LOST INTO THE VINE (BWWM)

EPILOGUE

Matteo was making breakfast for the rest of the family, watching his daughter on a step stool, close to him. She had just run back into the house from her grandmother's, with a plastic container, somewhat covered in flour. "hurry, papa! Roro will wake up!" she whisper shouted at him, and her lips where thereafter in a thin line. He raised a brow, and she flushed, "please hurry up and give me the cinnamon?" Matteo rolled his eyes and complied. She already had a sugar dish and an empty container with her. She poured both sugar and cinnamon and sugar in the container, her tongue sticking out as she stirred the two. 

"What's going on here?" Nala walked into the kitchen. "I wanna wake Roro with a surprise, mama!" Nala smiled, walked to her and kissed her forehead, then raised a brow at her husband, "she's making him a birthday breakfast!" Nala was speechless, just watching as she worked, taking a crepe from one container and dropping it in another. When the container was almost full, she took the container she was picking from and put her hands forward to her parents, "you can have these, the rest are for Roro!" Without waiting for an answer, she put the container down, and worked with the other container, closing the lid and shaking the container. Nala once again looked to Matteo, who shrugged, "don't look at me, I'm not a part of this." 

A minute later, she put the now sugar-covered crepes on a plate, clapping, "I'll go wake up Roro!" She got off the stool and ran through the house with her little feet to her brother's room. Matteo and Nala followed, Nala complaining about how fast she was running. "Already getting old?" Matteo teased. She snorted and elbowed him. "Good morning, sleepy Roro!" she shouted, elongating all three words, she jumped in his bed. Rowan immediately reached for his sister and hugged her, "good morning, Rina!" Irina embraced him back, smiling wide, Nala's heart soared one more time. "Roro, it's your birthday today, I've got the best surprise for you." "Best!" Matteo mumbled the correct wording, and Nala elbowed him a new, "shut up!" 

Hand in hand, the two got out of bed and walked to the door where their parents stood. "morning!" He still said morning as mourning, but who cared. Nala lifted him in her hands, "happy birthday baby!" kissing him all over his face, making him giggle. Matteo then took him, blowing a raspberry as they walked back down the stairs to the living room, he threw his head back and laughed, making Irina giggle. At the foot of the stairs, Irina asked her father to put Rowan down, and she walked him to the mini table they have tea parties, she placed a plate of Rowan's favorite snack on the table with a plastic fork piercing through one of the churros, then ran back and came with a glass of strawberry milk, then took a sit in one of the tiny chairs, next to him, holding the fork to his mouth, "say aah!" Rowan did as he was told, opening his mouth wide. His sister fed him, and gave him the strawberry milk to drink on a straw. 

Taking the fork from her, he filled his mouth, smiling at them all with a churro smiley face, "it's so awesome! Thank you, Rina!" He said in a mouthful, but still rose up and gave his sister a sloppy, messy kiss on the cheek. Irina giggled back. And the rest of the family had their breakfast before they started prepping to go down to the beach. And during the whole ride, Nala and Matteo sat content, while listening to Irina talk her brother's ears off, "we'll swim with the fishes! And then! And then we'll make sandcastles! And then we'll eat lots of ice cream..." 

Matteo looked away from the road for a moment, caressing his wife's hand, "you make me so happy!" "I better!" she snorted, but all the same, raised his hand intertwined with hers to her lips and kissed it. When they got to the beach, Rowan and his sister screeched happily at seeing their cousins and other relatives, running to them. Rowan fell, and Irina immediately stopped running, she dusted him off with a "let's not run anymore cause I don't like seeing you get hurt. and if you fall again, you will get hurt." Rowan listened to his sister's wise words, and they walked hand in hand to where the rest of the family was.  "She is amazing," Nala told her husband. "And she got that from you!" he said, putting his arm around her as they walked to where everyone was. 

Nala embraced her sister. She finally knew the feeling her sister always talked about when she expressed the love she felt for her husband and children. After saying hi to everyone, she took a walk with her sister, catching up, watching everyone interacting, their men all playing beach volley, the other women talking up and the kids playing together "That man can't keep his eyes off of you!" her sister commented. "You'd think after four years he would, but he looks at me the same way he did the first time we met!" Nala said, smiling when Matteo winked at her when their eyes met. 

"I'm happy you found your way home, Nal!"

"I am too. They mean everything to me."