“Yeah babe?”
“Can we watch a princess movie?” she asked. And who was I to tell her no? She looked up to me with identical green eyes to her mother, little blonde ringlets in pigtails, and she was clutching her bunny stuffie as usual.
“Of course,Principessa,” Matteo spoke up, scooping her into his arms as she giggled.
“Put me down!” she laughed and laughed.
“Oh, you didn’t want to fly?” Matteo asked as he started moving around the room and holding her like she was flying.
She put an arm out and started chanting, “Faster!”
Watching Matteo with her was basically the cutest thing to exist. It made my heart soften even more. We played princesses—Matteo and I in crowns while Gianna held her ‘royal court’—before we put on one of her favorite princess movies on the living space television. Not even thirty minutes into the movie, Gianna was asleep leaning against me. Matteo pulled up a blanket around her, smiling softly.
“For knowing literally no kids other than G, you’re damn good at this Moretti,” he whispered.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I whispered back. “She adores you.”
“Please, I didn’t miss how she’s been calling you Zietta lately, that’s a huge honor.”
“I almost cried the first time,” I admitted.
“Didn’t know you were capable.” He smirked. I smacked his arm in mock annoyance. It seemed to all be mock annoyance lately. Because Matteo DeLuca was growing on me, was making me blush, and was making my stomach fill with butterflies. I shook my head, trying to shove down the feelings. Not safe feelings. Feelings led to hurt. Nope this was just vacation, a truce was made. It would go back to normal next week.
We watched the rest of the movie in silence, Gianna fast asleep. Then Matteo flipped the channel, scrolling through other movies to rent.
“I feel like you hate romcoms?” he joked.
“Excuse you, I love them!”
“Careful Moretti, your icy heart is melting! Don’t tell the others!”
“Shut up,” I rolled my eyes.
“You’ve Got Mailor10 Things I Hate About You?” he asked.
“Have you seen both?”
“A requirement when you have Lucia as a sister,” he rolled his eyes.
“Hmmm,” I tapped my chin trying to decide. “10 Things I Hate About You,” I finally replied, and he started the movie.
I must have fallen asleep at some point during the movie, because I woke to end credits,missing a Gianna-shaped human curled into my side.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I said, yawning.
“That’s okay, you’re cute when you snore.”
“I do not snore!” I threw back.
“You one hundred percent snore, Moretti.”
“Oh my God, that is so embarrassing!” I said, covering my face.
“Oh, she’s blushing!” he said, leaning over and poking my side.
“I will slap you,” I swatted away his hand. He raised an eyebrow and got up on his knees on the couch. And he fucking crawled to me. I swore time had stalled.
“You keep being mean to me and I’m gonna fall in love with you,” he smirked, getting closer. I pushed myself back and held out a foot to his chest.
