The kids start filing into the dining room together and sit down around the table. JP walks in putting his phone away, and sits at the head of the table. He asks Lola to say grace, and she says a short and simple prayer, and we begin eating.

The kids begin telling JP about their time at the Aquarium, and then Marco brings up the baseball camp. I notice Lola starts scooping some of her food on a second plate and watch as she talks to herself or maybe an imaginary friend. Carmen sees it as well and questions Lola on what she's doing.

"I'm talking to mamma; she needs to eat too, you know?" Lola responds.

All the other conversations stop abruptly. I glance at JP, and he's watching Lola carefully. "What do you mean, Lolabug?"

She looks over at him and shrugs, "I'm sharing my food with mamma; she's hungry."

"Stop it, Lola; mamma's not here." Carmen looks angry now.

"Yeah, she is; she's sitting right here," Lola points to the space beside her.

"Stop it! Mom's dead, she's not here, she's not coming back!" Carmen screams at her.

"Carmen, stop yelling at her. She knows mom isn't coming back; she's just dealing with it her own way," Marco tries to intervene.

"Shut up, Marco, you won't even talk about mamma, but you're okay with Lola pretending she's here?" Carmen fires back.

They begin arguing back and forth, and then we all jump when JP slams his hand on the table, causing the plates and silverware to rattle. "Enough!" He bellows.

"No, Carmen doesn't get to decide how we feel! Just because she feels guilty about ignoring mom," Marco retorts. "Well, guess what, Carmen? I did it too, but you don't see me taking it out on all of you like you are."

Carmen picks up her glass of water and throws the water on Marco. He jumps back, startled, not expecting her to do that.

"Carmen!" I call her out. "That's not how you solve your problems--"

I'm hit with a splash of cold water myself. The kids gasp in surprise, and I look down at my soaked clothes and then back up at JP, who's laughing. "I told you I'd get you back."

"Wow, real mature JP! Good example, for the kids, by the way, " I glare at him, but he only keeps laughing.

I look down at my plate, pick up a handful of mashed potatoes, and throw them at JP. He stops laughing immediately. The potatoes cover half of his face and fall to his suit.

He moves his head up slowly to look back at me, and I cover my mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter.

"Food fight!" Miles yells, and everyone starts throwing things at each other, including Toby, who thinks it's the funniest thing in the world to throw his food at everyone.

Unfortunately, my mom, who's the closest one to his reach, is his primary target. But she doesn't mind and laughs along with him. Carmen is even laughing and squealing as she gets hit with flying food.

The staff that waits along the wall have hurried off to the kitchen to avoid getting hit with any airborne food, flying freely in the room.

I vaguely hear someone clearing their throat, but we keep going until we hear a loud knocking, and we all stop and see Adonis with Cristian standing in the doorway.

"Capo, you have guests here to see you..." Adonis says as he takes in JP's food splattered suit. "Perhaps I'll say you are...indisposed."

"He's not referring to me, by the way," Cristian states as he walks in further to the room, " I came to join you for dinner, but it seems I've missed out already."

"There's plenty; we don't mind including you, Cristian." I smile mischievously at him, "Right, kids?"

"Don't even think about it, Piccola," Cristian warns me.

But it wasn't me who dared to flick a spoonful of mashed potatoes at Cristian. Instead, it was little Toby, and he giggles when the potatoes land with a splat! On Cristian's forehead.

No one says anything except for Toby, who's still in the middle of his boyish giggles.

We watch Cristian wipe his forehead and walk closer to the table, discarding the food on a plate. He looks at Toby and then picks up an untouched small pastry with cream on top and smashes it against Toby's face.

Toby stops giggling and then wipes the cream from his eyes. He pops some of the creams in his mouth. "Mmm, yummy." Cristian smiles down at him, then chuckles.

Everyone laughs, and we start to help clean up as best as we can.

JP excuses himself to get cleaned up to meet with his guests. We tell the kids to go wash up while trying to avoid tracking food throughout the house.

"Well, this is reason #989, on why I never had children," Cristian says as he wipes the remnants of food from his face in the kitchen. "I prefer my food in my stomach rather than my face."

"Oh stop, you know you would have had ten kids if they were all like me," I joke.

"No, I would have taken matters into my own hands and made myself sterile." He responds, and I laugh loudly.

"In all seriousness, it's nice to hear the kids laughing again. It's been a while, yes?"

I nod, "yes, it's been a while. I think it was a little therapeutic for them, for all of us, to be honest. I know they're still going to have bad days, even weeks. But I hope this lets them see that there are still reasons to smile, laugh, and have fun, even while mourning."

"That's very wise, dolcezza, and spoken from experience," Cristian tells me. "I would bid you farewell for the night with an embrace, but seeing as you're still wearing your dinner, I will refrain."

I look over at him and smile.

"Stella...don't."

Cristian starts running out of the kitchen as I chase after him. I'm impressed he can move as quick and agile as he does, but then he skids on the marble floor, and I run into him, knocking our heads together.

We groan and fall back on the floor, laughing. The sound of high heels clicking on the marble floor makes me look back, and I groan internally.

I sit up and take Cristian's hand as he helps me up.

