Another Chance

Chapter One

“Dinners ready!” I yelled out as I put the last plate on the table after putting Zavier and Zastiel in their high chairs. Not even a minute later, everyone started piling into the dining room, taking their seats.
   “Everything looks amazing, sis.” Zain says, kissing my cheek.
   I placed a plastic plate of mashed potatoes on Zavier’s tray before kissing his forehead.
   “Zastiel, don’t play with it, eat it.” I said, wiping his hand off with a napkin. He simply just giggled before putting his other hand in his Mac n cheese. “I’ll just give him a bath after dinner.” Zaina said.
    I nodded as the door opened and Vera, Vinsant, Roman, Rowan, Alessandro, and Giovanni walked in.
    “Bout time, I was beginning to think I made y’all’s plates for nothing.” I said as they chuckled and walked to their seats.
    “And miss out on your amazing home cooked meal? Never.” Gio said, earning chuckles from the other guys, before kissing my cheek and taking his seat.
    “Everything smells amazing mama’s but we need to have a girl talk real quick.” She said before pulling me out of the dining room with Zaina and Zabrina following.
    We got to my room and she immediately shut the door and put a serious face on.
    “What’s going on?” Zaina asked, taking a seat at the foot of my bed.
    “Zofia has a secret admirer.” Vera said, with a grin.
    “What?!” The girls yelled in unison, jumping up from their seats.
    Vera quickly shushed them before looking back at me. “Yeah that’s very funny but I very seriously doubt an 18 year old single mom has a secret admirer.” I said with a small chuckle.
    “It’s true.” She replied with a smirk. “And I know who it is.”
    I rolled my eyes, “let me guess it’s some random guy from school who saw my picture in the trophy case from our talent show.” I said.
    “The guy did go to our school but now is a tough mafia guy, and his only soft spot seems to be for you.” Vera replied as my sisters are grinning like idiots behind her.
    “If you know so much about the guy then who is it?” I asked folding my arms.
    “Can’t tell you that, I made a promise and they have me under oath.” She said, holding up her left hand.
    “Then it’s one of your brothers.” I said as I went to walk past her.
    “Wait hold on, what the hell? How did you guess that?” Vera asked with a shocked expression.
    “Language!” I scolded, before continuing. “And because your brothers are the only ones who can swear you to an oath that you won’t break, if it was a random guy from school then you would’ve told me because you don’t care about breaking their trust but you treasure your brothers trust with a lock and key. There for, it has to be one of your brother’s.” I replied.
    “I hate you.” She said after a minute of silence passes.
    “Love you too.” I said with a smile.
    “Holy shit!” Zaina exclaims, jumping up and down.
    “Lingua!” I scold her, my Italian breaking through.
    “Scusa sorella.” She said before continuing. “A few weeks ago I heard the guys in Zander’s office, discussing if they ‘should tell her’ but I never knew exactly what they where talking about. They said that they didn’t know how Zofia would react to him telling her the truth.” She explained before leaning into Vera’s ear and whispering something.
    Vera giggled, nodding her head yes, causing Zaina to scream and jump up and down, “I knew it!” She yelled.
    “Hush you can’t tell her and you can’t tell them you know!” Vera said, after putting a hand over Zaina’s mouth.
    I went to reply before I heard Zavier start crying downstairs. “I’m gonna go check on him and as for this conversation, I’m gonna pretend it never happened.” I said as I walked out of my room and started heading downstairs back to the dining room to see Zander holding Zav trying to calm him down.
    “I’ll take him, Zane.” I said walking over as Zavier reached out to me.
    “I tried to calm him down, sorella but he don’t like us as much as you.” He said, as I started walking slowly to the table while rubbing Zavi’s back.
    “It’s okay Zane, can you make him and Zastiel their bottles and get Ziva’s sippy cup?” I asked before turning back around to see him and the guys already gone. “Or not.” I sighed.
    “Zaina can you give Zastiel his bath now?” I asked as the girls walked down the stairs.
    “Yeah want me to go ahead and clean Zavier up too?” She asked, picking up Zastiel.
    “No I’ll get him, he’s in one of his moods tonight.” I said, still rubbing his back and heading to the kitchen. “Alright babyboy, can you be a good boy for mommy and sit in your chair while I make your bottle?” I asked as I sat him in his high chair, to which he immediately looked up at me with teary eyes.
   I hurriedly started rushing around the kitchen, grabbing two baby bottles and Ziva’s purple sippy. Zavi started fussing a bit but suddenly went quiet. As I let the water warm up I looked back to check on Zavi accept he wasn’t in his chair anymore. He now had his head laid on Vinsant’s shoulder while sucking on his pacifier.
