Accept My Baby

Chapter 9

Rafael could feel the tension when he walked into his parents’ house. He looked around as he made his way into the huge mansion. He had noticed that every family member’s car was upfront and then some.

“Welcome home, signore,” Giorgio, the family butler said when he took Rafael’s jacket leaving him in the navy blue slim fit suit he had on.

“Giorgio, always good to see you,” Rafael said smiling.

“Good to see you too, sir,” Giorgio pointed out.

“That’s a whole lot of cars upfront,” Rafael started. “Is there something going on in here that I forgot about?”

“Your family has company for dinner tonight,” Giorgio said and Rafael forced a smile.

“Do they now?” he started and Giorgio nodded. “Okay, I better get in there, right?”

Rafael could almost immediately smell something wrong. There was no reason why his parents would keep the fact that they would be having people over for dinner a secret unless it was some kind of ambush. The last time something like this had happened, his family had staged an intervention for his ‘obsessive partying’ as they had called it.

“I didn’t know we had guests,” he wondered as he made his way down the hallway. “This is going to put a major dent in my plans.”

He was supposed to meet up with Amanda at his parents home. He had decided to introduce her to his family during dinner that evening but now things had taken a strange turn. He could not call Amanda and cancel on her and he was definitely not about to stand her up. He cared too much about her.

He was barely halfway down the hallways when his brother’s daughter Ariadne came running towards him.

“Whoa there,” he said as he picked her up into his arms. “Someone is in a hurry. Where are we off to?”

“I’m playing hide and seek with mommy uncle Rafael,” Ariadne said in a whisper.

“Really?” he asked, smiling widely. “And where are you going to go this time?”

“The cellar,” she said and Rafael shook his head.

“But you know you are not allowed in there, right?” he asked and she nodded.

“But it is the best hiding spot.”

“Tell you what, the cloak room is a better spot plus it’s closer,” he whispered. “And your mommy never checks the cloak room anyway.”

Ariadne giggled.

“Now, tell me, your mommy and daddy are here, right?” he asked and she nodded.

“And nonna and nonno,” she said as she counted her fingers on one hand. “And nonno Benassi and aunt Isabella.”

Rafael felt the color drain from her face.

“Aunt Isabella is here?” he asked and she nodded.

“Fu*k,” he almost said it out loud. He turned around and began walking towards the cloak room. “Tell you what, I’ll cover you up so mommy doesn’t notice you are in there, okay?” he said and Ariadne giggled again. She looked at him and nodded.

“I will win,” she said in an excited whisper.

“Yeah, you will,” he said, opening the door to the cloak room. He put her down on the floor and pulled a couple of towel racks so that she could hide behind the makeshift fortress. He winked at her before he walked out of the cloak room and quickly made his way down the hallway towards the living room. He could hear the polite conversation over the clinking glasses and when he got to the doorway, he sighed.

“Fanculo,” he cursed under his breath as he looked around the room. His mother and Isabella’s mother looked well engaged in some conversation…probably pretentious. He could see his father and Isabella’s father through the screen doors leading to the pool area. They were out there smoking cigars, possibly closing the next big deal or something.

“Rafael, finally,” his mother said when she saw him walking towards them.

“We were beginning to think you were not going to come,” Isabella said, smiling. She had been talking to Rafael’s brother and his wife and as usual, her clothes were barely there. She had on a tighter than tight bandage dress and a pair of high heeled stilettos.

“If I had known we had company, I would have been a little more time conscious,” he said, forcing a smile.

“We thought we would surprise you,” Lola, his sister-in-law said. “But we all thought you wouldn’t mind, seeing as to how perfect company Isabella is.”

Rafael gave a kiss to the three ladies and then gave a hug to his brother.

“So, your daughter thinks she is in a hide and seek game with you,” he said in a soft voice.

“Yeah, we kind of have a time stamp challenge. The longer she hides out, the better her chances are at a win and the more wine I can wash down,” Lola said smiling. “Best babysitting plan I’ve had in a while.”

“Win-win, huh?” Rafael said and Lola flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“You said it, not me,” she said as she walked back to the living room. “But come to think of it, Alberto, isn’t it your turn to seek?”

Rafael smiled at his brother before he shook his head.

“Actually, dear wife. Today is mommy daughter time.” Alberto’s voice was slowly fading off as Isabella walked towards Rafael. She gently pushed off one of her long locks from her face before she looked into his eyes. She stood in front of him for a long minute before she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him.

“Did my mother put you up to this?” Rafael asked as he pulled away from her.

“Susanna didn’t put me up to anything, Rafael. I wanted to be here,” Isabella said. “She just invited my family over for dinner and when I heard of the whole plan, I didn’t really mind coming over. Besides,” she put a hand on his shoulder and gently ran it down his chest getting dangerously close to his crotch. He caught her wrist when her hand got to his waist.

“That’s enough,” he said.

“What? I just thought I would give you a sneak peak of what I had in store for you later.”

“You and I have nothing in store Isabella.”

“So, no private dessert either?” she asked and he shook his head.

“Isabella,” he started before he heard his phone ringing in his pocket. He took it out and a smile played on his lips when he saw it was a text from Amanda.

Running a little late. Be there in a few.

“Rafael, lately you have been very weird. Never texting or calling, turning down almost every invite I send you…” Isabella flipped her hair over her shoulder. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought you are avoiding me.”

“I am avoiding you,” he said and she raised an eyebrow over the other.

“Why?” she asked and he shook his head.