Hold My Love

Chapter 66: Birthday Boy

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The years go by and soon we are celebrating Luca's 2nd birthday.

I never thought I could love somone as much as I love the little boy. He was my everything, I was literally obsessed with him.

From his first tooth, first steps to his first word spoken, I watched all of his milestones with amazement.

"Luca stand next to Zaza and Toni so I can take a picture!"

My son frowns at me but stands as still as he can next to his cousin.

Esperanza was in a bright yellow dress that made her rich tan skin glow. Her curly dark hair was out from the ponytail Lace put on her and she was missing one of her sandals.

Antonio wasn't smiling as bright as his sister. He seems to be fixated on bright yellow bow tie that was around his neck that had loosened up.

I stop before taking the picture to fix Antonio's bow and pull his straight blonde into a ponytail. Lace refuses to cut the child's hair and she
always dresses them up like they were going to meet the queen.

This was a child's party so I told her to put them in play clothes but I guess she didn't read that part of the message.

"Antonio smile for auntie!"

The child lifts his sky blue eyes to me and forces a smile.

I sigh, "whatever that's good enough".

Antonio takes Luca's hand running off to the bouncy house. Esperanza doesn't follow them instead she walks over to me and asks to see the picture.

"Auntie why do you have dark skin?"

I smile at her, "God made me like this. Just like he made you like that".

She looks down at her little arms then back at the picture.

"Why does Toni not look like me? My skin is darker".

I frown, this was really not a conversation she should be having with me. But then I realized she probably felt more comfortable asking me about it because our skin colors were closer than that of her parents.

"There is nothing wrong with you and Toni looking different. You are still beautiful with your dark skin and he is still handsome with his pale skin".

She frowns, "But Daddy and my real mommy had skin like Toni".

I pick her up, "Esperanza your are beautiful the way you are. God never makes mistakes, remember?"

She nods and I pull out a picture of Valentina to show her how she looks so much like her late mother.

"You look exactly like your mommy. You even have her smile! And those adorable dimples are to die for!"

She seems satisfied with my reasoning and I tell her to pose for more photos while I have her. I was currently working on filling up Giovanni and I's photo album so every opportunity I got I would take pictures.

"Is Auntie forcing you to take pictures again?"

She squeals and runs into Alessandro's arms. He has missed the first part of the party due to 'buisness' but he has stuck to his promise and showed up at the end before we cut the cake.

"Look how pretty you look princessa!"

I take back my phone from him and promise to send him the pictures.

I didn't want to tell him what Esperanza and I talked about when she was in hearing range so I told him I'd call him later.

As I head to the kitchen, Luca runs up to me asking for more salsa for his chips. I still have a hard time processing that my baby was now two years old. It felt like just yesterday he was learning to crawl.