Hailey's POV
"Mrs. Matteo?" A male voice calls out from outside of the bedroom, followed along with some gentle knocking.
"One second!" I shout from the bathroom as I spritz myself with some body spray.
I switch the lights off and begin to head towards the bedroom door and open it to find Bevens standing out in the hallway.
He smiles at the instant sight of me, "your ride is here ma'am."
"Thank you, b," I smile. "Is the queen still cooking?"
"That she is," he smiles. "Don't worry, she knows you're heading out. Will you be long?"
I shake my head as I grab my purse from the bed, "two hours tops at least, maybe an hour, depending how social Angela's feeling."
"Ahh yes, please give her my best regards with the baby."
"I will," I smile. "Will you let me know if Isaac comes home before I do?"
"Of course, I'll shoot you a message."
I smile and thank Bevens one last time before I make my way downstairs. I think out of the entire family I'm the only one who texts him and I loved that. He actually gave me his number when I was fresh out of the hospital and Isaac had to go back to work, this way if I needed something he was only a message away.
B ended up texting me more than I did him, constantly checking up on me if I was awake, hungry, needing anything because I hardly left the room.
There's an instant smile on my face when I find a familiar face standing near the front doors.
"Ric?!"
He turns around to face me matching my grin with his own, "what's up baby Matteo."
I rush over to him and he immediately accepts me into open arms as I wrap my arms around him, "oh my god! How are you?!"
"Can't complain," he chuckles. "I'm alive, I'm here. Sorry if I smell I just left the warehouse."
I shake my head, pulling myself away from him to find him in workout clothes. He's wearing a white Nike compression shirt with a black zipper sweater and gray sweatpants.
"Spending a lot of time there aren't you huh? Pretty soon you and Isaac are gonna be just as bulky as Dion, Ric."
He laughs softly, shrugging his shoulders sheepishly, "heartbreak will do that to you."
I smile and place a hand on his arm, "I would rather you be in the gym 24/7 than snorting stuff up your nose."
He smiles softly and I see the sadness behind it, "have you talked to her?"
I shake my head, "not since before the honeymoon."
He nods his head quietly looking off to the ground and the hormones instantly make me want to cry at the sight of how heartbroken Patrick is.
Carmen had broken up with Patrick and officially cut him off from the last time I spoke to her, which I was a little surprised to see her number on my caller ID about a month ago.
Although things were patchy between us I was trying to make an effort to reach out to her after my recovery because I genuinely missed my best friend but she kept me at a distance still, ignoring almost all of my messages, not that I blamed her.
My father in law had turned her life completely upside down and even though it wasn't my place to apologize and fix what he had done I was trying my hardest to get Carmelo to let her return-the answer was always no.
He had the constant need to remind me that I chose to give up my best friend so that his son's friend could be happy, and although he wasn't wrong I still wouldn't change my decision given the chance.
Even after everything I still loved Carmen with all my heart, she was the sister I never had but Ric needed her more than I did. He was a complete wreck and I was afraid of him really losing himself, I was afraid of Isaac, Dion, and Angela losing their friend because they've come real close to it so I sacrificed my own friendship to save theirs and Ric's relationship with my best friend.
Carmelo would be stepping down in a year, maybe less, and then Isaac would be in charge, my husband would be running his fathers empire, my husband would bend the rules for me I would hope, he'll make changes in where Carmelo was too stubborn to listen, I hope.
Carmen called me the second Ric left her place and was crying her heart out. Attempting to breathe through her sobs, she told me that it was over between them, that she couldn't handle his life, their ways and wanted to just move on from everything she left behind.
Although Carmelo had given Ric visiting privileges to go see Carmen and be with her it wasn't enough to save their relationship, Carmen wanted all of Ric not just half of him, but Ric couldn't entirely give himself to her because Carmen didn't want to accept all of him, she didn't want the bad that came with him, the drama, the stress, the problems.
Not that I blame her, I couldn't, she's scared and she has every right to be, I understood where she was coming from and let her cry her little heart out and even offered to go visit before we took off to Italy and she declined my offer.
As much as I missed her, I still wanted to keep her at a good distance from this world, from Carmelo's rules and regulations, there was only so much his son and I could do while he was still in charge of everything, we're all just living in his world.
"I'm sorry, Ric, just give it sometime, it'll work itself out hopefully."
He smiles and is placing a hand on my lower back, softly nudging me forward, "come on, let's get going."
