Tangled: A Moreno Brothers novella (19 page)

“I’ve been promoted to big brother.”

Romero turned to see the T-shirt Amanda was holding up. Clearly, neither
of his kids got it, but Romero did. He turned back to his wife, who tried to
smile, but her quivering lips didn’t allow her to. “You pregnant, baby?” She
nodded, and Romero wrapped his arms around her neck, still unable to believe it
and feeling completely choked up himself. “Are you serious?”

“Yes!” She laughed, pulling away. “And it’s what I was dreaming
about this morning. I don’t remember the dream exactly, but it was about Thanksgiving,
the day I told Elliot I was having another baby and wouldn’t be coming back
after Christmas break. I knew way back then I wouldn’t be going back.” She
opened her eyes even wider. “It’s why I was sick at the mall and why I’ve been
so moody and emotional. Brandon’s gift to Gina was sweet, but I never would’ve
been that big of a mess because of it.”

Romero stared in her genuinely happy eyes then down at the onesie,
feeling the floodgates of tension drain from his body all at once. He could
admit now he’d still been feeling tension even after the night she explained
about her day at the mall and had once again spiked hearing what she’d said in
her sleep. It all made sense now.

“Yeeeeeehaw!!” he chanted loudly, startling them all, and then
jumped to his feet. He helped Izzy up then hugged her, picking her up and
spinning her around.

Max, Manny, and Aida were on their feet too, and they all hugged,
jumping up and down like kids. Not surprisingly, Manny was already swatting
tears away, even as he and Max hugged. Mandy and Romeo joined them, and Romero
bent over to face Romeo.

“Do you get what’s happening, son?” His boy shook his head even
as he continued to jump and laugh. Romero laughed. “You’re gonna be a big
brother next year. Mom’s having a baby.”

Even as Romero said the words, he still couldn’t believe it. He
was having another baby. What had started to feel like it might be the worst
Christmas ever turned out to be the best.

Romeo stopped jumping abruptly and turned to Izzy. “You are?”

She nodded, smiling big. “What do you think?”

He thought about it for a moment then shrugged. Amanda was still
jumping up and down. “I can’t wait!” she said. “I hope it’s a girl!”

“Maybe not being the youngest one will man this boy up yet,” Max
said in a loud whisper.

Romero turned to him with a glare. “What?” Max said, looking
surprised. “You heard that?”

“We all did,” Isabel said, looking equally as annoyed as Romero
felt. She turned back to Romero. “Oh, but there was more in the bag.”

Immediately, Amanda ran to get the bag and brought it back to
him. Romero stared at her as he reached in the bag. The Padres cufflinks she
got him were bad ass, but they didn’t hold a candle to the excitement he felt
from seeing the last thing in the bag: a piece of paper from her doctor,
confirming her pregnancy and her estimated due date.

This was really happening.

What also came as a surprise was the fact that everyone but him,
his uncles, and the kids knew about her pregnancy. Once again, he apologized to
Gina when she and Brandon arrived. He felt like an even bigger idiot now,
knowing what they’d been talking about at the beach the night he snapped and
the instant conclusion he’d jumped to. By the time the day was over, Romero
felt completely emotionally drained but in a good way. He’d been on cloud nine
all day.

As they always did every year, Izzy and Romero saved one last
gift to give each other in private once the kids were out.

They sat on the bed, each with a gift bag in front of them. Izzy
went first continuing with her Padres’ theme. She got them matching T-shirts.
Only instead of their last name across the top back, his read “Mine” with the
arrow pointing to the right and hers read “His” with the arrow pointing to the
left.

“This is fucking perfect.” He laughed, hugging her. “We should
get this printed on all our shirts.”

“I figured you’d like that,” she said, squeezing him tightly. “But,
uh yeah, that’s not happening.”

