Sweetest Sorrow (Forbidden Book 2) (49 page)

"My brother?" Genna asked.

"He's in the waiting room, blessing everyone with his charming personality."

Genna sighed. "Thank God he's okay."

Choosing to keep his opinion to himself, Matty reached down, running his fingertips along a warm, flushed cheek, the touch making the baby stir a bit. "Can I hold him?"

"Of course, you big dolt. He's
yours
. He looks
just
like you."

Matty picked him up, careful not to wake him, and gazed into his face as he cradled him in his arms. "Strong genes."

"
Annoying
genes," Genna remarked.

Matty laughed lightly as he sat down on the edge of the hospital bed beside her, not wanting to move from her side. "Hey, you chose to breed with me."

"Breed with you," she said. "Is that what we did?
Breeded
?"

"The word you want is actually 'bred'."

"Ah,
there's
that Ivy League education kicking back in. Did you learn how to change diapers at Princeton, by chance?"

"I'm afraid not. Must've missed the day they taught us that in my
Behavioral Economics Workshop
."

"Ugh, just hearing those words almost put me to sleep." Genna laid her head back against the pillow and closed her eyes. "Most boring degree ever, Matty."

"It's not meant to be exciting," he said. "It's lucrative."

"Yeah, it certainly came in handy at the diner when you were whipping up omelets, huh? Oh, you want those eggs with a side of behavioral economics? Coming right up!"

He grinned at her sleepy tone. She could've told him she hated him and he would've smiled right through it, knowing she was so far out of it she might not remember a single word, much less mean it. "It came in handy when figuring out why you were blowing so much money fixing a car that wasn't yours."

"Oh, yeah? And why did I?"

"Because you needed to prove to yourself that you could," he said. "You were pregnant, and scared, and your life had been ripped away from you. You needed to know that you could fix something, that you could make something whole again, that you could make it beautiful, because you were going to be a mother and you needed to know that you were capable of taking care of something."

Complete silence surround them as Matty gazed only at the baby before Genna's soft voice responded, "Score one for Matty-B."

Shifting around, he looked at her…
really
looked at her. "You're going to be a great mother, Genevieve. Don't even worry. You're ready."

She smiled softly, watching him. "I'm only ready because of you, Daddy Matty."

Time passed, minutes melting away as they sat there, savoring the moment.

After exactly thirty minutes, there was a soft knock on the door and the others filtered in. Gavin grinned as he approached, his eyes on Genna. "Looking beautiful as ever, Genna with a G. You're
glowing
."

"Screw you."

Gavin laughed. "That was a compliment."

"I know," she said. "Screw you for being
nice
to me again. I don't like it."

Gavin stopped beside Matty, looking down at the baby. "Would you look at that? He's a mini Matty-B."

"My fault," Genna said, lazily lifting her hand, tugging on the IVs connected to it. "I bred with him, apparently. Should've figured those selfish Barsanti people had greedy DNA."

Matty laughed, offering the baby to his cousin. "You want to hold him?"

"Oh, hell no," Gavin said, backing away quickly. "I'm not touching that thing. If I break it, the Ice Princess will
kill
me."

Gabriella approached, shoving Gavin out of the way to take a peak, her expression lighting up. "Oh my goodness, look how precious he is!"

"Do you want to hold him? Or are you afraid of breaking him, too?"

"Oh, pfft,
please
." Gabriella took the baby from him, no hesitation. "I'm afraid of
no
human, not even the tiniest ones. I did a stint in Labor & Delivery once."

"Oh God, does that mean
you
know how to change a diaper?" Genna asked. "Because Matty's professor forgot to show him and my parents forgot I was human so I kind of lack most domestic skills."

"Of course," Gabriella said, laughing as she turned to Genna. "I'm also certified in infant CPR, so if you ever need a babysitter, I'm your gal."

"You, lady, are a fucking
Saint
." Genna's gaze scanned the room before settling over to the doorway, where Dante lurked. He just stood there, in silence, watching Gabriella. "What did I tell you, brother? Call the Pope. We've got us a winner here. You need to wife that up."

Dante turned to Genna, eyes narrowing. "Are you
high
?"

Everyone laughed, including Genna, who pointed at a bag of fluid connected to her IV. "Morphine."

Dante blinked a few times before turning back to Gabriella.

"I told you," Gabriella said, grinning as she approached him, like she knew he hadn't planned to come any closer. "That's what you get for being so stubborn."

"Family trait," Genna said, slapping Matty's back. "Isn't that right?"

"Definitely one of your
many
fine qualities," Matty said, leaning in to kiss her, but she covered her mouth.

"Ugh, gross, my mouth is all fuzzy."

Matty pulled her hand away, kissing her regardless.

"Side effect of the anesthesia," Gabriella said. "Maybe the morphine, too."

"I like the morphine," Genna said. "It makes me all floaty."

Her eyes closed, a grin still on her lips.

"So precious," Gabriella murmured, stopping in front of Dante, standing toe-to-toe. "Look at your sweet nephew, Uncle Dante."