I nod quietly and I'm about to walk towards the door when I notice something on Rics shirt and I'm pushing his sweater away to find his side covered in some blood.
"Oh my God, Ric, you're bleeding."
He looks down and shakes his head, instantly zipping his sweater up, "I'm fine."
I frown, "it's not yours is it?"
He shakes his head, "let's keep moving," and is walking me out of the house following closely behind me.
I make a mental note to ask Isaac about the blood later on to see if he knows anything, to check if Ric's doing okay.
There's a black SUV in the driveway as usual, another one of Carmelo's guys standing near it, only this guy looks to be a lot younger than the other ones, he looks to be around our age.
He's not as tall as Ric or Isaac, he's definitely shorter than the guys, but taller than myself. He has about the same athletic built Ric has if not a tad bit smaller. He has dark black hair that needs to be styled because right now it's everything but then again I'm assuming he probably just got done working out as well because he wearing black sweats and a baggy black Tshirt.
"Red, this is Adolfo," Ric waves towards the guy near the SUV.
"Please," he extends a hand out in front of him. "You can call me Aj, Mrs. Matteo. Adolfo's so bleh."
I smile, placing my hand in his, "and you can call me Hailey."
Adolfo smiles in return, softly shaking my hand, "your husband would kill me if I did such a thing."
I glance around the front yard and driveway, "he's not here is he?"
He snorts softly, "no ma'am."
"How old are you Aj? If you don't mind me asking."
"Of course not, I'm twenty two."
"Do you know babycakes? Ian?"
Ric chuckles beside me, "a lot more than you think, they're roomies."
I smile and pat a hand on Aj's chest as I reach for my own door, "take some pointers from your roomie then and stop calling me ma'am. I expect you to call me Hailey and only Hailey while we're alone, got it?"
He looks down at his chest, at my hand, "yes ma'am." He looks up as I send a soft glare his way and he's instantly smiling, "that was an accident, it slipped. Metcalf wasn't playing around when he said you like to get us killed."
"Don't worry," I smile and tap my hand on his chest again. "I won't touch you when my husbands around."
"Please don't, I actually like my life unlike Patricio," he points towards Patrick.
Rics instantly smacking him on the side of the arm, "shut the fuck up...please get in the car, red."
I smile and get into the backseat of the SUV as Ric closes the door behind me and him and Aj are climbing in, Ric in the passenger seat.
"Sooo," I say, reaching for the seatbelt. "You guys seem like you're getting along pretty well, I take it Carmelo pair you up together?"
"Who Ric and I?" Aj glances at the rear view mirror, turning it in my direction.
I nod.
He smiles over at Ric as he turns on the engine to the truck, "you wanna tell her or should I?"
"Tell me what?"
"You're such an idiot you know that, Bejarano?"
Aj smiles in the rear view mirror again as he puts the truck in drive, "Ric and I are besties now."
I immediately begin to laugh softly, "oh I like him, Ric, he has your personality."
He scoffs, "I'm not this annoying ."
I lean forward, tapping the side of his arm, "oh believe me you used to be before you became all dark and broody."
He looks over his shoulder with a small smile on his face, "sit back and put your seatbelt on."
I lean back in my seat and salute him playfully, "yes sir, right away sir," and fasten my seatbelt.
He chuckles softly, shaking his head.
"Did you see Isaac? Did he talk to you?"
Ric shakes his head, "I didn't see him," he says while looking in front of him.
I don't miss the way Aj instantly turns to look at him, a small frown on his face.
Yeah he's definitely gotta be lying.
I mentally scoff to myself- Men.
Isaac and Ric's friendship is never gonna go back to the way it used to be if no one steps up to make the first move and swallow their pride, and right now I'm putting more faith in Ric than my actual husband because we both know that Isaac is a stubborn as man and refuses to swallow his pride.
It's gonna be left to me to fix their friendship in the end and they're both not going to like it because I'm going to end up tossing both men in an empty room, alone, locked up, until they talk their fucking feelings out.
I want Ric to be a part of our little circle again, I genuinely miss the goofball.
I want him to know that his friend is going to be a dad, I want Isaac to have someone else in his life that he can run to other than Dion because Dion is not always gonna have time for his best friend when his daughter is here, his best friend will no longer be his top priority.
As much as Isaac has changed he still holds grudges, he still has trust issues when he allows people to come back into his life.
