Tuscan Heat. Deborah Fletcher Mello

      “I would really like to know how you stay so thin!” Kamaya exclaimed, her head waving.

      “Good genes,” Tarah said with a soft giggle.

      Maitlyn rolled her eyes, slapping a hand against her hips. “We have those same genes, so I don’t think that’s it,” she said with a warm chuckle.

      They all headed in the direction of the exit and home. Minutes later the joy and laughter continued at the Boudreaux family’s Broadway Street house. The food was abundant, plates overflowing as the family all caught up, conversation sweeping from one room to the other.

      “I like the name Rose. Rose Lynne Sayed,” Maitlyn was saying, her hand gliding in a tight circle across her abdomen. “Although Zak is still insisting we’re having a boy!” she said, leaning in to whisper with her sisters. “He even told the technician that did the ultrasound that she didn’t know what she was talking about.”

      Kamaya laughed. “At least it’s not twins!”

      “I wouldn’t mind having twins,” Tarah said. “A boy and a girl. You get it all done in one shot. Dahlia never has to be pregnant again. How perfect is that? You, on the other hand, might have to do it again to get a boy. Maybe even twice.”

      “If I had thought that way after Kendrick and Kamaya were born, you wouldn’t be here,” their mother interjected as she joined in the conversation. She took the seat beside Tarah, giving her daughter’s ponytail a playful tug.

      Kamaya laughed. “I know!”

      Katherine turned her attention to Donovan, who was leaning against the home’s brick fireplace, a glass of red wine in his hand. “So, Donovan, what’s going on with you? What’s the big news you wanted to share?”

      “Yeah, Don Juan! Are you engaged? Pregnant? What?” Tarah said teasingly.

      “You have to date first,” Kamaya said with a deep chuckle. “Are you finally dating, big brother?”

      Donovan shook his head, amused by his sisters’ teasing. “Don’t call me Don Juan,” he said, cutting an eye at Tarah.

      “What’s going on?” Kendrick asked, moving into the room. “Who’s calling who names?”

      “Tarah,” Mason said, sauntering in on his brother’s heels. “You don’t even need to ask.”

      Tarah threw her brother a look. “Why do you assume I did something? How come it can’t be Maitlyn or Kamaya who’s doing something?”

      “Because it’s always you,” her brothers all answered in unison.

      The women laughed, Maitlyn and Kamaya nodding their heads in agreement.

      Tarah rolled her eyes skyward, her arms crossing over her chest. Her lips were pushed out in a full pout as she tossed her body back against the sofa cushions.

      Katherine smiled. “Y’all stop now. Donovan was just about to tell us his news.”

      The family all turned in Donovan’s direction, eyeing him curiously. He shook his head, the attention suddenly unnerving. His brow furrowed.

      “Well?” Katherine prodded. “What is it, baby?”

      “I’m moving to Italy,” he pronounced, his gaze sweeping around the room. “I leave at the end of the semester. I’ve been invited by the University of Siena in Tuscany, Italy, to come teach there. I’ll be a visiting professor for one year teaching the structure of associative algebras relative to their radicals.”

      Tarah jumped up excitedly. “Hot dog! I get to visit Italy! Yes, yes, yes!” she exclaimed as she rushed to Donovan’s side. She threw her arms around her big brother’s shoulders.

      “I didn’t hear anyone in the room say anything about you going to Italy,” their mother noted. “Sit your tail down, Tarah, and give your brother some space.”

      Tarah tossed her hands up as she moved back to her seat, plopping her body back down against the sofa.

      Everyone in the room laughed.

      Donovan laughed with them. “I hope that once I get settled, you’ll all come visit me at some point,” he said.

      “You couldn’t find a college in Texas or Florida or someplace closer? You’re a mathematician, after all. Everyone needs a good numbers man,” Katherine said, her bright smile dropping into a deep frown.

      He shook his head, meeting his mother’s gaze. His smile was consoling. “This is a great opportunity that I can’t pass up. It’s a definite résumé builder.”

      Congratulations rang warmly through the room as his siblings moved to shake his hand and give him hugs.

      His mother moved to his side, her hands clasping his shoulders. There were tears in her eyes. “Why must all of you move so far away? Italy is halfway around the world, for heaven’s sake!”

      Senior joined them, wrapping his own arms around his wife’s shoulders. “Leave that boy be. Your son’s almost forty years old! Cut them apron strings already, woman!” The man’s smile filled his dark face as he kissed her cheek.

      She rolled her eyes, fighting the smile that pulled at her own lips and the tears that burned hot behind her eyelids. “He’s only thirty-seven. He’s nowhere near close to forty yet. And I’ll cut the apron strings when I darn well please, Senior Boudreaux!”

      Donovan smiled, the pad of his thumb swiping at a tear that had rolled down his mother’s cheek. “It’s not like I won’t come back, Mama. I’m not planning to be there forever. And I hope you’ll definitely come visit me.”

      Tarah suddenly waved her hands for attention. “Can I live in your apartment while you’re gone?”

      * * *

      Senior eased his body into the queen-size bed beside his wife. Katherine sat upright against the pillows, her electronic reader open on her lap, her reading glasses perched low on her nose. She cut her eye at her husband as he snuggled his body close against hers. He leaned up on one elbow, his head resting against an open palm as he stared at her.

      “What?”

      “What do you mean what?”

      “I mean, why are you staring at me?”

      “I’m staring,” he said softly, his hand trailing a heated line across her leg, “because you’re so beautiful.”

      Katherine shifted her glasses from her face, resting them easily in her lap. She met the look the man was giving her. “What do you want, Senior Boudreaux?”

      “Why do I have to want something, woman?”

      “Because when you start tossing out compliments, you’re up to something. So what is it?”

      Senior rolled his eyes skyward as he dropped onto his side, then moved onto his back. He pulled one arm up over his head as the other clutched the covers around his body.

      “I tell you how beautiful you are all the time. That doesn’t mean I want something.”

      Katherine pulled her glasses back against her face. She threw one last gaze in his direction. “Mmm-hmm!” she muttered under her breath.

      Senior laughed. “Okay, so maybe I want something,” he said as he rolled back toward her.

      “You’re working my nerves right now, Senior,” she quipped, a smile pulling at her thin lips. “You see me reading. You know I don’t like to be interrupted when I’m in the middle of a good book!”

      Senior shrugged his shoulders. “I was thinking that we probably need to update our wills,” he said, ignoring her comment.

      She pulled at her eyeglasses a second time, closing the cover on her electronic device. “What brought that up?”

      “Our babies. With