BXBX NOVEL Chapter 171 - Getting Ready
Jovani had more than one reason for wanting to let Samuel personally know that they would be heading back together. One of the biggest reasons was his nosiness. Since he knew that Samuel would have to pack before they left, he thought that it would provide a good opportunity for him to nose around the other's room and see what kind of things that he had.
His cousin didn't mind of course so long as he actually helped him pack rather than just looking around at everything that he had. There wasn't much to see since he still hadn't had the chance to go back and collect more of his things from his parent's house, but it did give Jovani some insight into what a simple person he was.
He really wanted to get a chance to meet his other cousins, but he doubted that would be allowed any time soon until they were older. Evalyn hadn't even decided on how she was going to go about explaining everything to her husband. She wouldn't be able to keep it a secret any longer once the engagement happened since they would also be announcing the unity between the Red Scorpions and the Vedova Nera through this engagement thought that had never been the plan.
"It seems that you're quite a few years older than your siblings?" Jovani commented as he stared down at the picture in his hand of the three of them together, he guessed Samuel's parents must've taken it since they weren't anywhere in the frame.
"I'm eight years older than my brother and ten for my sister. With everything that happened around the time my mom got pregnant with me, they decided to wait a few more years to make sure everything remained stable before they decided to have anymore kids." Samuel replied as he glanced back from filling up his suitcase to see what picture the other was looking at.
He only bothered packing the things that he thought he would need for three days since that was the amount of time that had been agreed upon. Jovani hadn't really thought that packing clothes was necessary as he was certain that there was some things back at the estate that they were heading to that would fit him, his cousin though didn't want to take such a chance and preferred instead to stick with packing his own stuff.
"I would love to get the chance to get meet them before they get too much older, though I already know that probably wouldn't be allowed. Though, they wouldn't happen to be coming to the engagement would they?" He presumed that the answer to that would be no, but it never hurt to ask such questions as he helped Samuel pack the last of the few things that he intended to take with him. He finally got his issue with the phone sorted as well so he would be able to stay in touch with Lena easily while he was away.
"No, they're too young to be here my parents decided. Instead they'll be staying with my paternal grandparents." Samuel replied as he closed up the suitcase. Replying to this question though made him have a question of his own that he wanted to ask the other.
"I wouldn't happen to have any grandparents on my mother's side would? She always said that they were dead before all of this, but I'm now not sure that's actually true?" It was quite a normal question to ask considering the circumstances Jovani couldn't deny, however, he knew that the answer he had to that question probably wasn't the one that the other was looking for.
"Sadly, no. Rather complicated story to explain, but to put it simply they longer walk on this earth. They weren't terrible people though." He added on at the end.
Samuel's grandfather was the old head of the family, one that neither he or his wife had been brought up often after they had passed away. It was due to some rather unfortunate circumstances and had caused quite a bit of chaos and distress to the rest of the family. Thus they decided that it was better not to discuss it except for on the death anniversary as it was something that was too hard to speak about.
"Is it something that I can hear more about later?" Samuel clarified. He got he feeling based upon his cousin's face that the death wasn't something natural or because it was there time to pass on. Still though, it was something he wanted to know because it was tied in with a part of his family that he knew nothing about.
"Next year you'll be able to hear about it when the time marks it being another year since they passed." He replied with a pressed smile.
"Enough on that though, we are working on a rather tight schedule if we want to leave here on time and have dinner without imposing on the staff at the estate and everyone else. Are you sure that you have everything that you need?" Jovani asked as he looked around the room and then at the closed suitcase Samuel was carrying. Though it didn't look that large, he knew that the other had put quite a few things in it.
"I think so. I don't imagine that I would need to take too much with me since we'll only be gone for three days." Samuel replied as he picked up the suitcase.
"In all honesty, you'll probably end up coming back here with more than you left with." Jovani only half joked. There were actually a number of things at the estate that he felt would be better off going to Samuel for various reasons rather sitting around and collecting dust.
"I hope not too much. I'm not sure that I would actually have enough space in this room if you intend me to come back with a lot. I haven't even finished bringing the rest of my own stuff here." If he did end up coming back with too much he got the feeling that he would have to request to have the size of his room upgraded if there was a large guestroom in the house or one that he could use for storage.
"I don't think that it would end up being too terribly much." Jovani mused as he tried to think about all the things that he would want Samuel to have.
"We can figure it out once we get there and you have a chance to see everything yourself." He suggested before sighing.
"Honestly, I wish that you could be there for a week as there is a lot that needs to be taken care of. I know though that this won't be the only time that you'll be coming to pay a visit so the three days for now will have to do."
"Is there really that much that you want to go over with me?" Samuel asked hesitantly. He knew that there was a lot that he didn't know about. He felt though that if there was too much to process and learn about, it would be better to do it over a longer period of time. He wasn't sure his mind would be able to handle digesting too much information at once. Jovani smirked at him in response as he took the suitcase from the other one.
"Indeed there is, but nothing that I can afford to tell you about until after we leave and reach our destination. I think that there will be something fun surprised for you out of this." was all he said as he got ready to leave the room.
"Come now, we don't want to be late and I know you're still going to want to say goodbye to your princess and convince her once again that everything will be fine while you're gone." He commented as he motioned for his cousin to come after him.
The only reason that Jovani had taken the suitcase from the other was that he imagined even if Lena wasn't one who was used to giving hugs, his cousin would want to because it seemed like the kind of person he was after watching him carefully.
Truthfully, the princess didn't have to be on his case from him to understand how much he needed to watch out for his cousin and make sure that he was safe while they were aware. Not because of his lack of physical abilities, on the contrary he seemed to be turning into quite the fighter if the damage Samuel did to his men was anything to go off.
Rather, it was more to do with the fact that he was just the kind of person that made one want to protect and watch out for him even if he could take care of himself as he had far more of a pure spirit than ninety percent of those who came from the world that Jovani and Lena came from.
Only some odd twist of fate would put someone like him into a situation where he would belong to one of the top three most prominent mafia families in New Jersey and not know anything about it until now. Perhaps it would turn out to be for the better though.. His pure spirit might be exactly what they needed at this point in time.