Page 144 of Beni

Beni held up his, too.

Bene had already downed his.

Not unusual for his twin lately, if everyone else and what they had to say about Bene was to be trusted. Seemed his brother was partying a lot more, but it was hard for Beni to keep track of what his twin was doing when he was in a whole other country. He got the information from his family because Bene sure as hell wasn’t saying anything was up.

Tonight, though, was not about that.

It was their birthday.

And he had plans.

“Are you doing that now?” his brother asked.

Beni nodded, peeking over his shoulder to search for August in the large foyer of the Guzzi mansion. It doubled as a good party room when his parents didn’t want to open up more of the house to the guests because it gave them access to the sitting room, the dining room, and kitchen. Lots of space to move.

He found his girl holding an almost two-month-old baby girl—happy as could be with the newborn Guzzi in her arms. Unsurprisingly, Corrado and Alessio were not too far away as August rocked the baby and chatted to little Maria at the same time. Ginevra didn’t feel the need to hover over every single person who held her daughter like the baby’s fathers did.

August bent down, letting Maria fix baby Caroline’s big bow on her crown of dark hair. The two shared matching smiles, in love with the baby just like everybody else in their family. Although, to be fair, Maria really adored August. Her Auntie A as she liked to call her.

“Yeah,” Beni said to his twin, “I’m going to do that now.”

“Good. Maybe while everyone is all over you two, I can sneak out and nobody will notice.”

“Bene.”

He was worried about his twin.

Acting out, and shit.

Bene just laughed, and clapped him on the back. “I’m kidding, relax.”

He didn’t believe that.

Not for a second.

Still, tonight was not about Bene.

Or his issues.

They had all the time in the world to fix that.

Right?

“I’ll go steal the baby from her,” Bene said, “since you’re going to need her hands free, and all. Swear it’s like once a chick picks up a baby, they won’t let it go.”

Not a lie.

Beni and August enjoyed the time they spent with their nieces, but they weren’t even at a place yet where they were considering kids of their own. Shit, they were young. They had time to figure that out, even if baby fever, as his mother put it, was thick in the air.

“That would be helpful.”

“It’s what I do.”

Yeah.

That, and a hell of a lot more.

He clapped his twin on the back before Bene made a beeline for August where she had moved across the room with the baby—Caroline’s fathers were close behind, of course—to talk to Cara, and swoon over her little dress, it looked like.