Outtake: The Guzzi Boys #GianandCara

Hey, loves!

I am back with the final outtake for the month. This is a request from the form – someone wanted to see the Guzzi parents with all their boys when they were teenagers.

Do enjoy.

Onto the outtake.

*

The Guzzi Boys

Gian POV

Everything was going to soon change, although Gian didn’t know exactly how much. As he watched his sons from his position on the marble stairs while they shared barbs and swam in their mansion’s indoor pool, he wanted to remember them exactly like this.

Marcus, the oldest. A few months away from his high school graduation. Already responsible. Gian’s mini-me, really. Ready for the world, and his place in la famiglia. Looking ahead at his destiny, and rarely concerned with his past.

Corrado and Christopher … one more outgoing than the other, a good ying and yang, if there ever was one, he thought. One pushed the other, they bettered each other. And, in some ways, they reminded each other it was okay to be unique. And protective … good God, were those two so fucking protective of one another.

Finally, his youngest ones.

The wild ones.

The two boys of his five that regularly made Gian think he was going to go all the way gray before his time.

Beni and Bene. What else could he say for those two except twin hurricanes. They mirrored one another in more ways than people understood. Inseparable, really. Trouble could find them, or they could make it, as long as they were doing it together.

Oh, and the protectiveness Chris and Corrado showed toward one another? It didn’t come close to the bond Beni and Bene shared.

So, as he watched his boys, one set of twins sitting along the edge of the pool to tease the younger twins throwing threats from the deep end, while Marcus sat on the diving board, laughing at the antics of his brothers … Gian wanted to keep them like this.

Not quite men yet.

Still his boys.

The world hadn’t touched them in a real way, not yet. He didn’t have to worry about being their boss alongside their father. His life revolved around his wife, and their children, while everything else came second.

Soon, it would change. He simply knew, within the year, things inside their large mansion would be a lot different than it currently was.

Marcus would leave home.

Corrado and Chris would become closer to their own graduation.

Beni and Bene would … well, become more difficult than they already were without their older brothers around to keep them under control. He doubted that he would see all five of them together as often as he did right now.

It was the natural progression of life, though, and he knew that, too. That didn’t make it any easier to come to terms with, either.

What Gian didn’t know … was that things would change even more than he was aware. And faster than he realized. Things he hadn’t planned for, and never expected, would change the face of his sons’ lives in more ways than he counted on.

Some, they were ready for.

Others … not so much.

He gave Chris a look, unsurprised to find his son hadn’t even taken his clothes off to sit along the edge of the pool. He certainly wouldn’t do that alone—his deep seated fear of water too much for him to contain—but with his twin at his side, it made the terror a bit more bearable. That, and he liked to do what his brothers did. He liked to be with them, even if that meant sitting alongside the pool while the rest of them swam.

“What are you doing hiding on the stairs?”

The sweet voice of his wife had Gian turning a bit to watch Cara come down the stairs. In her hands, she carried a tray of ready drinks for the boys. Pink lemonade, it looked like, in glasses filled with ice. She was always thinking of their kids, and he loved that.

“Here, let me carry it,” he said.

Cara happily handed the tray over. “Are you spying?”

“Appreciating, actually.”

“Oh?”

Gian shrugged as the two of them turned on the stairs to watch their boys down below. Bene was now threatening to pull Marcus into the water by his ankles, and Beni was promising to help his twin in whatever way necessary.

Marcus was simply smirking.

A silent try it.

“I was thinking, soon … they’re going to be gone,” he murmured. “I mean, within the next few years, anyway. And what are we going to do with this big house, then, mia cara bella? When it’s quiet, and we don’t have to worry about waking up to an empty fridge because they all decided to clean it out overnight? What do we do when they’re not here?”

Cara smiled, and leaned in close enough to bump her shoulder with Gian’s before she leaned up to kiss him sweetly. “We wait to let them full the house again, of course.”

“Pardon?”

“With grandbabies.”

Well, he hadn’t really thought of that.

“Still different,” he said.

“But a good different, Gian. And like you said, we still have a few years with them like this. So, while we have it, wouldn’t it be better to be down there, you know, with them, instead of up here watching them have fun? Participate, and all that.”

“I planned on doing that.”

Cara grinned, murmuring, “But only after you appreciated, hmm?”

“Exactly.”

A king made an army of princes.

Given to him by a queen.

Surely, he was allowed to watch his kingdom grow.

“Yes, something to drink!”

Beni’s shout before water splashed drew Gian’s attention to his kids. Now, the youngest twins were cutting through the water at a fast speed to make it to the other side of the pool where they would simply be able to take their drinks from their father. Chris and Corrado stood from the edge of the pool to walk over, and Marcus decided to dive down from the diving board and also swim across the length of the pool.

“Best water them,” Cara said, “or they don’t grow, Gian.”

Right.

Cara distributed the drinks to their boys while Gian was happy to hold the tray for her. He listened as their conversations changed from threats of drowning to a game of baseball. All eyes turned on him, expectantly.

“You’ll play with us, won’t you, Papa?” Corrado asked.

“Yeah,” Beni added.

“Make it an even team for both sides,” Marcus said, pulling himself out of the water after his mother took the glass from him.

Right.

Because he had his whole baseball team in these boys.

As long as he agreed to play, too.

“Why not,” Gian murmured.

Story of his life with these kids.

Why the hell not. 

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