Deliverance (#2) | ✓

twenty-two: party people

Nervous is an understatement to describe how I'm feeling right now. I'm freaking out. Partially because of Luca's assurance, partially because of the fact that I'm going to meet his family now that we're in his home country.

"Are you okay?" Luca questions as we begin our descent. He must have seen the look on my face — or lack thereof.

I nod and send him a forced smile, "Yeah, I'm great." Before turning my gaze back to Jori who is looking out at the dark becoming dawn, the sun rising above the horizon casting a beautiful hue over the earth.

From the corner of my eye, I can see Luca tilt his head but he says nothing else.

When we finally land, I start to unbuckle Jori when Luca steps up to me, a pensive look on his face like he'd been stuck in his thoughts.

"Ciao, party people!" An Italian accented voice sounds throughout the plane making me look toward the source.

The man is very handsome with similar features to Luca. His curls run rampant on his head, a few falling into his face. There's a jagged scar that runs diagonally from his hairline to his bearded chin. His teeth are white and straight and just like Luca, he has deep dimples.

Luca's head falls and he sighs heavily, hand running down his face in frustration. "Hello again, Jori." The man says, approaching my son with his arms extended.

Again?

"Hi!" Jori squeals excitedly when he's pulled into the man's arms and swung around, uncontrollable giggles escaping him.

I look toward the man with an arched brow. He must've sensed me looking at him because he puts Jori on his hip and walks over to me with a beautifully wide smile on his face.

"And you must be la bella Remi West." My brows shoot up when he takes my hand into his and kisses the back of it. Luca rolls his eyes, a smirk growing on his face as he shakes his head. "I am Adriano Santino, the better Santino, but you can just call me Adri."

"You're annoying," Luca mumbles to who I assume is one of his brothers.

"Nice to meet you, Adriano." I say, trying to fight the smile that threatens to grow on my face. "Thank you for helping —"

He shakes his head, "No thanks needed. Just keep being the amazing mother Luca told me you are. Not many of those left."

Luca bows his head and I can tell that hit hard. I think of the tattooed name on his chest.

I purse my lips, "I'm sorry about your mother. She must've been an amazing woman if she raised you guys this well."

Adriano smiles, "She was." A moment of silence passes — and I can feel the air clear for a second. The feeling that suddenly shot through me was weird but it was enough to make me look directly at Luca, something in me telling me to hold on to him for as long as possible. Adriano sucks in a breath and looks between us, "I'm gonna give you two some time to talk."

When he allows Jori to give me a quick kiss and leaves with him in his arms, I find myself stepping closer to Luca, enveloped in his scent.

He wraps his arms around my waist and kisses my forehead, "You okay now?"

I genuinely smile this time, "I'm great."

"Good." He pauses, "I have something to tell you before we get to the house and I don't know how it'll change things between us. I hope it won't but you never know —"

My brows furrow in confusion and amusement, "Is the Luciano Santino rambling? When did you become me?"

He chuckles and tilts his head to press a kiss to my jawline. "It's serious and ... you make me nervous." I love how he's opening up more. A smile grows on my face at his confession.

"What, are you trying to tell me you're in the mafia?" I tilt my head, faking an innocent look on my face as his eyes widen, "Yeah, it was pretty obvious. 'Another gang with more influence' that has a private jet and is stationed in Italy."

He takes his bottom lip into his mouth, wetting it. My eyes catch on them.

"Are you mad at me?" He asks.

I shake my head, "No. We both had our secrets."

probably should've established this earlier but luca and adri are fraternal twins and luca is older by like four minutes 😭

i also realized that i barely described adriano in the previous book and since his is next, we need to start seeing more of him

also, i lowkey wanna publish this highschool book but i already have too much going on and i haven't even started updating royal ever after — i need to figure out my priorities
even though i just wanna publish that other book to show y'all the aesthetics 😭