I Am Keeley

Chapter 19: My Italian Man Candy

***This chapter is long, like very long, like 10,000 words long as an apology for the very delayed update. Enjoy!***

Luca's POV

"Gnocco, could you pass me that bowl, please?" I smiled at the beautiful girl next to me as I reached across the breakfast table and grabbed the fruit Keeley had pointed at. I kissed her forehead as I sat it down. Keeley and I had been doing great.

Christmas was last week, today being New Year's Eve. The day had gone by perfectly: breakfast, gifts, movies, a big dinner. I don't think I'd ever seen Keeley as relaxed as she was. She had bought everyone something special, even a new collar for Gus. She handed me a small box after everybody had opened their own gifts and were chatting around the living room, and inside was a simple silver bracelet, but not feminine or anything. It was almost as if it was a cross between a chain and a rope, and I remember she told me in the sweetest and most thoughtful voice I'd ever heard, "I love the one you gave me. I just thought you might like one too."

I'll never forget how she looked in that moment with her eyes sparkling quite literally like a kid on Christmas, and her wild, blonde hair piled into a bun on her head. She was wearing the matching red flannel pajamas she had convinced everybody to wear, and for once, she looked like she wasn't watching her back or looking over her shoulder. Keels was happy at that moment, and I hope to God I never have to see her any other way.

I focused my attention back to the table just in time to see Sam shove an entire pancake into his mouth. Syrup ran down his chin and stuck to his hair which had grown quite long since my family had arrived here. Donnie sighed as he put down his own fork and began wiping up the melted butter and syrup that had spilled onto the wooden table.

"Sam, could you eat normal like the rest of us?" Nick groaned from his spot at the head of the table. You could see the right side of his jaw twitch as he closed his eyes.

"Leave him alone. He's still just a kid." I tried to hide my smile as Finn defended Sam from their older brother. I'd gotten used to this by now: Sam looking stupid, Donnie cleaning the mess up, Finn defending Sam against the big, bad, and mighty Nicholas Harris.

"At least-" Sam muffled as a chunk of pancake fell from his mouth onto his plate, which only caused Keeley to look at him in disgust, "I don't eat eight pancakes like Gigantor over here."

We all looked at Callan as his eyes turned a bit downwards and maybe he was even a bit embarrassed as syrup ran over the sides of his abnormally large stack of pancakes. Poor guy was just hungry.

I quickly turned to hold Keeley back, knowing damn well she didn't like when people made fun of Callan. Keeley always hurts when he hurts, and to be honest, nobody wants to deal with an upset Keeley.

I wasn't quick enough, though, because she was already pushing her chair back and standing up from the table. The sunlight from the windows poured in and even though she was about to kick Sam's ass and it was eight in the morning, she looked flat-out gorgeous.

"Keeley," Giovanni and Nick both warned as they slowly prepared themselves to get into the middle of this morning's beat-down. Matteo sat back with a smirk and sipped on his orange juice, fully enjoying the fact it wasn't him on the other side of Keeley's wrath today.

"You wanna repeat that?" Keeley whispered in a tone that would have sent anybody peeing themselves. Sam, being the idiot he is though, decided to ignore all the signs of Keeley's rage and continued to shove a fork full of scrambled eggs into his mouth.