Sweet Love 2x: Miss Ruthless CEO for our Superstar Uncle

Chapter 411: That’s How This Baby Works

Before Franz could answer, Lucas’s eyes darted to Gio, who was standing a few feet away with Leo attached to his hand. Gio had been watching the baby with focused attention, his dark eyes tracking Lexx’s every movement.

"Here." Lucas thrust Lexx toward him. "You take him. You’ve been staring at him. You want to hold him."

Gio’s eyes widened. "I didn’t—I wasn’t—"

"Just take the baby, Gio."

Gio took the baby. He cradled Lexx the way Aunt Estella had shown him: one hand supporting the head, the other curved around the tiny body, the baby settled against his chest. It was the same position he’d practiced during those three days in the hospital, when Aunt Estella had placed Lexx in his arms and told him he was worrying too much.

Lexx stopped crying.

The silence was sudden and complete. One moment the baby was wailing, his tiny face red and furious, and the next he was perfectly calm, blinking up at Gio with something that almost looked like contentment. His miniature fingers curled into the fabric of Gio’s jacket. His breathing steadied.

Lucas stared. "You’re joking."

"He likes Uncle Gio," Lily said. "Everyone likes Uncle Gio. Uncle Gio is very calm. Babies like calm people."

"I’m calm!"

"You’re loud. You talk a lot. Uncle Gio doesn’t talk."

"I can’t believe this." Lucas turned to Franz. "Your son already has favorites. He’s over a month old and he already has favorites. This is unfair."

"You didn’t bring a gift," Franz said. "Maybe next time."

"That’s not how babies work!"

"That’s how this baby works. Apparently."

The relatives were laughing again. Lucas had not stopped protesting. And Gio stood in the middle of it all, Lexx calm in his arms, his expression moving from surprise to something softer. Something he probably didn’t want anyone to see.

Then he looked up, searching the crowd. He was looking for Arianne, Franz understood. His sister. Someone safe. Someone who wouldn’t ask him questions about why his hands were trembling or why he was holding the baby as though it might break.

But the gaze that met his wasn’t Arianne’s.

Sam was standing near the edge of the garden, a glass of wine in her hand, her dark hair falling loose around her shoulders. She must have arrived while Lucas was making his entrance. She must have seen the whole thing: Lucas’s panic, Lexx’s crying, Gio taking the baby and the sudden, unexpected peace that followed.

Their eyes met.

Gio’s breath caught. Franz saw it happen—the hitch, the way his shoulders tensed. He didn’t look away. Neither did Sam.

Then Sam walked toward him. "If you’re looking for Arianne," she said, her voice even, "she’s inside. With Gilbert and Nate. They’ve been talking for a while."

Gio didn’t answer immediately. He was holding Lexx, standing in the middle of the garden, and Sam was right in front of him. Close enough that the tension between them was visible to anyone paying attention.

"Thank you," Gio said. His voice was low. Controlled. "I’ll go find her."

"Gio—"

"I should give Lexx back." He turned to Franz, his expression neutral now. "Can you take him?"

Franz stepped forward and took his son. "Of course."

Gio passed Lexx over without another word. Then he turned and walked toward the house, his back straight, his pace even and unhurried in the way of someone working hard to appear unhurried. He didn’t look at Sam again. He didn’t look at anyone. He walked, and the crowd swallowed him, and a moment later he was gone through the garden doors.

Sam stood where he’d left her, her wine glass forgotten in her hand. Her expression was difficult to read: something between frustration and sadness and a longing she had probably been carrying for years.

Franz settled Lexx against his chest. The baby was calm, his tiny fingers curled into the fabric of Franz’s shirt where Gio had placed him.

"He’s good with babies," Franz said.

Sam didn’t answer. She was watching the door Gio had walked through.

"Yes," she said. "He is."

The party continued around them. The fairy lights flickered between the trees. The relatives laughed and talked and reached for more cake. And somewhere inside the estate, Gio was retreating to the peace of an empty room, carrying a feeling he hadn’t let himself name.

Franz looked at Sam. She had turned away from the door now, her wine glass back in her hand, her expression arranged into something she was holding in place.

"How long have you been here?" he asked.

"Long enough."

She didn’t explain what that meant. She didn’t need to. Franz had known Sam for years, had watched her and Gio circle each other through seasons of closeness and careful distance, had seen the way they moved around each other at family dinners and company events like two people who had memorized each other’s patterns and chose, every time, not to disrupt them.

He had never asked. It wasn’t his to ask.

"He’s good with Lexx," Franz said again. It wasn’t what he meant to say. But it was true, and sometimes truth was the only thing worth offering.

Sam looked at him. There was something in her expression that she let him see before she put it away again.

"I know," she said. "He’s good with everyone he loves."

She walked away before he could answer. Franz watched her go, then looked down at Lexx, who was gazing up at the fairy lights with the grave wonder of someone encountering beauty for the first time.

"You have very complicated uncles," Franz told him.

Lexx blinked at the lights.

Across the garden, Amanda had appeared beside Margaux again, the two of them watching from a comfortable distance. Amanda was looking at the door Gio had walked through. Margaux was watching Sam. Their conversation had dropped off, the way conversations do when what you’re watching says more than anything you could add.

Lily appeared at Franz’s elbow, pink-cheeked from whatever she and Kyle and Leo had been doing near the balloon arch. She looked at Lexx, then at the garden, then at Franz with the alert expression of someone who suspected she had missed something.

"Where did Uncle Gio go?"

"Inside. He needed a break from the noise."

Lily considered this. "He always needs a break from the noise."

"Most people do, eventually."

"I don’t."

"No," Franz agreed. "You never do."

Lily seemed to find this satisfactory. She turned and ran back toward the balloon arch, where Leo was waiting with the whale and an expression of patient resignation. The fairy lights glowed above them. The evening settled in.