Axel puts on a new episode ofWinnie-the-Pooh.
Luca has already finished his bowl and is licking the spoon.
“See?” Axel grins. “Healthy parenting. Nailed it.”
You’re my piglet,” Axel tells me when the credits are rolling.
“I’m not pink.”
“You are when you blush.”
I shove him. He shoves back. I pull him off the couch, and we’re wrestling on the carpet like we’re eighteen again, and Luca is giggling so hard he falls over.
“Again!” Luca shouts. “Do it again!”
Axel pins me. His face is flushed, his eyes bright.
“I win,” he says.
“You cheated.”
“How do you cheat at wrestling?”
“By being... bigger.”
He laughs and kisses my cheek, right there, in front of Luca, like it’s nothing.
Axel
Enzo checks his watch. “Guess what, Luca? It’s bedtime.”
Enzo helps Luca get ready, and then it’s story time.
Enzo’s eyes sparkle. I know he’s excited to show Luca what he brought from Los Angeles.
Enzo flourishes the picture books like a magician revealing a trick, and Luca gasps.
Oh.
Oh.
I’m in love with Enzo.
I’m in love—the kind where watching him read bedtime stories makes my throat tight, where the thought of him leaving again makes me want to barricade the doors.
I’m such an idiot.
I’ve been in love with him this whole time.
Luca chooses a book, choosing between them with the intensity that his uncle gives to all tasks. Finally, he selects one, and Enzo beams.
I put Luca on Enzo’s lap so Luca can look at the pictures with him. Then I sit beside Enzo. Our legs touch, our shoulders touch, and I let his warmth sweep over me.
We met so long ago. I never thought we’d be here—a family, reading bedtime stories.
It’s cozy and nice, and oh God, I definitely love this man.
I want this to be my life forever and always.
