This one had lasted a lot longer than most.

And I was seeing she was probably going to last even longer (though this was not a guarantee) because she was obviously very pregnant.

My brother had two women who were imminently going to give him children, as well as lawsuits for child support.

And my father’s next child would be aunt or uncle to someone who was their same age.

Now.

Seriously.

What the fuck was up with that?

I didn’t realize I’d frozen just beyond my small foyer until I felt Ben’s hand give mine a squeeze.

When it did, I looked from the woman standing in my living room to my father.

“Tell me this is a fucking joke,” I demanded.

“Frankie,” Ben said softly beside me.

I felt him get close, but I didn’t tear my eyes away from my father.

“Francesca,” Dad clipped, the jovial, nothing-gets-him-down-because-he-wouldn’t-let-it look evaporating and anger replacing it.

I looked quickly to the woman, who I noted distractedly was very attractive, but she had also turned very pale. “No offense to you. You’re probably awesome. But…” I looked back to Dad. “Are you fucking serious?”

“We came down to share our good news with you personally, spread the joy, and this is what we get?” Dad asked back sharply.

I, again, quickly looked at the woman and repeated, “Again, no offense to you…” My eyes returned to my father. “But, just sayin’, next time, spread the joy over the phone.”

Dad planted his hands on his hips and returned, “I do not believe you’re actin’ this way.”

“You don’t?” I asked, leaning back and pulling my hand from Ben’s so I could throw both up. Then I lifted one and pressed a finger to my face. “Well, let me see…why would I react this way when you’ve gotten a woman pregnant?” I threw my hand out and finished sarcastically, “Oh, I know! You’re bringin’ a kid into this world, and you’re the kind of man who had another kid who got shot and you” —I leaned toward him, screaming— “did not even go see her in the hospital!”

I heard the door close behind me, meaning Ben closed it, but he got back to me quickly and I knew this when I felt his arm hook around my waist. He pulled me back a foot and then positioned in front of me, slightly to my side.

I was totally pissed way the hell off, but still, him doing that…

God.

Seriously.

Benny.

“You got shot?” the woman asked, her voice sounding dismayed, and I looked around Benny to her.

“Yeah, it was on the news,” I shared.

“I don’t watch the news,” she said quietly, her eyes going to Dad. “Did you know this, Enzo?”

“Yeah, he did, since my ma called him the night it happened,” Ben put in but didn’t allow further reaction to this news. Being the awesomeness of Benny, he immediately moved to end our brief scene. “Now, congratulations on your news. Wish the best for you,” he said to the woman, then turned to Dad and went on, “But this didn’t go too good and you got a long drive ahead of you, so I’m thinkin’ we should cut this here before it deteriorates.”

Ben’s rational suggestion was ignored while the woman stared at my dad and my dad, who read her stare, stated, “Sweetheart, that happened to Frankie around the time you told me you were havin’ my baby.”

“And I told you I was havin’ your baby and you seemed pretty excited, Enzo, but you didn’t take me on a six-month-long celebration cruise with no phones, Internet, or Morse code machines,” she snapped back, and I felt my body jerk and my eyes get big.

None of Dad’s women ever spoke to him like that.

Not a one.

Except maybe my ma.

“Chrissy, sweetheart, I didn’t want anything to—” Dad started.

“Do not utter another word, Enzo Concetti,” she hissed, leaning toward him. Then her eyes cut to me, and Ben crowded me, even as I pressed into the side of his back at the look in her eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked, then tossed a hand my way. “I mean, after the shooting.”

“Uh…yeah. It was ages ago.”

“Was it random?” she bit out.

“Um…no. I was kidnapped by a crime lord and taken to a lakeside community. I escaped and ran for my life through the forest with another lady. The crime lord caught up with us and shot me. Then Ben” —I made a lame gesture in the air beside me to indicate Benny— “and his cousin, Cal, the boyfriend of the lady I was with, shot him. Seein’ as Cal shot him in the head, he didn’t survive. Though, Ben shot him in the gut, where the guy shot me, and I can attest that, even if that was all he’d had, he wouldn’t have been doin’ very well for a while. Luckily, though, he’s dead, and I don’t say that because I’m a bad person. I say that because he was a crazy person and he shot me.”

When I was done rambling, her narrowed eyes slowly cut to my father.

