The Carrero Solution (Carrero Book 3)

“What’s the problem? Is it Dad?” Jake almost growls:

Still, no love lost between father and son. When we were last here, he barely acknowledged him at all and still doesn’t

seem interested in ever giving Giovanni another chance. I wonder if having a child will make a difference in the relationship.

“No, it’s so much worse. Oh, and before I forget.” She leans forward and smacks Jake hard in the upper arm near his shoulder. The noise echoes loudly, making him jerk to the side with the connection. Sylvana has a mean swing arm, another trait for Tadpole to inherit.

“Ouch, what the hell was that for?” He tenses, flexing his shoulder, and I can only guess at the look he’s giving her over my head, especially if the anger radiating from him is anything to go by.

“For being an idiot. You know exactly what!” She looks at him, then down at me with a softening smile and a softening of sympathy.

Oh, God. Jake told his mother about our breakup.

“She’s here, isn’t she? I got her back. I’m not going to be that dumb again, I swear.” He huffs and squeezes me a little tighter. Sylvana scowls at him, then her face drops, and she heaves a sudden sigh, remembering her dilemma.

“This is what the so much worse is.” She flaps her hands with a dramatic sigh. “Marissa is here. In the sitting room.” She grimaces, and both Jake and I tense up instantly. My breath catches painfully, but Jake is the first to speak.

“What the hell for?” He sounds angry. No, he sounds pissed as hell. Meanwhile, I feel sick, emotional, and ready to cry and storm away. This is turning into a day from hell for me.

“She’s staying with her family for the weekend and just showed up asking to see me and talk about things … She’s carrying my grandchild remember? I couldn’t turn her away!” Sylvana slaps her hands on her hips and glowers at her son.

Great. Of course, she lives near here or is from here. When Jake met her, he was only fifteen! Why didn’t I realize this before agreeing to a house here?

“For the love of fucking God!” Jake curses and moves me to a seat nearby, helping me slide down into it. He strokes me across the shoulder and plants a kiss on my cheek despite his obvious agitation. He moves off and gets me a glass of iced water before coming back to stand behind me, resting his hands on the back of my chair. He’s pacing to control the war of emotions in his head. I know his tells almost as well as he knows mine nowadays. “Fuck.” He grinds through gritted teeth.

I drink the water slowly, glad of the small task to focus

on and the cool liquid to quell my nausea, my head spinning out of control with a million emotions and crazy thoughts. The bitter pit of anxiety in my stomach expands at speed.

I wonder if you can blame murder on pregnancy hormones? Some sort of mental breakdown and loss of faculties?

“Language, Jacob!” Sylvana glares at him, then pats me on the shoulder and walks to the fridge, hauling out a bottle of wine.

“We need something stronger,” she exclaims, waving the bottle toward us with a wicked smile.

“Umm. No alcohol for Emma, Mamma.” It’s out before Jake even thinks about what he’s saying, and Sylvana

spins. In an instant, I see it, and so does he. The clicking mind of a very sharp woman who has just registered that he carried me in looking sick, he’s been clucking around me ever since; more so than normal, and now, he’s refusing alcohol on my behalf in a tone that suggests … well suggests I’m pregnant. Her eyes widen, and her hand covers her mouth in a swift gasp.

“Really?” Tears prick her eyes, and she visibly shakes herself.

“Depends on what you’re asking?” Jake turns sheepish, trying to gauge his mother’s reaction and figure out if she’s shocked, happy, or pissed. I’m not counting on one more than the other, as I don’t know. Marissa’s baby puts a different spin on what would normally be a grandmother’s dream.

I, meanwhile, am still sitting thinking about the fact that Demon Bitch is sitting a few rooms away. The woman carrying my boyfriend’s baby. The woman he kissed not so long ago. She’s right here in his family home, looking to talk to Sylvana about her future as the mother of Sylvana’s grandchild. The ironic timing of this situation is not lost on me. My stomach thumps hard, and my heart aches with shattering pain. Even if I am learning to forgive Jake, I still hate the bitch with a vengeance.

