son, because while you might have found your happily ever after, the guys want to hit the slopes and find a snow bunny or two.”

I cock a scrupulous brow. “That include you?”

He barks a laugh. “Absolutely fucking not. Woman are nothing but fucking trouble.”

“I hope one day the right woman comes along and makes you eat your words.”

“Single till the day I die.”

A vise clamps a little tighter around my heart as I witness the hint of sadness in his gaze. “For your sake, I hope not.”

My twin deserves his own happy ending. Maybe even more so than I do.