“She was kidnapped and shot?” she asked.

“Chrissy—”

“Did you know about the kidnapping?” Chrissy demanded.

Dad didn’t say a word, but he looked uncomfortable.

Ben said a word, though, and it was, “Yep.”

Chrissy looked fit to be tied for a good long time. While I reached out a hand to catch Benny’s, trying to breathe in the air clogged by a pregnant woman’s fury, I fought back the desire to laugh. Hard.

Finally, she looked to me, and the further fury on her face made me press closer to Benny.

Then it faded clean away and she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

I stared at her wondering if that just happened.

Ben was not quite as dumbfounded.

I knew this when he stated, “You don’t have to be. You didn’t know. You aren’t blood.” Ben jerked his head Dad’s way. “But he should be.”

“I—” Dad began.

“Shut it,” Benny suddenly barked with such ferocity, my whole body jerked. “You do not get to do this. I didn’t know where Francesca would be at when I let you in, but now I know. So now I’m gonna tell you, this is the last time you perpetrate a scene like this with Frankie. You were not a good father. You are not a good man. You’re selfish and stupid, thinkin’ for however many years you been on this earth primarily with your dick. Your girl laid in a hospital bed after draggin’ her bleedin’ body through leaves, and that was after she ran for her life, and you got the fuckin’ balls to show at her house unannounced and drop a bomb on her, not even sayin’ word fuckin’ one about what she went through without the support of her goddamned family?”

Ben shook his head, his eyes pinning Dad to the spot across the room, and he kept going.

“No. Frankie will put up with that shit because she’s a good woman, a good daughter. She’s Frankie. But I’m her man and I’m tellin’ you right now, I won’t.”

Dad squared his shoulders and declared, “Maybe we should leave.”

“Good idea,” Ben shot back, shifting immediately, taking me with him so we were no longer barring the door.

It was then that Dad did what Dad did when anything threatened to drag him down.

He escaped the situation immediately.

And in this instance, that meant him not looking at a single soul—not even the woman carrying his child, standing right there, not the daughter he’d come to see—and walking right out the door.

“This was a very bad idea and I’m so sorry,” Chrissy said quietly, moving to follow him.

“Again, not your place to apologize,” Ben said.

She nodded to him and would have only given me an embarrassed glance and a chin dip to say good-bye, but I didn’t let her.

As she passed me, I grabbed her hand.

She stopped and looked at me.

“Am I havin’ a brother or sister?”

Hope flared in her eyes and I got further ticked at my father, because seeing it, I knew she wanted this to go a whole lot better than it did. I also knew giving her child family was important. So I knew if I ever got to know her, I’d probably like her.

“Sister,” she answered.

I smiled. It was small but I gave her that and whispered, “You probably need to go, but call Enzo Junior. Get my number. Keep in touch.”

Bright filled her eyes and she whispered back, “I thought this would be a happy surprise. I never would have come with Enzo if I’d known—”

I cut her off with my hand tightening around hers. “I’m sorry for you it wasn’t. But I do wish you the best bringin’ my little sister into the world.”

She nodded and squeezed my hand back, saying softly, “Thanks, Francesca. And I’ll call your brother. Get your number.”

“Good,” I replied. “Now make him be safe driving you two home,” I ordered, dipping my head to her belly.

She grinned at me, no bright in her eyes this time, nodded again, and hurried out the door.

The instant it closed, Ben stated, “Pure fuckin’ Frankie.”

I looked his way. “What?”

“Your best bet is to steer clear of that situation, which is right now not good with the forecast of gettin’ real fuckin’ messy, and you tell her to keep in touch.”

“She’s carrying my baby sister,” I returned.

“Yeah. Pure fuckin’ Frankie.”

It was then I processed the look on his face.

So I smiled.

Ben didn’t smile.

He ordered, “Come here, Francesca.”

Our happy reunion delayed by a crazy one, unusually, I immediately did what I was told.

***

“Frankie, tesorina, stop.”

I closed my eyes, slid Benny out of my mouth, and took my time looking up at him.

It was after the scene with Dad, time for the good reunion after the bad, and things hadn’t started great.

And that was all on me.

It might have been being wound up by Dad’s visit and his news. It could also be what he’d said about me scoring the good Bianchi.