“Are you pregnant?” She watches Jake closely, poised and still, barely breathing. Her voice is almost a whisper as though she daren’t believe it.

“Well, not me personally, Mamma, but yeah, Emma

and I are having a lil’ Carrero.” Jake sounds pleased

and proud; for a tiny moment, I forget about her and

gaze at him with sheer love. It never ceases to surprise me to see his reaction to our baby. The genuine happiness in his tone and no doubts whatsoever despite how crazy in turmoil I still feel every day. Any time he says it, he always looks fit to burst with sheer joy. I can forgive him anything when he looks like this.

“Oh, my God.” Sylvana runs to her son, throwing

her arms around his big frame dramatically, hauling him down to her height and kissing him on both cheeks in a

very Italian manner before bursting into fluent Italian

dialog. Jake answers her in a mix of English and Italian and

I have zero clue what is being said, other than she cries and grins a lot. It’s emotional to watch, and it’s obvious

she’s ecstatic. I can’t help but wonder how she reacted when he told her about Marissa’s child. I try to push away that lump of pain in my chest.

She turns to me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders, kissing me on the cheek from her position above me. Gushing and tweaking my cheeks with another bout of fluent Italian. I just blink back with a smile and have no idea what to respond with. Jake always seems oblivious to the fact that I need a translator sometimes. I’m not sure he’s aware of when they switch between languages.

“There’s more, Mamma. Emma and I are here to see a house this weekend. A house I might want to buy for us.” He can barely contain the beaming happiness bouncing off him in giant waves.

I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a beautifully composed, graceful woman, like Sylvana, literally burst into a happy dance and sob simultaneously. He just made her wildest dreams come true, which goes a long way to making me feel better instantly, forgetting about Demon Bitch for a few needed minutes.

“Is it close by?” She chirps ecstatically.

Jake glances at me for a second. I note the little flutter

of doubt, then he smiles slowly and cautiously and looks back at her.

“You can see it from here.” He nods toward the refrigerator wall facing him, indicating the direction, and Sylvana breaks into a huge grin.

“The Wilsons? They haven’t even told anyone it’s on the market yet … Jake, it’s practically next door!” Sylvana is back calling him Jake, so I’m sure he’s just made her month. She is the happiest woman alive, and I am also feeling a little buzz about his confession. The Wilson house is next door, close enough to be a part of his family, and a small piece of me is warming to this idea.

Okay, maybe not next door in the New York sense; I mean, they are far apart with grounds in between and a huge massive line of trees and security fencing … But next door as in a five-minute walk across the backgrounds if you didn’t have any fences to climb.

“You know I can’t leave her chatting with Clara in the sitting room forever, Jacob?” Sylvana finally points out when the excitement and chatter about the house die down. She’s still holding a hand to her heart as though it’s fluttering. Her beautiful face radiates sheer motherly bliss. Clara is Sylvana’s assistant from her charity office and a very close friend who lives nearby.

Jake glances at me, and I catch the flicker run across

his face. He has no clue how to play this. If it were just a case of it being Marissa and the baby, he would go and speak to her; but now it’s a case of Jake having kissed Marissa, knowing his actions can affect me tremendously, affect what he’s trying to fix. I don’t want to tell him what to do. I want him to decide for himself. I want to trust him. If I’m ever going to move on, I need to learn to trust him, especially regarding her.

I remain impassive, with no expression or messages, just a blank look, so he gets nothing from me. He frowns, watching my face, then finally sighs.

“I’m going to take Emma upstairs for a while, Mamma. Let her lie down and have some time to recover. Just get Marissa to leave.” He kisses her on the cheek before coming to me and pulling my chair out. He catches my hand, kissing my palm before enveloping it in his and pulling me up, tugging me into his arms and toward the kitchen door. I don’t know how to feel, so I allow him to take control and guide me.

“Jacob … Ordinarily, I would agree, but this isn’t about any of you … It’s about a child. Now, more than ever, you should understand that importance.” Sylvana’s comment hits home. Jake stalls in front of me, his body stiffening, and he sighs hard. She obviously knows how to get under his skin with very few words.

