Alessandro let out a hearty laugh. “Gio, now that you’re back you’ll have to get used to the women plotting against us. Don’t worry about it. It’s always harmless. And if you ask Maddy, she’ll tell you everything. She’s the weak link.”
Nicole whispered something to Abby.
Julia joked to Alessandro, “That may change after those two talk to her.”
The older man bent his tall frame and gave Julia the saddest puppy-dog expression she’d ever seen on a grown man. “Could you resist your father if he looked at you like this?” Alessandro turned his head more to the side, focused his eyes on the floor then, slowly raised them to meet Julia’s, silently pleading.
Julia burst out laughing. “You’ve got me. I would tell you everything.”
Straightening and puffing with pride, Alessandro rewarded Julia with a pleased smile. “It’s all in the eyes.”
Nicole chastised him playfully. “Uncle Alessandro. You’re shameless.”
He shrugged, clearly not bothered by her teasing. He waved to someone across the room and said, “If you’ll all excuse me. I was going to introduce Gio and Julia around, but it looks like that’s not necessary.” Before he walked away he said, “It is good to have you here, Gio.”
A woman came by and motioned for Nicole to follow her. Nicole said, “The photographer would like to take pictures of the wedding party now.” She smiled at Julia. “We’ll talk later.”
Stephan nodded to Gio and followed Nicole into one of the side rooms. Abby and Dominic excused themselves and did the same.
Gio took Julia by the arm and guided her in the opposite direction. “I didn’t realize I had brought the Julia to the wedding. Do you know what they meant?”
Not one to lie, Julia answered honestly. “Not entirely. I think the women are hoping that you’ll settle down, get married, and become close to this side of the family again.”
“What does that have to do with you?”
Julia took a deep breath. I’m sure he didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Still, let’s see if this takes some wind out of his sail. “They seem to think the right woman can bring a man back from even the darkest place.”
Instead of countering her comment or brushing it off, Gio mulled it for a moment before saying, “And what do you think?”
Mouth dry, Julia said, “I suppose it depends on the man and if he wants to come back.”
He pulled her into a secluded corner, his eyes dark with emotion. “People don’t change.”
Julia put a hand on his chest, just above his heart. “What a sad world it would be if that were true.”
He kissed her forehead. “You are one amazing woman, Julia. I wish . . .”
She covered his mouth with her hand. “Sometimes less is more. I am happy with amazing.”
*
As Gio guided Julia through the party, it was easy to forget why he’d come. A constant stream of family members came over to greet them. Many of them he’d lost touch with. Some he was meeting for the first time. Although his father was one of three sons, the generation before theirs had been larger. First, second, third generation—the level of separation wasn’t mentioned. About half the people in the room called themselves his cousin.
Random children he didn’t recognize ran up and down the stairs in what appeared to be an organized game of hide-and-seek. Some parents gave chase; some gave up.
After the formal speeches of thanks by Nicole and Stephan, Victor Andrade stood at the top of a wide stairway with a microphone in his hand. The crowd quieted again.
“There is no greater gift than to be able to share the end of my son’s bachelorhood with all of our friends and family. We welcome Nicole into our family and look forward to the little ones they will bring to us. For now, let’s enjoy the ones we have.” He beckoned to someone off to one side. His blonde wife stepped forward, leading several men carrying large white polished boards. “Katrine saw this in a magazine and fell in love with the idea.”
The crowd watched as the workers quickly transformed one side of the stairway into a wide slide with a thick white pad at the bottom of it. One of the men handed Victor and his wife what looked like a white, velvet mattress with handles sewn into the top. They sat side by side at the top of the stairs. Victor said, “After the children have their fill, I hope you will try this for yourselves. Life is too short not to fill it with as much love and laughter as you can squeeze into it.”
They pushed off from the top, and the crowd cheered as they flew down the slide and came to a gentle stop on the padded bottom. Laughing, Victor stood, then offered a hand to his wife and helped her up. She fixed her hair with one hand and beamed a smile at the surrounding crowd.
A herd of children charged up the other stairway and formed a line.
This was what his mother had always loathed about her husband’s family. He remembered as a child being told to sit instead of join in. A Stanfield would never laugh as loudly they did. A Stanfield always remembered the importance of the family’s reputation.
She’d done her best to keep his brothers and him separate from what she considered vulgar behavior. Yes, he had visited the island many times, but he’d never stayed overnight. Every visit had felt like a betrayal to his mother, who said they had never accepted her as one of them.
Nor, she’d warned, would they ever accept her sons.
He’d believed her.
He’d believed everything. He hated that he was no longer sure he should have.
Gio felt his gut twist with guilt. His brothers were off to one side of the room, included but still separate. Despite their earlier acceptance of the invitation to come, he knew they also had mixed feelings. Their mother stood between them and exuberance as surely as if she were there chastising them for being tempted to join in.
At his side, Julia pulled on his hand and asked, “Do you want to try it?”
He shook his head, not knowing what she was referring to.
“The slide,” she clarified and looked at it with longing. “Have you ever seen anything so incredible?”
His answer stuck in his throat as he took in her unfiltered excitement. “No,” he answered honestly. His heart beat double-time in his chest. Julia didn’t cling to everything she’d ever done wrong and let it hold her back. She was more alive in that moment than he’d ever allowed himself to be, and it made him want to experience the wedding through her eyes.
A teasing grin lit her face as she said, “I dare you to do it with me.”
“I don’t accept dares,” he said decisively.
“You should,” she went up on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear. “They can be fun.”
Her voice sent shivers of pleasure down his spine and he was instantly, painfully hard. “There are many things I want to do with you. Trying out that slide is not one of them.”
“I suppose that officially makes me more daring than you,” Julia said with a yawn.
He frowned down at her. “Really?”
She studied her nails. “Sure. I flew off to a foreign country with you. That’s brave. You are afraid to look foolish in front of your own family. Not so brave.”