“I love it.” He kissed her then rubbed her belly the way he’d done
all night. “All right,” he said, holding on to his bag. “I don’t want you to
think I copied your brother-in-law, but when you told me how emotional his gift
to Gina had made you, I had to call his ass and ask him what the hell he’d done
this time.” Her eyes opened wide, making him even more nervous than when he
decided to do this. “So I’m not
that
kind of guy—you know, all cheesy
like Brandon.” He smirked. “But when he told me about the tickets, it reminded
me of something. You know how I always throw stuff from my pants pockets in the
top drawer of my nightstand?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling. “And it drives me nuts.”

“Well, I did that way back then too,” he explained, feeling like
a sap already. “Only when I’d go to clean it out and see stuff like a ticket
stub to a movie I took you to or something like that, I couldn’t bring myself
to throw it out. By the time I moved in with you, I had an Izzy box. But I didn’t
want you to think me a sap, so I took it to Manny and Max’s, and it stayed
there all this time.” Her eyes went wide again, and they practically twinkled
as she looked down at the bag. “I didn’t even remember about my Izzy box until
Brandon explained his gift. I had no idea him saving those airline tickets all
this time would be something you’d get so worked up about. So I went and
searched for the box. Sure enough, Max and Manny hadn’t thrown it out all this
time. It was still right there in my closet.”

Impossibly, her smile went even bigger, and she actually brought her
hands to her mouth and seemed suddenly too excited to sit still. “Okay, okay,
let me see!”

He handed the bag to her, and she dug in, just as eagerly as the
kids had earlier. She pulled out the frame Romero had put together at the craft
store Brandon told him about. Romero sat next to her, looking over the
different things under the glass. In the middle was a photo of the two of them
at the makeshift bar in Alex’s parents’ backyard the day of Angel’s wedding
shower.

Her mouth dropped. “I’ve never even seen this photo,” she said, staring
at it. “My God, I look all tense, and you’re smiling as big and smugly as I
remember you doing that day.”

“Yeah, you were tense, but you were also adorable as shit,” he
said, staring at it, remembering how much fun he had that day, making her blush.
“I saw it a few weeks later at the restaurant in the back room on the desk with
a bunch of other photos from the shower, and I snagged it.”

Around the photo under the glass, there was a beige frame with
the other things he had saved: the ticket stubs to their first Padres game, the
ones he pulled out at Friscos when he’d first asked her out; ticket stubs to a
few of the very first movies they’d gone to the show to see; and the key to her
apartment she had made for him when he first moved in with her.

“You kept that?” she asked, and just as she said she had gotten
emotional about Brandon’s gift, her eyes were already full of tears.

“Yep.” He nodded. “I remember thinking at the time it was the
best thing I’d ever been given by anyone. It meant I got to go to sleep and
wake with you every single day from then on. Remember that?” He pointed at
fortune he’d gotten one of the times he’d taken her to the Lucky Dragon. It
wasn’t from their first date there, but it was the only one he’d ever felt
compelled to save. Izzy read it out loud.

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to ride them.”

She turned to him, her quivering lips confirming it. She did
remember.

“Of all the times we went there, it’s the only one I ever saved.”

He stared at it now, remembering why. It was weeks after the only
break up they’d ever had, after she’d seen him at his worst and he’d really
thought he’d lost her. “Do you know why I saved that?” he asked.

She nodded, touching his face. “Because you were still worried
that I’d eventually break up with you because of your temper.”

He kissed her, nodding. “And you said this fortune was meant for
me. That between the two of us we’d learn to ride the waves.” He took a deep
breath. “Baby, this morning you have no idea—”

Touching one finger to his lips, she smiled, a single tear
streaming down her cheek. “You always say I have no idea, but I know you so
well, my love. I’m sorry my surprise meant torturing you for a few weeks there,
but you know how I was able to hold off telling you until today?” Romero stared
at her for moment before shaking his head. “Because we learned to ride the
waves.” She laughed softly. “Oh, there were moments when I thought about just
telling you, but each time I was able to talk you down. A few years ago I probably
wouldn’t have made it until Christmas morning had the circumstances been the
same.”

He had to smirk now because he thought of this so many of the
times he’d nearly blown his stack in the past few weeks. “A few years ago this
guy would’ve ended up with a turkey leg up his ass way back on the night of
Thanksgiving when he kept calling you ‘amazing.’”

