I'll Always Choose You #Watty's2023

21. Nico

I watched as Gio began taking out ingredients from the fridge to make the pizza. I sat on the counter with a jar of Nutella and a spoon while he had taken off his black suit jacket and rolled the sleeves of his also black button down shirt up to the elbows.

"If you eat to much of that you won't have room for pizza," he has said when I grabbed the plastic container from the cupboard and a spoon from the drawer by the sink.

"I can assure you, I'll have pretty of room," I had replied to that with a grin making him shake his head.

"I know you will but that doesn't mean you should be eating that," he stated and I only shrugged and began stuffing spoon fulls of the chocolate goodness into my mouth enjoying the smoothness of it as it settled in my tongue.

"You're going to make yourself sick with eating so much of that," Gio said and I looked towards him to see that he had an apron around his waste

"But it'll be so worth it," I countered making him raise a brow

"You won't be saying that when you're in the infirmary," he retorted as he started mixing all of the ingredients to make the pizza dough into a metal bowl.

I rolled my eyes and finished the chocolate goodness before jumping off the counter and tossing the spoon into the dishwasher and washing my hands in the sink.

"Come here," he said pulling me towards him before caging me between his chest and the island. I swallowed at feeling his strong chest against my back as his hands guided my own into the dough and began kneading it together before it was firm enough to make a ball.

"How long does it have to sit before we can put all the other stuff on it?" I asked after a few moments of kneading the dough.

"45 minutes," he replied and I gaped at him making Gio chuckle.

"Why didn't you tell me that it'll take that long?" I said looking at the clock on the the stove. It was almost 5 and but the time the pizza was down, it'll be 6 which means he'll be leaving to head to the office after that.

"Does it matter?" He asked and I nodded, "don't worry about it, I'm not heading to the office today."

I furrowed my brows at his statement and he smiled smoothing the frown with his pointer finger before pressing a kiss to it making my face explode in a blush.

"I promised you that we'd talk about my parents and sister, remember?"

Oh right. He did say that he'd tell me about them when we got back to the house.

"What were their names?" I asked making him smile.

"My father's name was Santiago 'Hawk' D'Angelo," he replied as he rested his back against the island as we waited for the dough to rise before he can start the pizza. "Mom's name was Giovanna Eleanora D'Angelo." I smiled as I noticed that he and his mother shared the same name.

"You have her name," I said and he nodded with a smile though it was sad making me heart ache in my chest. I understood his pain more than anyone. We both lost our family. But our loss is different though. While my family perishing in a car accident, his were killed by a jealous friend.

"I do," he agreed before adding, "My sister's name was Corina, Corina Elizabeth D'Angelo. She was the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen."

I softly gasped as I saw a line tear roll down his cheek. He chuckled softly wiping it away and shaking his head. "I picked her names. I had gone through thousands of books looking for the perfect name for her but it wasn't until she was born that I thought of her name."

I smiled and pulled him toward me so he stood between my legs. His hands rested on my hips as our eyes locked. "I promised her that day that I would do everything in me to protect her,"

"You didn't know that would happen, Gio," I murmured as his voice cracked again and his hold on my hips tightened a little but it didn't hurt, "you were ten years old."

"My father gave me an order to keep them safe and I failed him," he whispered anger evident in his voice, "I had one job and I fucked it up."

"Hey, now." I said cupping his face my hands forcing him to look into my eyes, "you didn't fuck up, Gio. You were much a victim as they were because you were a child."

He swallowed as more tears rolled down his cheeks, I pulled him into my arms and hugged him, letting him silently know that I was here and I wasn't going anywhere.

"I miss them so much," he whimpered and my heart shattered into a million pieces in my chest as his pain filled voice. I blinked my eyes a couple times to rid the burning in my eyes from the unshed tears busking.

"Shh," I whispered holding him tightly while rubbing his back, "they're with you always if you can't see them or sense them, Gio,"

I don't know how long we sat there with me holding him while he cried but I didn't care either. What mattered was that he needed comforting and I did just that. Comforted him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered when he pulled back a few moments later and wipes his eyes sniffling but I shook my head.

"Don't be, everyone deserve to have a vulnerable side to them and that includes the toughest of gang leaders around," I said with a smile and he smiled shaking his head, he took a deep breath before sighing.

"You would have loved them," he finally said, his voice rough from crying,

"And you would have loved mine as well," I replied making him give me a sad smile, "they were the best."

"I bet, they did have you after all," he replied wiping my cheek with a frown, "there are days like these that I wish my family weren't involved in the mafia. I always pictured a different life then the one I have now. In a different world my parents and sister would be alive and we'd be laughing and joking while Dad is at the grilled making steaks while Mom holds Carina on her lap tickling her while I sit beside them laughing."

I bit my lip and pulled him down by the neck before pressing my lips to his making him tense up but then pressed his lips firmly against mine, there was nothing sexual about it, just a soft and sweet kiss showing each other how much we cared for one another.

"God I love you, Nico," he murmured after we pulled apart, our foreheads pressed together, making my heart skip a beat at his confession, "I don't know how or when it happened but I fell hard but I don't even mind it."

I felt my eyes burn as tears filled them before they were rolling down my cheeks and he was quick to wipe them away with the pads of his thumbs. "I love you, Gio. I didn't plan on falling in love with you. But it happened. Slowly I began to realize that you were it for me. That I wanted you with me,by my side. I promise you, that no matter how hard live gets, that I'm not going anywhere."

We kissed.

We kissed like there was no tomorrow and my heart felt full. After so many years of suffering, I was happy. I felt whole for the first time in years and it was all because of this man. This man that had wormed himself so deep in my heart that it scared me.

"Can we make pizza now?" I asked a few moments later making him chuckle, and I smiled as he pressed a peck on my lips before removing the plastic wrap from the bowl and taking the dough out and placing it in the counter.

"What kind of pizza would you like?"

"What's your favorite?" I asked tilting my head as he began flattening the dough,

"Pineapple and Canadian bacon," he replied making me raise a brow, "I know it doesn't sound good but it's the best pizza ever."

"And here I thought you were a Buffalo chicken type of guy," I said making him grimace, "Pineapple and Bacon is one of my favorites, by the way,"

"Then Pineapple and Canadian Bacon pizza it is."