    “I hope you don’t mind but I found it on the coffee table and figured it might help while you got their stuff ready.” He said sheepishly while rubbing Zavier’s back.
    “I don’t mind at all but just a little shocked. When he’s tired he usually only lets me hold him.” I said as I turned and grabbed the apple juice from the fridge and filling Ziva’s cup up half way.
    I placed the juice back in the fridge and went back to the sink to feel if the water was warm enough before filling the baby bottles up the the right line then turning the nob back to cold.
   I scooped some formula into the baby bottles and put the lids on before shaking them vigorously. Once they where shook up well, I filled the rest of Ziva’s sippy cup up with water to dilute the apple juice some before turning the water off and putting the lid on her cup before shaking it up as well.
    Just then, Ziva and Zastiel came running into the kitchen, and I handed them their cup and bottle before noticing Vinsant and Zavi were gone.
   “Alright guys, let’s get y’all in bed.” I said as I lead them upstairs to their rooms. I tucked in Ziva and kissed her forehead before turning on her nightlight and turning off her big light.
    Then I picked up Zastiel and carrying him to his room which was across the hall from mine and laid him in his bed, tucking him in and kissing his forehead before turning is night light on and turning his big light off.
   As I walked out, closing his door softly, Zain came walking up the stairs. “Hey have you seen Vinsant?” He asked, quietly.
   “He was in the kitchen holding Zavier while I made bottles but then he disappeared and I have no idea.” I said before looking at my room and noticing my light was on and my door was cracked open.
   I slowly pushed it open and we peaked our heads in to see Vinsant sitting in the rocking chair beside Zavier’s crib and was reading a kids book while Zavi held Vinsant’s thumb before his eyes closed and he fell asleep.
    “Goodnight cat, goodnight dog, goodnight mouse.” He read quietly before closing the book and kissing Zavier on the head and laying him down gently in his crib, before turning to the door and stopping in his tracks as he saw me and Zain staring at him wide eyed.
    “Sorry you just seemed busy with the bottles and the other two so figured I'd lay him down for you.” He said quietly, rubbing the back of his neck and walking over to us.
    “Thank you that was very sweet of you.” I smiled and kissed his cheek. “I’ll just put his bottle in the fridge for later then.” I said before grabbing the baby monitor and walking downstairs to the kitchen and putting his bottle in the fridge.
   Smiling to myself, I started cleaning the table off and bringing the dishes to the kitchen.
   “Need some help?” I heard from the door way. I looked up and saw Giovanni walking over and helped grab the rest of the dishes and carried them to the kitchen.
   “Thanks.” I said as I started washing them as he dried them.
   “Well it’s the least I could do seeing as you cook three meals a day, take care of kids, clean this big ass hou-“
   “Language.” I scolded.
   “Sorry. All I’m saying is you do all that while still getting straight A’s in school online and not once have I ever heard you complain about it.” He said as he dried a plate.
   “Why would I complain? The younger kids, have full belly’s and happy faces, the older ones go to school and have good friends, my older brothers get to unwind after stressful days at work. They are all happy and taken care of and to me that’s all that matters.” I explain while smiling as I hand him the last cup to dry.
    “Now I see what he sees in you.” I replied, putting the cup up.
    “What who sees in me?” I asked, drying my hands.
    “Giovanni. Meeting time.” Vinsant says, cutting Gio off.
    “Sorry, girl. Duty calls.” He said before putting the hand towel on the counter and kissing my cheek. He walked out passed Vinsant.
    “Thank you for dinner by the way. It was great.” Vinsant said, smiling as me.
    “It was nothing, thank you for helping with Zavier, Vinny.” I replied as I hugged his waist, he hesitated before wrapping his arms around my shoulders.
   “Of course, piccola.” He replied softly.
I pulled away and looked at him. “You speak Italian?” I asked.
   “Yeah I’m a bit rusty but I still got it.” He chuckled.
    We looked at each other for another minute before we heard Alessandro yell for him from Zander’s office down the hall.
    “I gotta go. But I’ll see you tomorrow, Zofia.” He said before walking down the hall and disappearing into Zander’s office.
    “Apparently, Zavier is another on of his weak spots.” I heard Vera say behind me.
    I turn to see Vera and Zaina looking at me with huge grins across their faces.
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    They laughed softly before looking at each other and in unison said “clueless” before disappearing upstairs.