Gently, I pull my hand away and quietly leave the room. I clean up all evidence of vomit and the mess the girls left in the bowling alley.
I should be tired since I only slept for a few hours, and in an awkward position, but I’m not. I change clothes and hit the gym for a couple of hours. By the time I take a shower, the house is up and running for breakfast.
“Omelet, Luca?” Becca asks when I enter the kitchen.
“Of course. Ham and cheese if you’ve got it.” I grab a coffee mug down and fill it before looking at it. It says, ‘World’s Best Farter’ in big letters. I grin and walk to the table, where Lil and Ariana sit drinking their coffee out of their own ridiculous mugs, waiting for their omelets with sunglasses on their faces. I hold the mug up as they look at me. “Let me guess, Father’s Day present for Marco.”
“Nope. Birthday. Mom.” Lil picks up her mug and turns it to show me the picture of her and Ariana with the words ‘Luckiest Fucking Dad’ on it. “This one was for Father’s Day.”
Ariana’s avoiding my gaze. As much as I love that she has someone like Lil by her side, it’s also a pain in my ass that Lil is always by her side because I need to talk to her.
I chuckle as I take a seat. “Where are Marco and Mia?”
“Probably doing the mid-morning nasty.” Ariana laughs when Lil throws a napkin at her. “Lil likes to pretend she was deliveredby storks and that they don’t do that kind of thing pretty much every chance they get.”
“Ew. Gross. Shut up.” She puts her fingers in her ears while Ariana grins.
“Oh Jesus, what’s Lil pretending not to hear now?” Mia asks as she and Marco walk in.
“Oh, Jesus is right,” Ariana says. Her eyes meet mine for a moment, and her cheeks turn pink. Yeah, she must remember at least part of last night. “She doesn’t like to be reminded that she wasn’t an immaculate conception story.”
Marco snorts and pulls a chair out for Mia. “No. Not at all.”
Lil groans, her fingers not working as earplugs.
“Breakfast is ready,” Becca calls to us from the kitchen. I jump up to help her bring plates in.
“Holy fuck, who ordered this monstrosity?” Gooey cheese oozes all over the plate.
“That’s a stupid question,” Lil snorts and points at Ariana, who simply shrugs.
“Omelets need cheese.”
“And how many kinds are in this one?”
“Four.” She grins but still doesn’t look directly at me. God, I love that beautiful grin. I want to see it every single day.
After breakfast, Marco has me to join him in his office to talk about the fighting ring he has connections to here.
He lets me stay while he discusses other business with the crew. When the last of them leave, he turns to me. “So, what exactly has you so distracted?”
Fuck, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of paying attention. “What do you mean?”
“You’re mostly here, but there’s something else that’s got your focus.”
I know the guilt shows on my face, but he laughs. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing, Luca. Depending on what it is, it can be agood thing. My girls, all three of them, are always part of my focus. When you got here two weeks ago, your focus was basically anger. But that’s changed.”
He waits expectantly. I don’t know how he’s going to react. But he’s not going to let me get away without an answer, and lying doesn’t seem like a smart way to go.
Finally, I exhale loudly. “It’s Ariana.”
He grins widely. “We thought so.”
What. The. Fuck? “We?”
“Me and Mia.”
“Fuck.” I lean my head back and stare at the ceiling. He chuckles. I’m glad I’m getting to know this Marco, this other side of the scary, badass mafia boss. He always scared the shit out of me when he came to my house to deal with business, but he was fun to do stuff with at the lake when I was a kid.
