A second chance at true love

Chapter 9 - I see her.

.Lucio.

“You were angry last night?” Vincenzo is standing next to me and we look out over the soccer field.

“Tina told me. Christina had called her.” He sighs.

I shake my head laughing. “It was to be expected. Everyone apologized that it wasn’t meant to be like that,” I shrug. “But the moment my daughter tells me she’s more comfortable with people who aren’t related,” I shake my head and Vincenzo shakes along. He lights a cigarette and offers me one too. I take one out of his package and light it.

“I get you, you know it’s well-intentioned huh.”

“I know, but still. It hurts,” I answer him honestly.

He sighs. “I get it.”

He moves his head across the soccer field. Gino and his team are playing soccer. “I heard the boys talking, Gino wants to go back to Paulo?” he asks. I sigh and rub my face. “Yeah, I’ve talked to him about it, he feels bad that he keeps going back and forth. He doesn’t really know who to call dad, who to call by name,” I shake my head. “It shouldn’t be like that, you know.”

“Still smoking huh.” Marcello joins us. He slaps me and Vincenzo on the back.

“You’re the only one who quit,” Vincenzo notes.

Marcello smirks. “I have kids who listen.” He replies.

That makes me laugh. Vincenzo and Valentina do their best, but they have brought seven monsters into the world. Donni, Fabio, and Liona are a bit quieter but just as full of pranks as the other siblings.

“My Charlotte is an angel compared to those girls of yours,” Marcello laughs and Vincenzo shakes his head.

“I’d like to say it’s a lie, but it’s not. I’m already doing better!” he replies.

That’s right, his boys are more careful when they’re with the family about what they say and what they do. Vincenzo punishes them harder. Especially now that they are seventeen, almost eighteen, have finished high school, and are allowed to go to college.

“By the way,” I begin. “Sofia has her first prom this year,” I tell the two men and they both look at me with wide eyes.

“What, sh*t you’re right,” Marcello rubs his neck.

“No problem, I’ll tell the boys, Donni and Frank are going too,” Answers Vincenzo. I already know Sofia is going to be furious, but that’s too bad for her. I don’t want to risk my daughter doing stupid sh*t.

“I’ll give them instructions. How is Sofia doing?” he asks.

I sigh again. “Discuss all the hard topics here down the line?” I laugh.

Vincenzo has an apologetic look.

“She’s going to buy a dress with a friend and her mother. I tried, but I didn’t like one thing and it almost ended in a fight in the store. No dad has to do that sh*t alone with his daughter,” I tell both.

They nod and we’re looking back over the field.

“What are you doing here?” asks Marcello to Vincenzo. Adam, his eldest son plays soccer with Gino.

“Valeri wanted to try something new and Valentina doesn’t want to go anymore. She was tired of it,” He talks about his eldest daughter, part of twins. The worst part of the twins.

Marcello and I exchange a glance. Valeri always wants to try something new. Until she gets in trouble, again, and then she just quits. She hasn’t been able to find anything she really likes yet.

I hear a loud humming sound and look in the direction it’s coming from. An old car, almost a bus, is in the parking lot, so big. But my mouth doesn’t fall open until I see who’s getting out from behind the wheel.

“She’s been everywhere lately,” I sigh. Not only in real life, but also in my dreams I found her a few times. I just haven’t figured out why she’s visiting me in my dreams. Vincenzo and Marcello laugh.

“That’s because she is everywhere,” Answers Vincenzo. “All her kids play sports, and have clubs, she brings and picks them all up and their friends when needed.”

“Doesn’t she have a job?” I ask.

Not to judge, but it’s genuine curiosity. I know how many things Sofia and Donato do besides school and Gino when he’s here. She has, I’m now well informed, six children. How that woman still looks so good is a mystery to me.

“Certainly, she works for DeKeyser. She’s a lawyer. She works when the kids are at school,” I look at him with wide eyes. How does he know that? He raises his hands. “Cam,” He replies.

“Charlotte and Madison are best friends, which makes Cam and Meredith pretty close.”

I nod. “Where is the father?” I ask.

Most of the parents here down the line are fathers. Even divorced, most dads are here.

Vincenzo sighs. “Valentina told me that the father, Maxwell Smith? Don’t know if you know him, he’s in the oil business,” He looks from me to Marcello. We both shake our heads. “Smith Oil? The largest supplier of oil from Texas.” Then a light starts to come on and my eyes widen.

“Yeah, he’s the dad.” Vincenzo shakes his head.

"Ian told us that he isn't clean." Marcello looks swiftly at the both of us. We all know what that means, but we're out of the game. Ian is Cam's family, he is very much in the world we left. I shake my head. I don't want to know.

“Valentina told me he wasn’t into monogamy. The wife found him in their apartment banging someone else, his secretary in her early twenties, when she came walking in with the kids.”

My eyes almost fall out. What the... how? Why?

Marcello grumbles. “What man, does that? She’s such a wonderful woman.” he wonders aloud.

I press my lips together not to answer. Paulo does. He f*cked my wife.

“Yeah, I don’t understand,” Answers Vincenzo.

“I would have known what to do if I was single.” Marcello laughs as he nudges me with his elbow.

I shake my head.

“Ah come on Lucio, a little birdie told me that even Sofia and Donato want you to date.” Vincenzo laughs and I shake my head. Looking at the soccer field. F*cking Valentina.

“Ow did they say that?” asks Marcello.

“Okay ladies, it was a real pleasure. Next time, while enjoying a glass of wine.” I slap both on the shoulder and walk away, but not before lighting another cigarette and looking from a distance at the woman in the oversized car.

Sofia is right. Meredith is pretty. More than just pretty. She’s gorgeous.

Maybe everyone is right. I deserve to be happy. I deserve to love someone and receive that same love. That’s always been the case. Only before today, I’ve never looked around. Resigned to the life I have. Resigned to the fact that I would be alone. And now that I look around again, I see her.

I know other women were trying to get my attention all along, but I ignored them. No more need for a woman who was after only one thing, my money, the name, maybe both.

But Meredith is different, I know that when I hear Sofia talk about her. I know that when I hear Vincenzo and Marcello grumbling. They wouldn’t grumble if their wives didn’t complain about it. And Meredith is the first woman since I stopped looking around and now I can't see anyone else.

I see her.

And I want more of her.