Romantic Acquisition (29 page)

“What do you mean?” he demanded harshly.  “How do you think I feel about children?
  And this is our baby.  Stop referring to it as if I were already out of the picture.
”

Kate looked away, unable to face him.  “The afternoon we had lunch with your family, in the car you mentioned that kids were wonderful if you could hand them back after a while.”  She sniffled before she continued. 
“Then there was the time you were talking to one of your brothers or sisters in law and you mentioned that you weren’t going to be sucked into the daddy thing again.”  She accepted his offered tissue. 
“I know you don’t want kids.  It wasn’t my intention to get pregnant.  It just happened. And I know you were going to have a serious discussion with me when you came back.  I just didn’t want to hear that you didn’t want to see me again.  I know I’m a coward but I just didn’t want to have those words spoken out loud.”  Kate wanted to run but was attached to the IV. 

Carlo touched her face so she was looking at him. 
“Kate, I want you.  And I want your children.  I want lots of children.  You know how much I love my nieces and nephews.  How could you think I didn’t want children?”

“But that day!  You said that they…”

“Forget what I said that day.  I said it after being surrounded by nine children.  I definitely want kids.  I just want to have them one at a time.  I guess you don’t know this, but I fight to baby-sit my nieces and nephews at every opportunity.”

“I love you!” Kate said, a smile forming on her face for the first time in the past week.

“I know you do.  That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for months now!  I’m glad you’ve finally realized it,” he said and bent down to kiss her gently. 

Pulling back, he laughed at her tear stained face.  “Will you marry me now that we’ve gotten that out of the way?”

“Yes!” she said.  Then gasped, “But what about David?  What’s going to happen to him?  He’s not going to get away with whatever he’s trying to pull, is he?”

“No,” Carlo said.  “He was arrested for insider trading about the same time you came to tell me about his plan.  We’ve known about it for the past month and have been working with the
SEC
.  The man in David’s office was an agent who was gathering information.  You weren’t supposed to be involved in that discussion though.”

“Oh, sorry.  I do tend to walk in at the wrong moments lately,” she laughed then pulled his head closer for another kiss. 

“No, all the right moments, in my mind,’ Carlo corrected. 

Epilogue

Kate held six month old
Ashton in her arms, still in awe of the tiny little girl.  Carlo walked over to where Kate and Ashton were settled on the sofa of the large family room of Sal’s house
.  T
he family Christmas tree was standing ten feet tall
in the corner of the room, wrapping paper covering the entire expanse of floor and toys surrounding the furniture and tree
. 

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“More than okay,” she replied, kissing him gently.  Carlo leaned down and kissed his little daughter who was sound asleep, oblivious to the chaos surrounding her. 

Kate looked down at her child and said a silent prayer, grateful for the gift of her child and her husband. 

Emma interrupted her thoughts.  “Aunt Kate, you have so many presents to open.  When are you going to start?” she asked, horrified at the idea of unopened presents. 

Since Emma was the leader of the nine children, Kate was instantly overwhelmed with other children cheering her on to open her presents.

“Let Kate open her presents when she’s ready,” Antonia said, smiling down at Kate.  “Sorry for the interruption,” she whispered.  “Did Emma wake up Ashton?”

Kate shook her head.  “No, this one can sleep through anything during the day.  It’s the nights that a breath will wake her,” Kate laughed.  She was exhausted but happy.  During the days, she ran all of the Jamison Department Stores.  She’d been assigned that task by Sal himself, at the recommendation of her husband.  At night, she loved her husband and enjoyed quiet times with her daughter. 

“Is this what you wanted growing up?” Carlo asked.

Kate glanced around Sal’s family room.  There were so many presents scattered around but the best part was the number of family members.  Even her mother had traveled up from
Florida
to take part in the celebration. 

She remembered her lonely Christmas’s from the past and sighed in relief, incredibly happy to be a part of the Attracelli clan.  “Yes.  This is what I always wanted,” she said and hugged her daughter closer, her eyes showing her love for her husband.  “I love you,” she said, not able to tell him that enough.

Carlo kissed her gently, showing her his feelings.  He didn’t mind hearing it from her though. 

 
Page
1