JP, Charlotte, and an older gentleman approach us, and I can only imagine how awesome I must look right now, compared to her tight, sequined body con dress. Her cleavage spills out of the dress, and she stands close to JP, even though he tries to move away.

"Well, this look certainly tops the outfit from the other night. You keep outdoing yourself, Stella." Charlotte smiles at me.

"Thank you; I like to call this one "meatloaf couture" It's all the rage in Europe, right now." I smile back at her.

Cristian laughs, and JP has a smile playing on his lips while Charlotte scowls at me. Cristian steers me away back into the kitchen, and we grab ice packs to place them on our heads.

"Well, since I hardly ate anything and the kids hardly ate before the food fight broke out, I'm going to order some pizza. Do you want to stay since you haven't eaten?"

"Sure, I haven't had a good slice of pizza in a while." He says. "But I'll take care of it while you go get cleaned up."

I hurry out of the kitchen and stop when I see JP talking with the older gentleman and Charlotte. The older man holds his hand out to JP, and they shake hands, the older man walks out the door, but Charlotte lingers through the open door and moves in to speak close to JP.

She glances at me over JP's shoulder before she pulls him in for an intimate embrace, and she kisses his neck and then his face; I hurry past them and up the stairs, but of course, she has the need to yell out a fake good bye to me, letting JP know I saw them.

I hate the confusion I feel in my head and my heart, and I hate the knot I have in my stomach from watching them share an intimate moment. But, I remind myself, we're not together, even though the images of last night come to my mind.

But I also wonder if this is how he feels when he sees Sean and me together.

After washing up and getting dressed, I find everyone in the kitchen eating around the large island, including JP. I feel his eyes on me as I grab a slice of pizza and move next to Miles and Cristian, who are in the middle of some engrossed discussion over the latest Marvel movie.

I play mindlessly with my hair twirling it around my finger, leaving my pizza untouched after a few bites. "You're not hungry?" JP stands next to me.

I pick up my plate, "No, I'm full." I toss the pizza in the garbage, setting the plate in the sink, and start to head into the family room where some of the other kids have gone in, but he follows me.

"Stella, she was here for business. Nothing else."

Ha! Dressed like that, yeah, right!

"It's none of my business. But, I mean, buying someone out of their accounts takes this long, right? And the meetings are always at night and sometimes last for hours, and yet nothing is resolved. Am I correct?" I wish I could keep the jealous tone out of my voice.

"I know it didn't look like it was, but it was."

"You don't owe me an explanation, JP. You can do whatever and whoever you want. We're not together, remember?"

His face hardens, "Of course I fucking remember. How can I forget, with it thrown in my face, all the damn time!"

"Well, who's fault is that?" I turn to face him furiously. "If you hadn't just disappeared and come after me instead---" I stop realizing how ridiculous this all is. I turn to say goodnight to everyone as they are all looking at me. My mom and Cristian both have concern on their faces. And I head for the door, my face burning with embarrassment.

"There you go, running away, like always; things get too uncomfortable or hard, and you can't get out of a room fast enough. If you could make a career out running away, you would be fucking loaded, princess." JP mocks me.

I whirl around and jab him in the chest, "I'm not running away, you jackass! This conversation is pointless, and I'm going to bed. Is that okay with you, your highness?"

"No, because we're not finished talking." He informs me. I groan in frustration and agitation.

"Just the other day, you told me I should get past what happened, what I did, the things I said because you have. Is this what you call getting past it?" He shouts. "You know what you are? You're like a plunger! Always bringing old shit back up!"

JP's face is red, and we're both breathing heavily as we stare at each other, and as I think about what he said, I burst out laughing.

I also hear the older kids cracking up in the family room. Cristian translates for my mom what JP said, and then I listen to her laugh, too.

"Did you really just call me a plunger?" I gasp in between my laughter, and I watch as JP looks at me, still angry, but then he seems confused, and then he starts chuckling before he's full-blown laughing, too.

"That was pretty good," I say, sighing, my laughing settles down.

JP steps up closer to me, smiling. "Don't ever doubt my love for you, again, amore." He brings my hand to his lips, "Charlotte is making it difficult to cut her out and is now bringing lawyers into the dissolution meetings, which is who was here with her tonight. Well, one of them. I didn't know she was coming, so the meeting didn't last long since I was blindsided and need to have my lawyers present. So you may see her again. I understand it bothers you to see her or have her around, but I promise it won't be much longer."

I sigh heavily, "I'm sorry for overreacting. And thanks for letting me know, but I don't have any right to be bothered, though. "

He lifts my chin with his fingers, "You have every right, Stella. I want you to come to the next meeting if you're here and if you want to," He steps closer to me and holds my face, "but baby, you must know, my heart only beats for you." I'm held captive by his beautiful brown eyes.

My phone rings, and I blink out of my dreamlike state. I pull it out of my back pocket, and I know JP sees Sean's name flashing on the screen before he lets go of my face. "Looks like we both don't know how to be away from you, princess." He kisses my forehead lightly, "Good night." Then, he walks out of the kitchen as my phone keeps ringing before I decide to answer it.

~~~~~~~

I love the little family moments! Don't forget to vote and comment please!