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“What’s ducking?” Giorgio asks as he strides in with his fiancée. “No fucking way. What is he doing here?”
“Ducking, ducking, ducking,” the boy continues to sing.
“Gio,” Luca groans.
“Why don’t you come with Nona, Leo, and play cars,” Mrs. Fiorenzo suggests, pulling the little guy from the chaos.
“You have a lot of nerve coming here,” Gio says, storming toward me. I hold my ground, there’s nothing that he can do to me that my father hasn’t done before, if not worse.
“Hey, stop that,” Natalia says, stepping between the two of us.
Her brother looks down at her and glares. “You don’t need to pretend to protect this asshole, Nat. There are no fucking cameras here,” he says angrily.
“You can’t talk to your sister like that,” I tell him. I don’t like the way her brothers treat her because of me.
“Excuse me?” Gio sneers at me.
“They’re just surprised. I’m guessing Mamma forgot to tell everyone you were coming today,” Natalia explains.
“Guessing she did,” Gio adds.
Ignoring the seething Fiorenzo, I cup Natalia’s face and warn her and them. “Your brothers can hate me all they want, but I won’t let them take their anger about me out on you,” I tell her. Natalia’s eyes widen at me as do her father’s, who I notice is standing and watching everything.
“Oh, are we interrupting something?” Allegra Fiorenzo asks, assessing the tense standoff.
“I think we are, babe,” says Giada Rossi, Italy’s former television sweetheart, and Natalia’s brother’s ex-fiancée, who is now engaged to her sister—and they think Contis are twisted. “Alessandro, it’s been too long,” Giada says, breaking up the tension as she comes over and greets me warmly. “What the hell are you doing in the lion’s den?” she whispers.
“You know I like to live life on the edge,” I tell her, which makes her laugh. I’ve known Giada for years, moving around in the same circles, but since joining the Fiorenzo family, she’s kept her distance because of the feud.
“I’m Allegra, I don’t think I’ve ever introduced myself to you,” she says, holding out her hand to me.
“Understandable,” I say, shaking her hand before she walks over and hugs her sister.
“Hi, I’m Lilly, Luca’s wife.” The pregnant woman waves at me. “And that little thing running around swearing is our son, Leo.”
“Babe, you don’t have to be nice to him,” Luca says.
“And you don’t have to be rude,” she bites back. Luca throws his hands up and grumbles about getting a drink. Giorgio does the same, and the two of them leave the room, their father accompanying them.
“I’m Paige, Gio’s fiancée, we’ve met once before,” she says, shaking my hand.
“Nice to see you again. I understand this isn’t ideal, but I promise I won’t cause any problems for your family today,” I try to reassure the ladies.
Their faces all soften at my words. That might be good. “All we ask is you treat Natalia with respect till this stupid deal is done,” Allegra says.
I look over at Natalia who is quietly watching everything. “I can do that,” I reassure her.
“Good, then, welcome to the family.” She smirks and everyone bursts out laughing.
“I might leave you ladies to talk. I’m going to see if I can break the ice with your brothers,” I tell them. Natalia gives me a concerned look. “I’ll be fine,” I tell her before kissing her cheek and walking into the next room.
The three of them are standing around, whispering at the bar, but as soon as they notice me, they all fall silent.
“What do you want?” Gio asks.
“Nothing. The ladies wanted to chat so I thought I would leave them to it,” I say, placing my hands in my pockets.
“Would you like a drink, son?” Mr. Fiorenzo asks.