Dante stared down at him in total silence.

"Did you want to hold him?" Gabriella asked quietly.

Dante shook his head.

"Hold my baby, Dante," Genna ordered without opening her eyes. "Don't make me get out of this bed and force him on you."

"Don't go getting your panties all twisted," Dante muttered, carefully taking the baby from Gabriella. "I'm holding him."

"
Him
," Gavin said. "Does he have a name?"

"We haven't really talked about it," Matty said. "We know what we're
not
calling him."

"Primo?" Gavin guessed. "Roberto?"

Genna waved his direction. "Ding ding."

"Gavin's a great name," Gavin said. "Means
white hawk,
which is perfect, you know. I'm white, kind of... Italian is white, right?"

"Italians are
Italian
, dipshit," Genna said. "White is a color, and you're looking more like a latte than a carton of milk over there."

"I'm a hawk, though."

"I'm not naming my son Gavin."

"Why not?"

"Because I know a Gavin and he's a pain in the ass."

"Whatever," Gavin said. "Go ahead and name him something sissy, like
Dante
. I'm sure he'll grow up to be a real winner."

"I'm not taking that bait," Dante said. "Not worth it."

"I like a couple names," Genna said. "I've kind of been digging the name Corrado."

Gavin paled. "Like in
Moretti
?"

"Yeah, why not?" Genna shrugged. "Makes me think of a sweet little boy who likes Batman and reading."

"
Or
," Gavin said, "a not-so-sweet grown guy who likes shooting people and scaring the day lights out of everyone."

"Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea," Dante said. "Just... trust me on that. You'd be better off naming the kid Enzo."

Matty's back stiffened at the sound of that name on those lips.
Enzo
.

"Not that I'm suggesting it," Dante continued, handing the baby back to Gabriella. "I'm just saying, if you name him after someone, make it someone a
bit
more innocent."

Matty looked at Genna. They stared at each other in silence for a moment before a name seemed to click in his head. He saw it, too, as Genna's eyes widened.

"Joseph?" he suggested.

Genna smiled. "Joey."

Joey
.

"Nice," Gavin said. "Now hit us with the
last
name."

Gabriella passed the still sleeping baby back to his mother.

"Do we
have
to give him a last name?" Genna asked. "Can't we Sonny & Cher that shit?"

"Why don't you hyphenate it?" Gabriella suggested. "Galante-Barsanti. He's both of you, both of those families. And separate, okay, you guys were kind of despicable, but maybe put together something good can come out of it."

"Joseph Galante-Barsanti," Genna mused, smiling down at the baby. "I can tolerate that."

Matty stared at them, feeling every inch of him warming, as he smiled. "So can I."

T
he air was comfortable
, not a cloud in sight, as the vibrant sun lit up the bright blue sky. Peculiarly warm for a March afternoon, spring still a few days away, yet everything seemed to already want to bloom. The first inkling of it shone on the branches of the trees scattered all around, the subtle pops of green brewing as leaves started to grow. It had been a harsh winter, a fact that had nothing to do with snow. Harsh, because of the bitterness that had seized the city, because of the hurt it had caused, because of the blood that had been spilled.

A
do-over
, Gavin had once asked for. To Dante Galante, it almost felt like a
rebirth
—an ironic sensation, he thought, to feel at a funeral.

"Dad's going to haunt us for this, isn't he?" Genna asked, her incredulous voice low so not to interrupt the priest. "Like, he's seriously going to go all
Poltergeist
on our asses."

"Probably," Dante said, shrugging it off, because as far as he was concerned, his father's
final
wishes
were irrelevant. They'd spent their entire lives doing the man's bidding, following his orders, putting their own needs second, and Dante refused to spend another moment of his life bowing down to Primo Galante.

The son of a bitch could haunt him if he wanted.

A joint funeral for former friends turned mortal enemies, men dead set on destroying each other facing the end together. Johnny Amaro had suggested it, a symbolic gesture putting the feud to rest once and for all.

Hundreds amassed together, a lot more than Dante had expected to come, although he suspected most weren't there to pay their respects. No, they just wanted to see the bastards put in the ground. He didn't blame them for it, but no one would get to see that part. The services were taking place on a grassy knoll along the edge of the cemetery, away from both of the families' plots, away from the wives and the sons who had lost their lives, allowing them the peace in death that life hadn't offered.

Two identical gold-toned caskets, indistinguishable, were set up in front of them, both sealed, so nobody standing there knew who was in which one, and Dante was grateful for it, because he didn't want to know. Afterward, after the crowd had gone home, they would be moved to their proper place, quietly buried with their families, but until then, it wasn't about them. No, it was about the ones they'd left behind, the ones who had survived, the ones who had suffered most at their hands.

Their children.

Dante and Matteo stood front and center of the crowd with Genna between them, a human barrier separating the two of them, as she rocked baby Joey in her arms, trying to get him to stay calm. He whimpered and whined, letting out loud cries, but Dante didn't mind. He didn't blame the kid. Hell, he'd rather have not been there, either.

