Chapter Thirty – One: Leather and Lace

Tia's POV

The storm cleared the evening of Christmas Eve. After Olivia went to bed, Vinny and I took advantage of the break in the storm to elope. It had seemed like the most practical thing to do. We just wanted to get married and neither of us saw the sense in having a wedding.

"What would you like to do now?" I asked my husband as we headed out of the church.

Vinny kissed my hand and then asked, "What would you like to do?"

"I'm not sure." I responded, "I'm sure we can figure out something when we get back."

"I can think of a few things."

When we got back to Grandfather's estate, we ducked into his study to let him know we were back. He had been sitting at his desk, looking through paperwork. He looked up when he heard us walk in, "How was your night?"

"Good." Vinny and I both answered.

"What did you do?" He asked, making conversation.

"Got married." I replied casually.

"Good." He nodded, "You two should have done that ages ago."

"You're not surprised?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow, and then responded point blank, "You two have been in love with each other since you started working with the Smithsonian before he left for Iceland. You two may have not been able to see it, but we all could. I had a feeling when I started seeing you together more again that eventually you would. This is a little quicker than I thought it would though."

After a few more minutes of talking, he bid us both good night. Vinny and I walked back to my room, which we now shared.

"That went well."

Vinny nodded in agreement and asked, "Better than you expected?"

"I don't know what I was expecting to be honest."

"He was right though." Vinny responded, "I did have feelings for you before I left for Iceland."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't think you could ever love a man like me."

I gently rested my arms around his neck, "I do." He kissed my head, wrapping his arms around me. "Now, is there anything specific you'd like to do?"

"I can think of a few things."

Olivia's POV

Christmas morning I woke up before sunrise and headed to the sitting room to open my presents. I picked up my stocking sitting by the fireplace, opening candy cane sticking out of it and shoving it in my mouth. I then went through the stocking. It had been mostly candy, but there was a teddy bear. I opened all of my presents under the tree: books, dolls, clothes… All wonderful gifts. Not exactly what I wanted, but maybe what I wanted wasn't something anyone could give me.

"You're up early." I heard Mother say, "I see you decided not to wait for everyone else."

I turned to face her to tell her that I hadn't seen a point in waiting for anybody else and that it had just been a day where I happened to get more presents than everybody else, then I saw them. My mother and father were together. He had his arms around her waist and she had been drinking from tea cup.

My jaw dropped, she had a ring on her finger. I quickly caught the candy cane before it fell to the floor.

"We wanted to talk about something with you." Mother told me.

"You got married…" I said in awe, still staring at her ring.

"We did." She nodded, "Are you okay-"

Before she could finish, I told her, "Better than okay." I had gotten what I wanted for Christmas. "Can I have a pet?"

"I'll think about it when we get back home." Mother answered, which I could live with. I could always bother her about it when we get home.

"What about a sibling?" I asked her.

"How about we get something to eat?" She awkwardly changed the subject after a few moments. I held up my candy cane showing her I had something to eat. She corrected me, "Something slightly healthier than candy." I raised an eyebrow at her. It was Christmas, she didn't mind when I ate candy for breakfast last year. She took a deep breath, "C'mon, I brought some pastry recipes from Norway."

"You know changing the subject to food isn't going to make me forget you didn't answer my question." I pointed out.

Tia's POV

I looked up at Vinny, "Vuoi dire qualcosa?"

(You want to say something?)

"Non proprio." He responded, "Vuoi più bambini?"

(Not really. Do you want more kids?)

"Forse tra un anno o due. Siamo un po 'troppo impegnati con tutto ciò che sta accadendo proprio ora." I answered, "Dovremo parlarne più tardi e capire cosa vogliamo fare, ma non credo che siamo pronti per avere quella conversazione con lei."

(Maybe in a year or two. We're a little too busy with everything going on right now. We'll have to talk about it later and figure out what we want to do, but I don't think we're ready to have that conversation with her.)

"Non erano." He agreed.

(We're not.)

I looked back at Olivia who was looking at us completely confused.

"Can you teach me Italian?" She asked.

"Your father can." I volunteered him. Mole spoke French with her, Vinny might as well teach her Italian. They needed something that they could bond over.

She looked at Vinny.

"You want to learn?" He asked her, she nodded. "We'll start lessons as soon as we get back home."

"So, food?" I proposed again. She nodded.

As we headed to the kitchen, she asked Vinny, "Grandfather said you blow things up, can you teach me how do to that too?"

Vinny looked at me, "Potrei insegnarle come farlo in sicurezza."

(I could teach her how to do that safely.)

"Forse quando è più grande." I responded, "Guardare è una cosa, ma in realtà è un'altra."

(Maybe when she's older. Watching is one thing, but her actually doing it is another.)

"Maybe when you're older." He told her, "Why don't we concentrate on the Italian for now and then move to the explosives?"

"Okay."