the employee morale, efficiency as well as the financial aspects of the offices. Thomas makes sure everyone is happy, healthy and working as fast as possible.”
“That doesn’t sound very interesting.”
“He loves it and he has an amazing team,” Gus said, shaking his head. “Although, last year he lost the best financial auditor ATI’s ever had.”
“Why did he lose him?”
“Her,” Gus corrected. “He married her. You met her last Sunday. Victoria now has twin boys, Josh and Dennis.”
“Were those the whirlwind boys that I saw running through the kitchen a few times?”
Gus laughed and nodded both in confirmation and agreement of her description of the boys. “That would be them. They are two years old and as wild and unafraid of everything you will ever encounter. I liken them to wild boars because they just charge into anything, regardless of the pain that might occur as a consequence.”
“Aren’t most two year olds?”
“I guess so,” he said, nodding. “My oldest brother, Sal, has a boy named Adam who is almost one year old. I can’t imagine Sal chasing after a two year old. Of course, I couldn’t imagine Thomas chasing either but he’s right in there with Victoria trying to get them where they’re supposed to be.”
“Why can’t you picture your brother chasing after his kids?”
Gus smiled slightly. “You don’t know Sal very well yet. He’s a stickler for rules and decorum. He’s also the head of the family now and, because of that role, he thinks he should be very stiff and formal so he can maintain his authority.”
“He didn’t strike me that way,” she said, not liking the image of his oldest brother. The way Gus described him, he seemed like a stick in the mud. The man she’d met that Sunday was warm and friendly, completely dedicated to his wife and having fun on the floor with his son.
Gus thought for a moment. “I guess that’s more how I remember him as I was growing up. Antonia sort of set him on his ear when she met her husband. Well, actually, before that,” he laughed, shaking his head at the memory of how his youngest sister had led a double life for years, fooling all of them.
“What did her husband do?”
“It isn’t really what her husband did, but what Antonia did to all of us. She’s a little wild, in case you didn’t notice.”
“All I noticed was a great mom who had fun with her kids,” Alana said, enjoying his easy sharing.
“You’ll have to ask her about her past one day.”
“Sounds mysterious.”
“Not mysterious so much as diabolical,” he countered, his face showing that he didn’t like the memory too much.
“And she made Sal more normal?”
“Well, it was a combination of Antonia and Laci, his wife. She pretty much knocked the rest of the stiffness out of him. But they both have kids and that sort of brings everyone onto the same playing field. They are too much fun to be stiff around, I guess.”
“You sound like you really like your nieces and nephews.”
Gus shook his head and smiled. “I can’t imagine being without them now. It used to be just me and my siblings at holidays. Now, everything is nuts with wrapping paper and bows covering every surface, candy is coming out of every child’s mouth, parents are chasing their kids, husbands are chasing their wives with mistletoe and it is completely out of control. It’s also more fun that I could have imagined only a few years ago.”
Alana desperately wanted to know if he ever wanted to have children of his own, but she was afraid of the answer. If he said no, what would she do? How would she react? She had to remind herself that this was not a long term relationship. She needed to keep things in perspective. She was not going to marry. Since she didn’t want to have children without a husband, she was stuck without children.
Then she remembered her kids from the orphanage. She had lots of kids, she thought. And they needed her desperately. She needed to focus on that and be happy with what she could do for them instead of selfishly wanting what she couldn’t have – her own children.
Gus unsnapped her seatbelt and pulled her over to one of the comfortable looking sofas now that they were airborne. “You’re expression turned sad all of a sudden. What’s going through your mind?”
Alana cleared her face instantly, afraid of what she might have revealed. “Nothing. You still haven’t told me