“What do you want me to do? I’m standing here with the love of my life, very aware of how close I came to fucking it all up with the girl in the next room, Mamma … There is a baby involved, but I’m not going to ignore how this affects Emma and our baby, and our future together.”

He’s upset. I can feel the despair emanating from him and can only give him a sympathetic look. I hug

close to him as his arm tightens around my shoulder.

Complication at its best.

“You’re all adults, Jake. Let the past stay in the past. Emma is here with you. You have all got to get it together for the sake of these babies. They will be siblings, after all.”

Her comment hits me this time, and I swallow hard, tears threatening. She’s right. As much as this is killing me, she’s so very right; my baby has a sibling already, and as much as I hate the girl in the next room, I can’t hate the part growing inside of her that belongs to Jake. His eyes are on me as I stare at my stomach and a tear rolls down my cheek involuntarily.

“Go see her, Jake. I’ll be upstairs.” I pull out of his arms and head away, but he catches me and hauls me back against him, lifting my face to his with that no-nonsense expression set in.

“Hell. No.” He kisses me gently on the nose and wipes my face with his thumb, keeping me close and reassuring me with his hold. “I’m sorry, Mamma, but I’m not changing my mind. Emma is my priority. If Marissa wants to talk, let her hang around or come back later. But right now, I’m taking Emma upstairs, and I won’t be down until she’s ready to come with me. The pregnancy is making her ill, and she needs rest. She needs me beside her to care for her like I promised I would always do.” His eyes are steady on mine, so much transpiring in those green depths. He’s making a stand, showing me that no matter what, it’s always me first, and whether I knew it, it’s what I needed, and I’m grateful for the way the pain in my heart lets go a little.

“I knew I raised you right.” Sylvana smiles, patting his shoulder. “Marissa can come back for dinner, and you’ll talk to her before she leaves. I’ll send food to your room if you prefer not to eat with her, but at some point, you’ll sit down and be adults. Enough of all this foolishness now.” Jake grits his teeth and narrows his eyes before he finally nods.

“Fine. I’m sure we can all handle dinner without anyone throwing a few steak knives.” His jaw is still rigid, and his body still solid. He may be agreeing, but he’s not happy in the slightest.

I hope the glance at me was not in any way related to his comment.

Although come to think of it, I better make sure he removes anything sharp if I’m to sit at dinner with her.

I don’t have a clue about how I’m going to handle this.

“Good. Now go. I’m being extremely ignorant, leaving her this long. Go to your room. It’s all made up.” She smiles, waving us off, then bustles away toward the long wide marble corridor leading to the family room. Jake leads me up the long sweeping stair before pulling me into our room and into his arms.

“Are you okay? About all of this, I mean?” He looks worried. No. He looks scared, and it only makes me love him more.

“No … Not really, but your mom’s right, Jake. This isn’t about any of us anymore.” I hate that I even agree to it, the agreement doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt like hell, but here we are. Being pregnant has changed my outlook so much in such a short time despite not knowing how to accept it. Maybe it’s an internal maternal change, but I’m thinking about Marissa’s child, and suddenly I don’t want to be the bad guy in this. I don’t want to be the bitch that shuns a child because she can’t handle the relationship between her boyfriend and his ex.

Jake is pensive, his fingers tangling in my hair and his forehead resting against mine; sighing as he finds solace

in me.

“I love you. I don’t want you upset.” He sighs. “I don’t want you looking at her and thinking about …” He closes his eyes, the regret shining all over his face. I can’t say I’m not thinking the same thing, but this is how it is.

“I’m not going to leave you again if that’s what you’re worried about,” I reassure him, and he opens one eye to look at me and then the other.

“Promise?” His boyish smile followed by a tentative kiss on the lips, soft and gentle, everything I need right now. I sigh against him and let him pull me out of my head.

“I promise.” I try a smile and fail. I may say the right thing, but I’m not feeling it. I’m overemotional and just a slight bit insecure. Nerves are getting the better of me, yet all that aside, I do mean what I say. He’s stuck with me. Whether he still wants it or not, I’m never going anywhere without him again.