I have this need to fix his friendships, I want him to genuinely feel at peace and let other people in. I want him to live a happy life he can enjoy. I want him to be okay with asking for help, I want him to be able to rely on his friends, break him out of all those tedious habits and ways that make him think he'll be any less of a man because that's all he was ever taught when growing up.
I want to resolve the issues he has with Patrick, whatever they may be, I want him to let Milo back in now more than ever because all these men ever do is suffer in silence.
"Where are we going red?" Patrick's voice brings me back into the truck and out of my head.
"To Angela's," I answered.
Ric turns to Aj, "you know where The DeSoto's live?"
He nods his, "same block as Ricci right?"
"Mhm, they live right next door to each other."
I see a hint of a smile on Aj's face from where I'm sitting, "imagine living so close to your girl."
"Yeah, imagine," Ric grumbles dryly and is turning to look out the window.
The smile on Aj's face is quick to disappear, "fuck, I'm sorry, dude, I didn't mean it like that, I wasn't thinking."
Ric shakes his head, "it's fine, I'm over it," he says and the truck is falling into an awkward silence.
I lean forward, placing my hand on Ric's arm attempting to comfort him quietly in front of his new friend, "can you play some music, Ric?"
He nods quietly and is reaching for the stereo, turning it on.
Immediately regret asking him to turn on the radio when I hear the song that's playing through the speakers.
It's Lovely, by Billie Eilish and Khalid.
I personally loved any and everything to do with Billie, but this was also Carmen's and Ric's song before they broke up.
Carmen had dedicated it to Patrick awhile back when he was at his lowest, around the time when Isaac and Dion weren't talking to him yet.
I knew the song was bound to hit a sore spot because I remember Carmen telling me how much Ric's eyes lit up when she dedicated the song to him, when she genuinely became his faith because he had nothing left.
It gave him the little hope he needed back then to hang on and not give up, things would get better within time, he would find a way to make things work.
She gave him the hope that he would survive his new lifestyle, they would get through whatever came their way together but now they were barely on speaking terms and that broke my heart for the both of them.
Ric is quickly reaching out and is changing the song.
"Sorry," he says over his shoulder. "I'm not in the mood to listen to sappy shit."
"Hey, your car, your choice," I say. I'm not entirely sure if he knows that I know that's their song but I definitely wasn't about to bring it up and deepen his mood.
"Technically- this is the boss's car," Aj points out the clear obvious.
I laugh softly in the backseat as Ric stays quiet and watch him dig his hand into his pocket muttering, "fucking aye," under his breath and is showing his phone to Aj.
I watch Aj quickly glance over at it and smile up at Ric, "You're in trouble."
Ric answers his ringing phone because he's gluing his phone next to his ear in less than a second, "yeah?"
I watch him pull his phone away from his face for a second and is lowering the volume on it and placing it back to his ear.
"I know I forgot. Work came up so I never made it home," he says and is staying quiet for a couple seconds and is speaking up again. "I don't know what you want me to say, I can't exactly say no when the boss calls and you know this."
I pull my phone out of my bag and decide to text Angela to let her know I'm on my way, this way Ric doesn't think I'm listening in on his conversation when I obviously was.
"We'll see, I gotta go, I can't talk right now," he says and ends his call dropping his phone in the middle compartment, between Aj and him.
I watch him slouch in his seat and massage his temple.
"Everything okay?"
He stops and nods his head, "yeah."
"You're dating?" I asked.
The words quickly leave my mouth before I can process them, it actually wasn't supposed to come out of my head but I'm anything but a silent thinker nowadays.
Ric looks over his shoulder, "no," he scoffs.
"I wouldn't call it dating," Aj smirks from where he's sitting and Patrick's quickly smacking him on the arm.
"Do you not know how to shut the fuck up!?"
"I'm sorry!" He laughs. "I didn't know it was a secret!"
"It isn't," he smacks him again. "It's also no one's fucking business so shut the fuck up."
"Is it Madison?" I questioned.
"No," he answers quickly.
Aj is looking up at me through the rear view mirror with a smug smile on his face.
I smile, "you know, you may be able to lie to me, Ric, and that's totally fine, keep doing you, but Adolfo can't lie to me. Him and I-" I point to him and myself. "We don't have a friendship, he works for me, he's assigned to me, he does what I tell him to do, and if not- I complain to my father in law."
"Red-" Ric grumbles.
"Are you hooking up with Madison again?"
"No," he repeats himself.
