With my throat tight, but unable to break away since he still had me by the chin, I managed a faint smile.“We’re safe now.We’re healing.The kids are thriving.We’re all happy.”
“I am very glad.”
“Tell me about your son.”
The light that entered his soft-brown eyes at the mention of his child only endeared him to me more.All parents should get that look when asked about their children.“He is my sunshine.An easy baby.A curious toddler.A funny child.He never shied away from telling you how much he loved you.He is the most authentic person you will ever meet.Kind and patient.Compassionate and forgiving.He knew he was gay and that he wanted to be in fashion by the age of eight.He told me, ‘Papa, I think I love boys, but I want to make clothes for girls.’”
I blinked through the sting of happy tears.“I love that.”
“He is not your typical moody, demanding designer.The models love him.They all want to work with him because he is so kind.He doesn’t pick just the skinny ones.He designs for all body types and celebrates them all.And his boyfriend, Nico, is exactly the same.They will be a dynamic force in Milan very soon.Kind people with good heads on their shoulders and an eye for fashion.”
“Does he only design women’s clothes?”
“Si.Menswear is boring to him.Though he tells me all the time I have terrible fashion sense, and whenever I see him, he tries to dress me.He says, ‘Papa, you are too handsome for jeans and white T-shirts.That is boring.You are not boring.’”
“He sounds like quite a character.”
“The light of my heart.”
“As he should be.”
My eyelids grew heavy as he continued to play with my hair.“This is so unbelievably relaxing.I could fall asleep.”
“You can,” he murmured.“If you are too tired, you should not drive.”
“What time is it?”I yawned.
“Eleven-thirty.”
My eyes flew open wide and I sprang up from where I was on his lap.“Eleven-thirty?”
“Si.”
“Oh my god, I hardly ever stay up this late.”
“Neither do I, but I have been having such a nice time with you.”
I was on my feet now and headed to his front door, wide awake.“And I was—am—with you.But it’s still late.I need to let you get to bed.I need to get to bed.It’s a schoo—wait, it’s not a school day tomorrow, is it?”My feet practically made a screeching sound on his hardwood floor.I stopped so fast.
“Tomorrow is Sunday,” he said, totally calm, if not a little amused at how I went from zero to sixty to zero so quickly.
“Right.Saturday.”I exhaled, and my shoulders rounded.“Sam is having a sleepover with her cousins at Gabrielle’s.So as long as I’m home in the morning before she comes to find me …”
A slow smile curled on one side of his mouth as he stepped closer to me.I thought he was going to put his hands on my hips, or scoop me up and cart me off caveman style to the bedroom, but instead, he took my hand.“Let me play with your hair a little longer.”Then he tugged me back to the couch.
I was too weak, too relaxed, too infatuated with this man to say no.
“I know you said this is your first date, and I said that it’s been over twenty years since my last first date.So I am okay taking this as slow as you would like.”
We sat back down on the couch.
“However, if you are okay with it, Danica, I would very much like to kiss you.”
My breath stuttered as I inhaled, my eyes falling to his full lips.He’d shaved today, and the five o’clock shadow in all its salt-and-pepper glory was as sexy as ever.I ached to feel it scratch my cheek.
Swallowing, and unable to keep my hands from shaking, I knitted them in my lap as I sat facing him on the couch.“Yes.I … I would like that too.”
His eyelids dropped to half-mast as he reached forward and gently, but possessively, cupped the back of my neck, his pinky against my raging pulse, his thumb cradling my jaw.With his other hand, he grabbed my twitching, clasped fingers, and stilled them.“Relax.I will bite you only if you ask me to.”
