“What is it then?” He pauses. “Wait a minute here,” he says, turning it over and I watch the gears in his mind spin in real-time as he realizes just exactly what it is. “It has a plus.”
I nod, a smile overtaking my face.
“You mean?”
I nod again.
Giovanni practically tackles me as he covers my face in kisses. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. I have to be more careful now that…” he rubs his hand over my belly. “I knew it. I just knew we made a baby that first time.”
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“I do, because I know we’re perfect for each other, and that’s how it works.”
I shoot him a questioning eyebrow.
“You trust Daddy, right?”
“Never doubt Daddy,” I say, repeating his mantra.
He gives me a big hug and just holds me. “Timing really is everything, and like I said our timing is perfect.”
“It sure is.”
“One second.” He eases off of me, pulling his phone from the picnic basket and hitting one button. “È tempo,” he says.
“Time for what?” I ask, having picked up more and more Italian words thanks to living with him.
Not a minute later a cigarette boat comes speeding down the coast before turning toward us. I see two people waving their arms at us like they know us, but we don’t really know anyone here other than the cashiers at the grocery store and some waiters and waitresses. We’ve spent our entire first month here just enjoying each other and only each other.
As the boat gets closer I make out a face that I know can’t be who I think it is. “Either the wine or the sun is catching up with me,” I say, shaking my head.
“No, she caught up with you.”
I stand, Giovanni taking my hand as I practically feel dizzy all of a sudden. “Is this really happening? I mean, what the…”
“Gaby!” my mom yells, jumping off the boat and running through the shallow water to me.
“Hey, Gio,” dad says, as Giovanni helps him with the anchor.
“But mom, you…” I say, not returning her huge hug.
“Honey, are you kidding me? I’d never leave you and your father. It was all a ruse.”
“A ruse?”
Gio shakes hands with my dad and puts his hand on his back as they walk toward me.
“Ready for round two?” Gio says with a big smile.
“Let me sit down first.”
“Your dad was the one who actually uncovered the accounting irregularities months ago. The first thing he did was call me and we came up with a plan. Then we called law enforcement, knowing the long game here was witness protection and it only takes one slip up, one piece of misfiled paperwork, and our whereabouts are revealed.”
“I don’t get it.”
“We got your mom out first. She left with a friend of mine on a boat in Monaco, which made the whole midlife crisis I’m going to run away thing look more legitimate. You were going to college so she didn’t need to be in her unhappy marriage anymore. She’d done her job as a mom and now she wanted to go off and live like she was on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Notice how it all happened so abruptly and you never saw her with the guy or actually kissing him. He was just a decoy.”
“Mom, you?”
She nods.
“We wanted to get you out too, but if we withdrew you from college before it even started it would be a huge tip-off. The Italians seemed to already know your dad might have caught on as he asked one two many questions when he did his annual audit recently. We had to make everything else look normal.”
“But what about everything that went down at the house?” I ponder out loud.
“The house was bugged. No questions about it. It was just a matter of how many people had bugged it, hence all the double-crossing.”
“Double-crossing.”
My father shrugs his shoulders. “I’ll admit I wasn’t thrilled when I heard Giovanni had taken an interest in you. I was pissed actually, but his plan to have me catch the two of you in the house actually made a lot of sense. It allowed the two of you to go your separate ways for a week, providing a further distraction to anyone who might be watching us and provided audio to whoever was bugging the house. It looked like we were all falling apart just as quickly as Marroni’s operation.”
“Who all was bugging the house?”
Gio perks up. “I’d guess Marroni’s people, probably for years, and then the Feds and even the Italian police involved in the case.”
“Why did you come to the States then?”
“I was there to get you out. I just didn’t know that I was going to fall in love with you first.”
I pause, looking at everyone. “Is this all a joke? I feel like I’m in that Michael Douglas movie The Game.”
“Not a joke,” Gio quickly states matter of factly. “We couldn’t tell you because we didn’t know what was bugged and what wasn’t. And if we told you you’d act differently which could tip off who knows who.”
“But what about the strip club?”
“Are you kidding me?” dad asks. “I still owe you a serious spanking for that one.” Gio’s eye perk up and I suppress a smile. “Gio and I were both beyond surprised you did that as that was not part of the plan at all, but somewhat strangely it kind of worked out to our advantage.”
“But didn’t you take Gio to meet Marroni?”
“Yeah, I needed a real Italian to give him the once over to make sense of some of those chains and medallions, and who better than an Italian mafia man.”
“Former,” Gio quickly corrects. “My life is much, much different now. Perfect actually,” he
