But desire is dangerous.
Hope is dangerous.
And Luca Dante is the most dangerous of all.
After all, I've heard promises before.
I've believed them before.
Enzo bursts back into the room, arms overflowing with toy cars, face alight with excitement. "Look! This one's my favorite." He tumbles his collection onto the floor at Luca’s feet.
My son drops down to sit, Luca joining him.
I’m amazed at how quickly Enzo has accepted Luca as his father.
No anger for being away.
No shyness toward the stranger who is now his father.
“Did you play with cars when you were little?” Enzo runs a sports car into a pickup truck.
“Sure did. I used to have construction trucks too… like bulldozers.”
“And a cherry picker?” Enzo asks excitedly.
Luca thinks for a moment. “Maybe. I know there was a backhoe.”
Enzo scoots closer to Luca, his eyes shining with a light I haven't seen before. It tells me how much he missed not having a father.
Sure, there are men in his life.
Lorenzo had been like a grandfather in his own gruff way.
Pyotr sometimes would take Enzo out for “boys’ things” when he worried Enzo might not be getting enough testosterone-fueled activities.
But he’s never had a father figure.
I think of all the times I’d caught Enzo staring at other children with their fathers.
How he’d act like he didn’t care that he didn’t have a father to come to father-son events.
I thought I'd given him everything he needed, but watching him now, animated and eager, I realize what he's been missing.
“Do you still have them, Daddy?”
Luca stills, his eyes filled with emotion as he looks at Enzo. I feel it too. How easily “Daddy” fell from Enzo’s lips.
Luca clears his throat of emotion. “Maybe, Son. I’ll check the attic.”
Luca's eyes meet mine over our son's head.
I give him a wan smile.
Yes, this is sweet.
It’s amazing how quickly children love.
How completely they trust.
