Hers To Love (complete) Cover By @army_ss841

Chapter 47

Ari drug herself up the stairs.  She was tired.  Hell it was 3 o'clock in the morning!  Damn Paulo for being such fun!  She was still thinking about her conversation with Luca's mom, when her phone dinged.  She picked it up.  A text from Luca!  Actually 3 texts.  I miss you!  I love you!  Please call me.  Doesn't matter the time!  She hopped everything was okay.  She hit the speed dial.  He answered on the second ring.  "I miss you and love you too!" she said.  She could hear his smile over the phone.  "Is everything okay?  Your third text seemed a little anxious."  "I'm fine baby.  I just needed to hear your voice and also ask you how the phone call went with my mother.  She has been bugging me for days to talk to you.  I gave in finally."  Ari laughed.  "I can't wait to meet her Luca!  She sounds so incredibly sweet, she is going to help me with Thanksgiving too!" she stated proudly.  "I also ordered decorations and they come tomorrow, well today actually and I'm so excited about getting the house decorated!  I can't wait for you to see it!"  She sounded adorable to him.  He missed having her in his arms.  "Ari" he said.  "What is it baby?" she asked.  "Skype me.  I need to see your beautiful face.  Please?"  How could she resist that?  They hung up and she searched for her Skype app and clicked on it.  He appeared.  God he looked heavenly!  "Is this better?" she asked softly.  "Totally" he replied.  They talked a few more minutes and then he kissed the screen and said he loved her.  She did and said the same.  Neither of them could bring themselves to hang up.  "You first" she nudged.  "No you" he answered.  They were having some fun with this.  "How about we hang up together?" said Ari, trying to be the voice of reason.  They counted to three and hung up.  That was fun.  She had completely forgotten about using Skype.  She made a mental note to herself that next time he had to leave they would use this application not text.

"Ari" a voice said softly.  I swatted it away.  Again with the voice "Ari".  "God Luca I'm not ready to get up yet.  Five more minutes."  She rolled over.  She heard someone laugh and it wasn't Luca.  She shot up out of bed and out on the other side.  "Gee calm down woman!" Paulo said laughing hysterically.  She withered him with a look.  "I'm so glad that I could provide entertainment for you this morning."  She was laughing herself by this time.  She must have looked a sight bounding out of bed like that!  "God you brat!  What do you want?" she asked playfully.  Still having his fun Paulo responded "you have several packages and boxes downstairs.  Thought you would want to get started ASAP.  By the way, I do have coffee ready and you looked completely adorable floundering around like that!"  She threw a pillow barely missing him as he ran out of the room.  She grinned.  She'd always wanted a brother, didn't matter if he was younger or older, she just wanted one.  Who knew that day at the cafe she and Paulo would bond like they have?  She would move heaven and earth for him just like Luca.  Even though she hadn't met everyone in the 'family' yet, she would do anything to protect them.  She hoped that day would never come but if it did she wouldn't hesitate!

She dressed in ripped jeans, a Godfather 3 long sleeved shirt (Michael Corleone was seated on the front and the humor in this shirt was certainly not lost on her) and red Chuck Taylor's and she put her hair up in a high ponytail and braided it and headed downstairs to decorate.  She was really excited to see what she could do and really hoped her creativity wouldn't decide to be a no-show today.  When she got to the kitchen Paulo and Fabio were opening the boxes to see what was in each of them, I guess trying to determine if they would need hammer, nails, etc.  There were about 10 boxes and about 6 packages, she really had her work cut out for her.  She was grateful to see that they had moved the big table back into the room so she could go ahead and decorate the table scape.  She poured herself a big mug of coffee and walked into the living room with the two men.  They looked up and stared at her and then at each other.  She shrugged "what?"  She knew what!  Paulo laughed and Fabio shook his head and said "you are too much!"  Well at least they got my sense of humor anyway!  She sighed, picked a box and dove in.  Great this was for the table.  She would go ahead and get this knocked out.  She pulled the table cloth out of the package.  It was a beautiful burnt orange color and the next package was the 6 maroon table runners.  "Hey Paulo do we have an iron anywhere around here?" she asked.  He nodded and went off to get it.  A few minutes later he came back with the iron and an ironing board.  Yea!  He sat them up in the kitchen and called to Ari "I set the board up in the kitchen for you".  "Thanks" she yelled back.  Ari picked up the runner and table cloth and went off to the kitchen.  She poured some water into the iron and let it heat while she inspected the board to make sure nothing would transfer from it to the material she would be ironing.  She licked her finger and tested the iron, something she remembered seeing her Gram do.  It was ready.  She started by laying the runner on the board and soon she was pressing away and singing Nina Simone, never aware the the men in the living room could hear her.  Fabio looked at Paulo and mouthed did you know that she could sing like that?  Paulo shook his head.  "Wow" said Fabio.  She finished the runner and then the cloth and headed back to start on the table.