"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them," the priest said, making the sign of the cross over each casket. "May they rest in peace."

A chorus of "Amen" flowed through the crowd before people started to disperse, a hoard heading right for the three of them. Dante sensed it, felt it coming on like a suffocating storm, and maybe it was wrong, leaving them to fend for themselves, but he couldn't stand there another moment and pretend.

Ducking his head, Dante slipped away, passing familiar faces as he made his way through the crowd. He spotted Gabriella off to the back, surrounded by Brazzis, her parents by her side. She'd offered to be with him, to be there for him, but he hadn't wanted to draw that kind of attention to her, hadn't wanted to put that kind of pressure on her. Because as proud as he would've been to have her by his side, this was
his
burden to carry, a road he needed to cross. There were amends he needed to make for problems he had caused, and the last thing he wanted was the woman he loved having to pay for
his
mistakes.

Dante wandered away, past headstones and gravesites, through the vast cemetery, toward the road along the left side. He knew where he was going, although he'd never been there before… knew it, because he'd thought of going there a few times, but he'd never really had the courage.

He approached the area carefully, stopping short, but he stood close enough to read the headstone.
Enzo Barsanti
. He stared at it in silence for a moment before hearing noise behind him, someone's quiet approach, tiptoeing. His back stiffened before a hand ran up his spine, slipping beneath his suit coat. He closed his eyes as nails gently scratched his back.

"How do you fix something like this?" he asked.

Gabriella sighed, standing beside him, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I don't think you can. You fix what's broken, not what's lost. He's gone. You can't fix that. You can't bring him back. But you can fix yourself; you can put yourself back together and not be the person who did that anymore. And I think that's maybe the key, because you can say
sorry
until you're blue in the face, but it doesn't count until they
see
repentance."

Dante frowned. "You sure I can't just send a Hallmark card?"

Laughing, Gabriella jabbed him in the side. "Pretty friggin sure."

Dante took her hand, pulling her around in front of him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, gazing up at him with a twinkle in her soft brown eyes. Dante's hands settled on her hips as he leaned in to kiss her, barely getting a soft peck before a voice cut through the area, loud, disrupting the moment.

"Oh, come
on
! Really? You two are going to do that
here
?"

Dante cut his eyes to the right, glaring as Gavin approached.

"We weren't doing anything," Gabriella said, slipping around in front of Dante, pulling his arms around her and holding on to him.

"You were practically humping his leg on top of a grave."

"Was not."

"Was so."

A throat cleared, and Dante turned his head, tensing when he saw Matteo and Genna appear.

"It's actually 'were'," Matteo said. "Not 'was'."

"And gross," Genna said, making a face as she walked over to them. "Keep it in your pants, bro. We're at a funeral here."

"Just one minute," Dante grumbled. "
One
goddamn minute. That's all I wanted. One minute to catch my breath and be alone, and I can't even get that."

"Nope," Genna said. "And seriously,
foul
, by the way, leaving me to deal with all of those people alone."

"You weren't alone," Dante said. "You had Matteo."

As soon as he said that, every eye in the area settled on him, shocked expressions crossing faces. He looked around at all of them, brow furrowing.
What the fuck
?

"Did you just…?" Gabriella asked, looking back at him.

"Did I
what
?" he asked.

"Bequeath Genna with a G to Matty-B," Gavin chimed in.

Dante scoffed but didn't have a chance to respond before Genna groaned. "
Bequeath
, Gavin? What am I, an inheritance?"

"I like to think of you more like a debt, personally," Gavin said. "Like that hospital bill we all know we have somewhere but nobody ever wants to pay, because it's a lot of damn money for something that ought to be free."

Those two bickered back and forth for a moment as Matteo stood silently, gazing past Dante, his eyes fixed to the graves nearby, to where his mother and brother were buried, to where his father would, not long from then, come to rest. Guilt festered inside of Dante, nearly spilling from his lips, but he swallowed it back, knowing if the roles were reversed, Dante wouldn't want to hear it. Not then. Not there. Maybe someday, some other place, but not in that moment. A bullshit word like
'sorry'
wouldn't be enough. Gabriella had been right about that.

Someday, he'd find a way to make amends, but until then…

"Well, this was fun and all, but this beautiful woman and I are going to take our leave now," Dante said, tugging Gabriella with him as he took a few steps away.

"What?" Gavin asked. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere you're not," Dante answered, looking back at him. "Look, G… it's not you, it's me. I need some space. But don't give up hope, you know, because I'm sure there's somebody out there for you, but that somebody's not me. I need a break from these fucked up
family reunions
we keep having. "

Although he flipped him off, Gavin cracked a smile at that.

Dante turned, his arm around Gabriella, pulling her closer to him as they walked away, hearing Gavin's voice call out behind them: "Dear Diary, today I learned that Dante Galante wasn't just my friend, he was a part of my family, too. And I've gotta tell you… I think I might be better off for it."