Michelle Celmer - Caroselli's Accidental Heir

But he didn’t know much about her family, and she preferred to keep it that way. Tony knew that she and her mom hadn’t had much, but he had no idea how rotten Lucy’s childhood had been. The constant moving from one dumpy, cockroach-infested place to another. Sometimes going hungry for days because there was no money for food. The endless flow of men through her mom’s revolving bedroom door.

But that was all in the past. It had happened, now it was over, and Lucy had moved on.

When she and Tony talked, it was usually about him and his work, or his family. Everything she had ever told him about her life, from birth to the present, wouldn’t take more than a ten-minute conversation. He knew she didn’t see her father, but he didn’t know why. And all he knew of her mom was that she and Lucy had never gotten along.

He didn’t know that starting when Lucy was eight, her mom would leave her alone while she went out, and often wouldn’t return till morning. He didn’t know how many of her mom’s male “friends” had watched Lucy with a lascivious smile, said lewd and inappropriate things. Her mom used to say that it was Lucy’s own fault. That she was inviting the attention by putting out “signals.” And at the time, being a naive and gullible preteen, Lucy had believed her. She still wasn’t sure if on some fundamental, primitive level, she was destined to be like her mom. Maybe she was hardwired that way, and it was inevitable. Only time would tell.

She wondered what Tony would think of her if he knew the truth. If he knew the kind of background she came from, and the questionable origin of the baby’s genetics. What would his family think?

Tony handed her his phone, saying gently but firmly, “I won’t make you sleep on the couch. Make the call.”

It boiled down to what was best for the baby. So she made the call.

Three

Though he was technically on his honeymoon for the next seven days, Tony had some personal business to deal with, so the following morning he went first to the gym, then into the office. He knew full well that at some point during the course of the day he would be accosted by nearly every member of his family. After repeated calls and texts that had gone unanswered they had gotten the hint and stopped bugging him around ten o’clock p.m. last night. And started right back up this morning at eight. He loved his family. He knew that any one of them would be there for him in a pinch. They were just too damned nosy. An Italian trait, he was sure. Or maybe all big families were like that. Either way, he was tired of people being all up in his business, all the time.

He was going to have to deal with them eventually, and shy of calling a press conference, this was the easiest, not to mention quickest, way to deal with this. The alternative to work was staying home twiddling his thumbs until Lucy woke up. Yesterday, after they had a carryout Chinese dinner, she laid down to take a short rest, and had been sound asleep ever since. Over twelve hours when he left for the gym.

He still couldn’t fathom how Lucy’s mom could make her pregnant daughter sleep on the couch. He knew they didn’t get along well, but that was just cruel. If she didn’t want to give up her own bed, couldn’t she have at least sprung for an air mattress? He didn’t know much about the woman. Lucy’s family was an off-limits subject, but meeting her mom seemed inevitable now that he was about to be the father of her grandchild.

It still hadn’t completely sunk in that in three months he was going to be somebody’s parent. He and Lucy still had so much to talk about, so many decisions to make. He wasn’t even sure where to begin.

Tony’s secretary buzzed him. “Rob and Nick are here. They say it’s urgent.”

He sighed. And so it begins.

With a sigh of resignation, he looked at the time on his computer monitor. Nine-fifteen. That hadn’t taken long. “Send them in.”

Here we go—round one.

The door opened and his cousins stepped into his office. It was hard to believe that just six months ago they had all been childless bachelors. Now two of them were married and all three were expecting babies. And it was all because of Nonno.

“So,” Nick said, making himself comfortable in the chair opposite Tony’s desk. “Should I clear my calendar?”

“For what?”

“Your next wedding,” Rob said, standing behind Nick, his arms folded.

As if. “Don’t hold your breath.”

Nick looked surprised. “You’re not going to marry her? Mr. Responsibility? You always do the right thing.”

“As far along as she is, I figured you would have set a date by now,” Rob told him.

“I’m working on it.”

“Did you find out why she left?” Nick asked. “And why it took her so long to tell you about the baby?”

“And are you sure it’s yours?” Rob said.

“Yes, I’m sure that it’s mine. As for why she left, and why she came back when she did, that is between her and me.”

“I assume she’s claiming that it was an accident,” Rob said.

“It was an accident. Lucy wasn’t any more anxious than I was to settle down.”

Rob came back with, “Or so she says.”

“It’s the truth.”

“How can you be sure?” Nick asked. “Maybe this is some elaborate setup.”

Lucy didn’t have a devious bone in her body. “It’s not. She had every intention of going back to Florida last night. She didn’t even bring a change of clothes.”

“Maybe she was betting you would ask her to stay.”

“Ask? I practically had to beg her to stay in Chicago and move in with me. She flat-out refused to marry me.”

“You proposed?” Rob said.

Tony nodded. “I told her I thought it was best for the baby.”

Nick’s eyebrows rose. “And she said no? I can’t imagine why.”

“I know how it sounds, but Lucy made it very clear from the time we met that she doesn’t want anything exclusive. She’s incredibly independent, not to mention practical. Sentiments of love would only scare her farther away.”

“Is it a boy?” Rob asked.

“We don’t know yet.”

“If it is?” Nick said.

“Yes, I’m taking the money. Why wouldn’t I?” It was his ticket to freedom. It would benefit him, Lucy and the baby.

“How’s that going to happen if she won’t marry you?”

“You have to understand, it’s different for us. You guys are happily married to women you love. You gave up millions of dollars to prove that to them.”

“You don’t love Lucy?” Nick asked.

“What I feel is irrelevant. But I do know how Lucy feels, and she happens to be the one calling all the shots right now.”

“So you’re just going to live together?” Rob asked.

“For now. At least until the baby is born.”

“Then what?”

“She’s been back less than twenty-four hours. We haven’t planned that far ahead yet. We have time.”

“You think so?” Nick said.

“Yes, I do.”

“Terri is barely showing and she already has the kid on a waiting list for preschool.”

Preschool? “No way.”

“It’s not like it was when we were kids,” Rob said. “For any hope of getting a kid into a good college, you have to get them into a good private primary school first, and to do that they have to go to the right preschool.”

Tony wasn’t even sure if he would want to put his child in private school. As a kid, he would have given anything to go to public school, if for no other reason than to have a little privacy, and anonymity. Any childhood mishaps or embarrassments had been fodder for the entire family. Every time he tried to shirk the rules, it always got back to his parents somehow. He’d had no choice but to behave. Not that he would have been a delinquent otherwise, but being the second oldest cousin—Nick’s sister Jessica beating him out by a year and a half—he’d been held to a higher standard his entire life.