I glance over at Aj who now has a worried look on his face as we pull into Angela and Dion's street.
"Aj-"
"Just drop it, red."
"Aj-" I smile and look over at him.
He tightens his hands on the steering wheel, "please don't put me in the middle of this, Mrs. Matteo."
"I'm sorry who?"
Aj sighs deeply, "please, Hailey."
"Who was he talking to?" I push the subject.
He puts the truck in park as we pull up to Angela's house and is looking over at Patrick.
"I will fucking kill you if you open your mouth," he continues to grumble.
"You won't have to worry about Ric killing you, Aj because you'll already be dead by the time I tell Carmelo."
Not that I would ever do that to him, I would never put any of the guys life in jeopardy intentionally, I just want to hear all the tea Ric is hiding right now.
"Tell him what," he chuckles nervously. "I haven't done anything wrong!"
I unbuckle myself and lean forward so that I'm in between Ric and Aj.
"You think he's gonna care why I don't want you on my service anymore, Aj? All I gotta say is that you made me uncomfortable and I'll have a handful of guys lined up to fix the situation."
"Mrs. Matteo, please-"
"You've had your fun, red, stop."
I turn to look at Ric, "Is it Maddie or not?"
He stays quiet holding my stare without saying a word.
Okay bet.
I don't break our eye contact and continue to hold his stare, "fine have it your way.. Aj."
He answers almost instantly, "it's Madison."
Ric immediately looks over at him and is shoving him on the arm and Aj's quickly apologizing.
I smack Patrick in the back of the head, "you're an idiot you know that."
He reaches a hand behind him, soothing the area where I just smacked him and I think back to when Ric and I first met, Angela and Dion were constantly smacking him for his stupidity and here I was joining the crowd now.
"Out of all the people you could be fucking you continue to keep putting my friends in danger, Ric! How stupid can you honestly be?!" I exclaim suddenly angry as I open my door and get out of the truck.
Dion pulls up in a white and black GMC Yukon honking as he parks in the driveway and I'm waving a hand in that direction although I can't see through the heavily tinted windows.
"Hailey, wait!" Ric shouts behind me as he gets out of the truck.
I turn around and slowly walk backwards when I hear a door shut from behind me.
"For once, Ric, just for once can you please think with your head and not your dick."
"The fuck did you do now," Dion exclaims as he walks past me and is standing in between us, facing Ric.
I walk around Dion and stand in front of him, "he didn't do anything, I'm okay, Dee, I promise."
"What's going on then?" He frowns.
I shake my head and turn around to face Ric, to see that Aj has now stepped out of the truck as well but stayed behind.
"I'm sorry, Hail, really, I'm trying to cut her off."
"Ric," I sigh deeply. "I don't care who you sleep with, you can do whatever the hell you want, whoever the hell you want. What I care about is you leading someone on who has absolutely no chance with you because Madison has been nothing but a piece of ass to you from the second you guys met! And I know that you know she has feelings for you because she's told me that she told you and what did you do? You pushed her away because you got who back?"
Ric glances down at the ground.
"What I care about is you destroying my friend's self esteem, Ric. Carmen and Madison were one of the two most confident women that I had in my life that I actually looked up to, and now I can't speak to my best friend without her emotions eating her up alive because I'm still here, I'm still here tethered to you. I didn't give up my own friendship so you could throw your relationship away once it started getting hard again!"
"She doesn't want anything to do with me, red-"
"Then you keep fucking trying, Patrick! You keep fucking trying to get her back! You keep trying to find a way if you really love her! Instead you're out here sleeping around with more of my friends repeating the same cycle basically! What happens when Carmelo finds out about Maddie? Because he's bound to."
"Hey," Dion wraps a hand around my arm and speaks calmly as he pulls me to him. "Let it go, red. You don't need the added stress right now, let's go inside."
I nod my head stupid hormones.
"You guys can leave, Ric, I know you had plans, I'll call Isaac to pick me up."
"We're not going anywhere, I'll be out here when you're ready to go home."
"Go home, Ric, I'll take over from here," Dion speaks up behind me.
"Amatto!" Aj shouts from where he's standing. Ric turns to look behind him and Aj's lifting a hand waving him over to him, "let's go, don't make it worse, Ric."
Patrick glances in my direction one last time and is shifting his attention behind Dion and I, "hi Ang."
