Sweet Temptation by Cora Reilly

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.”
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 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.
THE END
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