“Mia, I don’t think giving up is a smart idea.”
She shrugged. “Possibly. But I think I’m going to be okay.”
“Ross isn’t—”
“You made a mistake, Dad.”
“What?”
“You screwed up with Ross. You failed in your job, at least that one day. Who knows how many others?”
“Mia, it was a long time ago. You need to understand—”
“What if I wasn’t your daughter? What if I was just some poor, biracial kid who made a mistake? How would I have been treated in your courtroom? I used to think I knew the answer to that question, but I don’t. At least if you could actually admit to making a mistake…I don’t know. It feels like it would be something.”
“Look, I don’t remember the particulars—”
“I’ve been killing myself my whole life, afraid to make any missteps, to live up to your standards—”
“Okay, maybe the sentencing was a little harsh.”
“You made a mistake.”
“You are my daughter and all I want to do is protect you. That’s all I ever want to do, because I love you.”
Tears burned in her eyes, and she nibbled on her bottom lip trying to hold it together. “I know. And I love you. And I love and miss Mom. But I’ve lived my whole life, looking up to you, so afraid of disappointing you. But, the truth is, you’ve disappointed me, and that hurts even more.”
The color drained from her father’s face. “Mia, I…”
Mia got everything out she needed to say. It was hard and gut wrenching and she didn’t know where it left them exactly. Even so, her spine straightened with strength. She hadn’t crumbled. “Well, I think I’m going to grab a few of my boxes from the garage.”
“I’m not perfect. I’ve made mistakes.”
While this was what Mia thought she wanted, she never thought she’d actually get it from her stubborn, hard-edged father. One side of her mouth pulled in a slight smile. “Thank you. Now what are you going to do about it?”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Agiggle escapedMia’s lips. She didn’t consider herself a giggler, but at this moment, she couldn’t deny being one. The ridiculousness of her current idea gave her an unending desire to giggle nonstop. The plan: housebreaking. It wasn’t enough to stop by El Dorado Jewelry or call him or wait on his doorstep. She wanted to surprise Ross in the best way. Unfortunately, her plan also depended on the door being unlocked. Testing the doorknob proved he wasn’t going to make it easy for her.Drat!Plan A was already thwarted.Don’t people trust people not to break into their houses anymore?
Time to switch to Plan B: testing the windows. She found success in a window beside the patio. The lack of screen made pushing the window effortless, but climbing through it was another matter. She was soon fighting against Venetian blinds. If this was his idea of a deterrent against thieves, it wasn’t a bad one. The blinds managed to catch her hair as she shimmied through the window before landing on the carpet in an ungraceful plop. Her break-in bent some of the blinds’ edges. Welp, they were old. She could replace them with her barista tips if Natalie took her back…or really she could do anything. A whole world of options had opened up to her. Another carefree giggle escaped her.
With admission into the home established, Mia unlocked the door, providing easy access to her car and the items inside of it. She’d purchased bags of ingredients from the grocery store on the way over. She’d learned her lesson the first time. Tonight’s surprise dinner would be simple. A simple French Niçoise salad, a simple paella with chorizo, and simple Mexican Italian wedding cookies with rainbow sprinkles. All Mia had was the Russo’s Italian recipe binder, but she wanted to start a new one with recipes from the Diego family. In the meantime, her Aunt Sylvia had emailed Mia a paella recipe as the first entry for the new binder. Mia figured this dinner would be the good start of creating new traditions between Russo and Rosso.
Even with good intentions, it wasn’t long until things inside Ross’s kitchen got overwhelmingly out of control. The salad came out a little messy with her hard boiled eggs falling apart and none of the ingredients were chopped evenly. The wedding cookies were a bit burned around the edges and she spilled sprinkles all over the counter. And simmering diced tomatoes from her paella sputtered on Mia’s hand. “Ow!” The spoon tumbled from her grasp, marking her tank top with a red stain on its journey to the floor. Mia bent to retrieve the utensil.
“What the hell is going on?”
She jumped.Ross.Mia was so absorbed in her tasks, she hadn’t kept track of the time or heard the rumble of his truck pull into the driveway. Surveying the current stages of a category-five disaster in his kitchen, led her to believe this surprise wouldn’t be the happy occasion she had hoped for.
She slowly turned in his direction. “I meant to clean up as I went—” But as their eyes met, she went speechless. Nothing prepared her for the flesh-and-blood reality of what being here meant for her—for them.
The distance between them vanished as Ross rushed to Mia, taking her face in his hands, pressing their foreheads together. “What the hell is going on? Am I dreaming?”
“You’d dream about me making a mess in your kitchen? Would that be a dream or a nightmare?”
“I don’t care about the mess. Is everything okay? Did something happen?”
Mia released the breath she’d been holding, hooking her fingers into the belt loops of his pants. “Yes, there was something wrong. I moved out, but I moved to the wrong place.”
