Fighting for Us - Bella Emy Page 0,12

nods. “How much she looks like Sylvs,” he states more so than asks, turning his chin up toward where Gianna is playing. “I know. I was thinking it too.”

“Is that normal? Five years later, and I still tear up every time I think about her like that?”

He takes a sip of his drink and says, “Of course, Enz. She was your wife. I think it’s perfectly normal.”

I take his words into consideration. Maybe he’s right. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself, thinking something is wrong with me. We were together for so long, of course it still hurts.

Five years is not long when you spent just about half your life with someone who meant so much to you.

Five years is barely brushing the surface of a life together.

Max takes another bite of his pizza and swallows the mouthful. To this day, I still don’t know how he likes Chuck E. Cheese pizza. To me, it tastes like frozen, reheated garbage. It’s not my fault. I grew up on my mama’s good, homemade Italian cooking. We both did, but my brother was a pain with food growing up. He was picky as hell. When we wanted pizza, she made it from scratch. Call me spoiled, but it’s just the way it was—the way it still is whenever I go home.

I don’t know what’s wrong with my brother. We grew up in the same household, but seeing the way he eats this shit, you would never think so.

I scrunch my nose, making a face, then turn away from him to look at my daughter. She’s still having a grand ole time with my sister. A smile pulls at the corners of my lips. Thank God for my baby girl. At least she’s always able to melt my heart and make me smile.

I try to spend a lot of my free time with Gianna on my own, but tonight when we were heading out the door, she begged me to call Auntie Mari & Uncle Maxy.

Maxy… like a woman’s maxi pad. I laugh at the funny name she’d given him.

“What’s with the face, dude?” Max asks.

I turn back to face him. “What face?”

“The face you gave me before you looked away just now.”

I hide a smile and look away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, dude.”

“Yeah, you do.” He smirks. “You’re grossed out because I’m eating this good, delicious pizza, aren’t you?” It’s not the first time we’ve had this same discussion.

“It’s barf-worthy.”

His eyes widen as he gasps. “It’s delicious, all-American goodness.”

“Nonna must be rolling around in her grave,” I say jokingly, remembering how our grandmother hated anything that wasn’t home cooked.

“Hey! Don’t you bring Nonna into this.”

I laugh and so does he.

After a moment, his expression changes to serious. “Look, man. I know we’ve already spoken about this and put it past us, but I’m really sorry about last week at Bottoms Up. I wasn’t trying to insinuate you should ever forget about Sylvs. I know you miss her, and you’re entitled to feel however you do. I just worry about you and Gianna, man. I want to see you guys happy.”

I offer my brother a genuine smile so he knows I’m not harboring any hard feelings against him. “Max, I know. It’s okay, really. I know it’s not what you meant or were even trying to say. I know you care about me and Gianna. I’m not mad. I just overreacted that night. My temper got the best of me… You know how I am.”

“My brother, the hothead,” he says, smiling.

“Like you’re not.” I shake my head and take a sip of my drink.

“Daddy!”

I snap my head to the left and see my little princess running toward me at full speed. Marianna is trying to keep up behind her.

I instantly rise from my seat, and right before she’s about to crash into me, I lift her up by her arms and spin her around above my head.

She shrieks and squeals, making me laugh. She’s so precious.

As I spin us back around to our starting point, I bring her to me and place a kiss on her cheeks.

I place her on the ground. “Are you having fun, princess?”

“Oh, yes, Daddy! Aunt Mari is the best!”

“Hey, what about me?” Max feigns disappointment, but I know it’s all a ploy to get Gia to run to him. He does this all the time.

“You don’t count,” Marianna states, finally reaching us.

I laugh.

“You’re the best too, Uncle Maxy!” Gianna runs over and scoots in