Isabel laughed. “But he didn’t, and as surprised as I know
everyone was that night that you kept your cool, I wasn’t.”

“We’ve come a long way, baby.” He smiled, touching her belly
again.

“And we still have so much further to go,” She kissed him softly.
“Merry Christmas, Romero. I’ll love you forever.”

He kissed her back, bringing her back gently against the pillows.
“Merry Christmas, Izzy, and I don’t think I need to tell you how much I love
you. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it for as long as I live. I’m nothing
without you.”

Epilogue

sabel tiptoed into the play room. She had a feeling
what she would find since it was too quiet, and sure enough she’d been right.
Romero had fallen asleep with the baby on his chest on the sofa. Mandy had
fallen asleep, sitting up at the end of the sofa, and Romeo had wedged himself
between Romero’s body and the sofa.

They’d had a long weekend, and this was how their long weekends
usually ended. Almanzo’s first birthday party had been over the top as
expected. With Manny and Max asking to throw it, she had a feeling it would be.
But how could she and Romero say no? They called it the day he was born.

She’d never forget the day they walked into the hospital room and
Romero introduced them to Almanzo Maxim Romero. As expected, Manny had been
immediately choked up.

“You named him after us?” Max asked, since Manny wasn’t even able
to talk.

“Yep,” Romero said, handing the baby over to Manny, who could
barely hold it together. “You two raised me like your own—”

“You were ours.” Manny had jerked his face from the baby to look
at Romero. “Still are.”

“I know.” Romero smiled. “I just meant I never missed out on
having a dad. I always felt luckier than most because I had two instead of just
one. So me and Izzy thought it’d be an honor to name our baby after you two.”

Of course that had only made Manny a bigger mess. Isabel also
remembered how later she’d overheard Manny saying, unlike the other one, this
one had a better chance of not being such a momma’s boy with a name that
started with the words “All” and “man.” She’d quickly axed any chance of him
repeating that same comment over and over by threatening to change the baby’s
name to Francis after her grandfather.

“
Frances
?” Manny had looked absolutely horrified. “That’s
a girl’s name.”

“Not when it’s spelled with an “i” and that was my grandfather’s
name, so obviously, it’s unisex.”

“All right, all right,” he said, all overwrought and animated
about it. “Let’s not get crazy about this. It’s bad enough Romeo’s gonna get
teased mercilessly about his name when he gets a little older. Let’s not get
his underpants wedged
all
the way up his ass when he has to admit he has
a brother named
Francis
.”

With another stern look, Manny promised not to make any more
comments like that. Though Romero had warned her and she knew he was probably
right, these boys and even Mother Theresa were in for a lifetime of this with
these two. But he also assured her now that no matter what, just as he knew it
growing up, no matter how much his uncles busted his balls, the one thing he’d
never questioned was how much these two big lugs loved him.

The way these two fawned over her kids now was absolute proof.
And that day right there in the hospital Manny said they’d be throwing this kid’s
first birthday party, and they’d been talking about it ever since.

At the very least, it saved Isabel a ton of work because they
insisted on getting it all together and even cleaning up afterward so Romero
and Izzy could go home and put the exhausted kids to bed. This morning they’d
all woken up early to play with all of Almanzo’s new toys. They’d all spent
most of day here, playing and watching TV. Romero had been there the entire
time while Isabel took breaks to fix them all lunch and then dinner. She’d been
in the kitchen cleaning up when she noticed how quiet things got suddenly.

Isabel lifted the baby from Romero’s chest. Romero instantly
opened his eyes. “Shh,” she said, bringing the baby over her shoulder and
motioning to Romeo sound asleep next to Romero.

Romero lay very still at first then started making his move. As
tired as the baby was, Isabel knew he’d sleep right through a diaper change,
and he did. She was just putting him down in his crib when Romero walked in
quietly. The second the baby was down and out of her hands, Romero hugged her
from behind, leaning his chin on her shoulder, and they both stared at the
baby.

“Are the other two out for the night?” she whispered.