Page 56 of Marcello
“Marcello.” My mate sat up and reached for the baby who was now swaddled in a pink blanket and had a hat on with a pink bow.
Marcello’s smile grew before he faced me again. “This little princess has a little prince for her sibling,” Marcello told me.
“Yeah?” I asked. “We have one of each?”
“We do.” Marcello lowered our daughter down to where I could get a good look at her. Well, almost.
“Baby boy is a vampire,” Rio said. “You have one of each.”
Mazzi brought over the other baby, and I tried to look at our son, who was in a blue blanket and had a blue hat on.
“Do you have names picked out?” Mazzi asked. “They’re both gorgeous, you two,” he added.
Marcello nodded. “Abel picked several names. I had very little input because I wasn’t carrying them. I did veto a few though.” Marcello gave me a knowing look. It was true—he absolutely vetoed a few names. Some of them I wasn’t exactly serious about anyway. Others, I actually liked.
“Look at them,” I said. I tried to reach out to touch them, but the angle was completely wrong.
“Hang on a moment, and we’ll get one or both of them into your arms,” Mazzi said.
“I can’t decide which one I want to hold,” I said.
“Don’t stress about those things,” Mazzi said.
Marcello smiled down at our daughter before he turned his smile toward me. “Are you going to tell them the names, or have you changed your mind again? If you have, it’s all right. They’re not going to really know them for some time.”
I shook my head. “The girl is Lucianna. I want to call her Luci,” I told them. “The little guy, we agreed on Francesco, and we’re going to call him Frankie.”
“Luci and Frankie. Oh, that’s so cute,” Mazzi said.
“All right, Abel,” Rio said. He was farther down, but he towered over my view of Marcello as he moved closer. “If these two will back up just a bit, I will help you get reclined on the bed.”
“Everything’s finished?” I asked, surprised.
“Yes, it is. I used magic to close your omega line because there was a bit of tearing on your left side. I didn’t wish for it to cause you any extra pain, so I went ahead and helped with that.”
Marcello and Mazzi both backed away, and then the next thing I knew, I was reclining back on pillows after Rio helped move me up onto them. From this position, I could better see the babies, and I started crying again.
“That’s understandable,” Rio said quietly. “You’ve been through a lot today, and things are only going to continue.” Riotucked a light blanket around me, and I couldn’t help but lift it and the sheet. I found out that I felt different because at some point, he’d helped me put on some thin lounge pants.
“Are the babies okay?” I asked. “They’ve both gone quiet.”
Rio placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “They’re fine. Very healthy. They’re both sleeping now, which is why they’ve gone quiet. They are going to do that a lot for the next couple of months. Then it will be when you have to start wondering if you will ever get more than three hours of sleep at any one time ever again.”
I made a face. “Good to know.”
“Such is life with twins,” Rio told me. “Now, after-birth care,” he said. That caught my attention. “Stay in bed unless you absolutely need to go to the bathroom. You cannot get up out of bed until you have full feeling in your legs again. That is going to be a couple of hours, so if you need to go, have your mate help.”
I nodded. “I think I’m good for now,” I told him.
“Let your mate help. Let him run for bottles. Let him change diapers. You cannot and should not have to do it all alone. He’s here to not only help you but also to help you take care of your babies.”
“Okay.”
Rio took several steps back, and then he was gone. Mazzi was suddenly there and handing me little Frankie.
“He’s adorable,” Mazzi said. “And before they both fell asleep, they both had blue eyes.”
“Really?” I asked.