Dion and I turn back to find Angela standing behind us, her hands on her stomach and Dion's instantly finding his way to her. He leans down to kiss her and she's quickly dodging it as she moves forward and is walking up to Patrick, wrapping her arms around him.
Ric immediately hugs her back and Angela's whispering something into his ear as Ric tightens his hold around her and nods his head and is letting her go to wipe his eyes a second later.
"I'm sorry," he glances in my direction and is walking back over towards the SUV without looking back.
"What did you say to him?"Dion questions, arms folded along his chest.
"What he needed to hear," she says and is walking up back over to me, hooking her arm with mine. "It's cold as fuck out here, let's go inside."
"And what exactly did he need to hear?" Dion continues to question as we walk past him.
"Don't worry about it," she hisses. "You weren't doing anything to defuse the situation to begin with and went into big brother mode right away."
"She was upset, I got worried!"
I smile and turn to him, "thank you for worrying, Dion."
"You're welcome, red."
Ang tugs on my arm, "you're not making this any better missy! You got overstimulated because of your emotions, Hailey. You can't get upset and so worked up, especially after you guys tell Carmelo, he's gonna watch you like a hawk, any little issue you have is going to trigger him and send him into a frenzy, dude."
"I know I know, Isaac's already so over protective," I admit.
We step into her house and make our way into her living room and she's plopping down on the couch, her hands back on her belly as she catches her breath.
"Madison's a big girl, Hailey, it's not entirely Ric's fault," she says breathlessly as she rubs her hands up and down. "It takes two to tango. He's wrong for leading her on, and she's wrong for taking advantage of the state of mind he's in. He has so much going on right now with the guys and everything else he doesn't need to lose one more friend, go easy on him. He was here alone while you and KP were having the time of your life in Italy, while Dee and I prepared for Reina to get here, he doesn't have anyone."
I smile at the mention of Ang and Dion's baby's name. Her middle name actually.
Her full name is going to be Iridiana Reina Ricci, and Isaac and I just so happen to be the only ones to know her name, her grandparents didn't even know her name yet, they were leaving it up as a surprise for the day they have her.
Her name is completely beautiful because it has so much meaning to them that when Angela told me it we both started balling like little babies.
Iridiana was Dion's name choice, it's a Greek origin name that literally means rainbow for their little rainbow baby. Which is why Angela chose the name she chose.
She wanted to originally name the baby Reign for very obvious reasons and decided to be unique and play with the name and decided to go with Reina but was torn between the two names so they decided to use both of them instead of just choosing one.
"What?" Angela smiles as I blankly stare at her.
"You're about to be a whole ass mom dude."
She laughs softly as she continues to rub her belly, "I'm not the only pregnant one here, you will be too in a few months! How are you feeling?"
I shrug my shoulders, "I think I'll feel better when Carmelo and my dad know."
"You're overthinking it, Hail, he's going to be over joyed.. Babe!!" She suddenly shouts.
"What?!" Dion shouts from outside still.
"WHERE'S MY PIZZA!" She shouts and is wiggling her eyebrows in the next second. "Are you hungry?"
"I'm fine, thank you, Isaac's mom is cooking dinner at the house."
"Too bad, you're eating. That was a trick question and you failed."
I laugh softly and help her out of the recliner, "move your cardigan lemme see your tummy," she demands, pushing the material out of the way, instantly going for the small bump. "It's so cute! Pretty soon them jeans aren't going to fit girl!"
"Hey," Dion chuckles as he walks into the house with two boxes of pizzas. "You're actually growing a little human in there," he smiles pointing at my stomach and walks over to us.
I quickly swat Angela's hands away and cover myself back up.
"You ain't getting no damn pizza if you don't give me my damn kiss you rejected earlier," he says hovering over her.
Ang quickly gasps and places a hand on her chest then both hands on her stomach, "you would starve us!?"
He leans in forward, "kiss. Now." He growls.
Angela giggles as she leans in to kiss Dion, "happy?" She grumbles against his lips.
"Ecstatic," he says sarcastically as he pecks her one last time. "You hungry red? It's your favorite, pineapple."
I smile and follow them over to the table, "I'll have one slice, Adriana's making dinner and I don't want to lose the little appetite that I have."
"That nervous huh?"
I nod quietly.
"Oh- baby will you grab the onsies from the room before I forget?"
Dion nods his head, "the little brown bag?"
Angela nods and Dion takes off upstairs and she's quickly patting the spot next to her on the table, "come on sit, I'm dying to hear all the dirty Italy sex!"