Sweet Temptation

They are her family. She’s a woman. They tend to overlook the shortcomings of their loved ones.”

“A fact we should be grateful for, or neither your nor my wife would put up with us.”

I loved modern art, drawing, and Pilates. I doubted any of those things mattered to a man like him. Torture and laundering money were most likely his favorite pastimes—and maybe the occasional whore.

“I guess it’s fitting that my second wedding night ends the same way my first did—with my crying wife in bed beside me.”

Cassio took the seat across from me. His eyes lingered on my bangs before they moved on to my flower earrings, probably deciding what new haircut he’d order me to get and what jewelry to buy for me.

teacher had asked them to create a painting that expressed their vision of happiness.

Giulia had painted our children, Loulou, and me taking a stroll on the beach.

It was as easy as that. Whenever I looked at the photo of Giulia and our little family that I carried in my wallet, one overwhelming feeling filled me: happiness.

I kissed her and she softened against me. Giulia handed me Gabriel, who peered up at me with my dark-blue eyes. It filled me with pride seeing our physical similarities, but it wasn’t stronger than the pride I felt when Daniele and Simona did something that I’d taught them—like play pool. Both of them were quite good at it. I loved all three of them equally.

“I have more hats like that,” she said pointedly.

“I know. I’ve made peace with your love of sunflowers.” Giulia had planted several of those ginormous flowers in our garden. What had once been a neatly manicured lawn was now filled with toys (for children and Loulou), wildflowers, and those yellow atrocities. “You brought chaos into my life.”

“You like my kind of chaos.”

Daniele and Simona continued their chase on the beach. Loulou jumped up from her spot on a lounge chair and joined them with cheerful barking. The floor of our beach house would be littered with sand tonight. In the past, this would have made me furious.

“I do. More than anything else, I love our life. It’s perfect in my eyes.”

Giulia kissed my chest over my heart then Gabriel’s forehead. “We made it that way. We work every day so it stays that way. Happiness is a choice.”

I wasn’t sure it was true for everyone, but for me, especially since Giulia had come into my life, it was. Giulia still painted almost every day and even took courses to improve her craft. In one of them, the

I looked at her. She cradled our two-month-old son with one arm while her other hand clutched her ginormous sunhat against her head. The wind was tearing relentlessly at the ugly thing. I’d made peace with her quirky clothes, but some things were beyond my tolerance.

“Love?”

That word wasn’t a casual endearment born out of habit coming from Giulia’s lips. Every time she said it, it held meaning.

Giulia encompassed that word “love,” that feeling, in every action, every smile, every fiber of her being.

I headed down to her, sand clinging to my bare feet as I crossed the dune to the beach. Simona and Daniele were taking a dip in the cold ocean, chasing each other and laughing. It was warm for late October, but the water was freezing cold. Back in Philadelphia these moments of childish carefreeness were few and far between for Daniele. At twelve, almost thirteen, he was only a little over a year away from becoming a Made Man—his fourteenth birthday would mark the day of his induction. His eyes found me briefly, and he gave me a boyish grin before Simona tossed water into his face and their chase continued. I joined Giulia, wrapped an arm around her waist, and grabbed the hand holding her hat down to pull her against my body, Gabriel between us. A gust of wind carried the straw hat away until only the bright yellow of its one big sunflower flashed in the distance.

Giulia gave me an indignant look. “You did that on purpose.”

Today, I slept in. Something Giulia had taught me. It was already past nine when I stepped onto the porch. Giulia and the kids were already up. Laughter drifted up to me from the beach, not the quiet of the past. I didn’t miss it. I hadn’t come here to find inner peace or see something beautiful. Inner peace had found me when Giulia stepped into my life. I didn’t have to drive hundreds of miles to seek a beach house for that. Now I only had to come home to my wife. Too beautiful for words—inside and out.

I closed my eyes, tilting my head up to the early morning sun, letting it warm my upper body and face. Many aspects of my life remained dark spots of brutality, but my home had become my safe haven.

“Love, won’t you join us?” Giulia called.

This was proof of how much they feared losing me… and Luca’s wrath, but I focused on the former, not the latter. Life was decidedly more pleasant if you chose to concentrate on the positive and not the negative. And I had so much to be grateful for.

A loving husband, a reasonably well-behaved dog, and three wonderful kids

You said he’d look cute, but he’s all wrinkly, and he’s shedding skin from his head,” Simona said with a wrinkled nose.

Cassio sighed. With a laugh, I got out of bed and slowly made my way over to them despite the pain in my lower body. “He’s a newborn. That’s how they look. I think he’s impossibly cute.”

“Was I a cute baby?” she asked.

“Yes,” Cassio and I said at the same time.

Daniele frowned. I wrapped my arm around him, whispering, “I love you.” He smiled, abandoning whatever dark thoughts had bothered him. “I’m glad you got me a brother and not a sister like Simona wanted.”

“You need to thank your dad for that.”

Cassio narrowed his eyes at me when Simona and Daniele looked at him for answers. Grinning, I walked up to him. “Maybe you need to have the talk about the birds and the bees soon.”

“I talked to Daniele, and Simona doesn’t need to know anything until she’s sixteen or seventeen.”

I rolled my eyes. “I was seventeen when we got engaged.”

“Don’t remind me.” He kissed my lips, causing our children to make disgusted faces.

“It worked out well.”

“It did,” he agreed, peering down at our sleeping newborn son.