The Bachelor Takes a Bride

He usually stopped by to see his sister and her family at least once a week, but he’d been so busy working on plans for the new restaurant that he’d been unaware more than three weeks had passed since his last visit. Until now. And he felt a sharp tug of guilt to realize his nieces had noted the absence.

“What’s in the bag?” Anna asked. “Did you bring us a surprise?”

“A ’pwise?” Bella echoed, looking at him hopefully.

“It’s tiramisu for your mom,” he told them.

His nieces wrinkled their noses in identical expressions of displeasure.

“And a cannoli for each of you—if you go sit up at the table.”

They raced to the kitchen to comply with his request.

Nata took two small plates out of the cupboard, setting one in front of each of her daughters so that Marco could distribute the pastry.

“I wike cannowi,” Bella told him.

“I knew that about you,” Marco agreed, kissing the top of her head.

“Your uncle Marco spoils both of you,” Renata said.

He lifted his brows as he handed her the bowl of tiramisu.

“Uncle Marco spoils all of us,” she amended.

“Sit,” he told her, nudging her toward a chair.

“I was going to get you a cup of coffee.”

“I can get it,” he said, moving over to the counter. He selected a pod, inserted it into the machine, then pressed the button to start it brewing.

“Can we have milk?” Anna asked her mother.

“Of course.” Renata started to rise from the table.

“I’ve got it,” Marco told her, easily locating the girls’ favorite plastic cups and filling them with milk, then pouring a glass of the same for their mother.

“Thank you,” they chorused, when he set the drinks in front of them.

Marco carried his mug of coffee to the table and sat down beside his sister.

“So how are you feeling these days?” he asked her.

“Hungry.” She dipped her spoon back into the bowl.

He chuckled. “I guess that means the morning sickness has passed.”

She nodded.

“Mommy’s got a baby in her belly,” Anna said, in case he’d somehow forgotten that fact. “And it’s gonna grow reallybig and she’s gonna get reallyfat.”

“Wike dis,” Bella said, stretching her arms out in front of her as far as they could reach to demonstrate.

“Well, hopefully not quite that big,” Renata said drily.

“But Daddy says that just means there’ll be more of her to love,” Anna added.

Marco had to give his brother-in-law points for that response, because he knew his sister was already self-conscious about the weight she’d gained and she was only four months into her pregnancy.

“And soon, you’ll have another sister or a brother to love,” he said, hoping to shift their attention away from their mother’s belly and to the baby she carried.

“I wanna sisda,” Bella said. “I don’ wanna be da widda sisda anymo.”

“I wanna brother,” Anna countered, rolling her eyes in the direction of her younger sibling. “Sometimes one sister is one too many.”

“I want both of you to go wash the powdered sugar off of your faces and hands, and then brush your teeth,” Renata said.

“We aweady bwush our teef,” Bella sad. “Befo Unca Mahco comed.”

“Which was also before you ate the cannoli he brought for you,” her mother pointed out with patient firmness.

“Oh.” Bella sighed as she slid off the chair to follow her sister upstairs to the bathroom they shared.

Nata pushed her mostly empty bowl aside and rubbed her tummy. “Hopefully that will settle him down for a while.”

“Him?”

She shrugged. “Nonna hasn’t been wrong yet.”

“Are you hoping for a boy?”

“I know I should say that I just want a healthy baby—and I do. But if I had a choice, yeah, I’d like a boy this time.”

“Well, you and Craig make beautiful babies, so if it’s not a boy this time, there’s no reason you can’t keep trying.”

“Even if this one is a boy, we’re probably going to go for one more.”

“You’re a brave—or maybe crazy—woman.”

His sister laughed. “Probably both.”

He heard the water running in the bathroom upstairs, proof that the girls were brushing their teeth again.

“Can I tuck them in when they’re ready?” he asked.

“They made you feel guilty about not visiting for so long, didn’t they?”

“It hasn’t been that long,” he protested.