Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
“Well,” he says, looking around at all of us with a tight grin. “Looks like they’re coming for a visit.”
“What!?” I gasp, dropping my fork. “Here!?”
He gives a shrug, grimacing at me. “I can’t stop them. They know where we’re living.”
I groan, tilting my head back and staring up at the ceiling. Above all, this little beach house has been a haven away from the world where we can all be ourselves and don’t have to pretend.
So Alessi and Natalia? Here? It’s the absolute last thing I want.
“Um, I did not invite them to my beach house,” Janeen snaps, stabbing at her breakfast. “They are not welcome here.”
“Still Fay’s house,” Daniel says, giving her a cheeky wink and turning to me. “Unless…” he says, hesitating. “This goes against your plans?”
“No,” I sigh, pushing my food away, my appetite suddenly gone as my brain begins to scheme. “It’s good,” I continue, putting a hand on my stomach and looking down at it. “We want them very much on Team Baby Bianci, after all.”
And my lips twist ironically as I consider my little baby, who is not a Bianci at all.
But, Alessi and Natalia don’t need to know that, do they?
________________
Natalia wraps me in a big warm hug the moment she gets out of the car, rocking me back and forth in her arms and stroking my hair with her hand. “Oh Fay, the little mother what a blessing you have,” she murmurs as I do my best not to cringe.
Seriously though, I wonder, a little frantic, how long can this hug last?
But Natalia holds me tight until Daniel comes to release me, giving her a hug and accepting her four kisses two for each cheek.
“I am so happy for you both,” Natalia says, looking between us. “A blessing a little baby we will hope for a boy, yes?” With that, she grabs the bags of gifts she brought with her and happily starts up the steps into the beach house. “Daniel! There are more in the car, go and get them!”
When we both start out the door, she calls after us in a chiding voice. “Do not lift a finger, Fay! You are a sacred vessel let the men do it!”
I laugh a little, looking up at Daniel in shock. “I guess she likes me more than you now,” I say, grinning.
“I know,” he murmurs, his hands on his hips as he stares after the woman who has done nothing but worship him his whole life. Then he looks back at me. “I kind of hate it.”
“Don’t be jealous,” I say, reaching up to pinch his cheek. “I’m a sacred vessel, after all,” I sigh, walking towards the stairs and starting up them with not a single thing in my hands. Daniel grumbles as he follows after, carrying several more bags filled with presents.
In the house, Natalia and Alessi are greeting my family more cheerfully than they ever have before, which I can tell unsettles my dad and Janeen. Jerome made himself scarce about half an hour ago. After all, while it makes sense that we hired him to be our body guard while he’s out on bail, it doesn’t really make sense that he’d be lounging around my house in his pajamas, does it?
Especially with the way that he and Daniel look at each other these days. I don’t even think they realize it.
“Fay, come and see,” Natalia says, patting the sofa next to her and beginning to open the packages, which all contain baby clothes and baby supplies. “I know that you don’t know what you’re doing with this so I got you everything you need, and all the best.”
I do my very best to not roll my eyes at Natalia, who I refrain from pointing out never did this herself. But luckily, Janeen rolls her eyes for both of us as she passes me onto the way into the kitchen, her expression a mix of confusion and disgust.
The next two hours pass cheerfully, with Natalia and Alessi being genuinely nice to everyone for the first time. And, despite my criticism of her, Natalia’s gifts are all really beautiful and will probably be helpful once the baby comes. I bite my lip a little, considering that…well, that I should probably pay more attention to preparing for this child, to ensuring that I know what the hell to do once I have an infant to care for.
But with everything on my plate?
Well, frankly, I’ve got seven months to prep for my baby, and quite a bit to do before that.
It’s nearly nighttime when we’re all gathered out on the back deck, lounging around the table with a set of cocktails that Alessi mixed up for us. Natalia sits next to me in the same way that she has stuck by my side all day, which has been annoying and baffling. But I shrug it off, considering that she really just wants the baby’s company, not mine.
I smile as I watch Daniel chatting with Alessi, the two of them clearly happy and united in their excitement about the baby. I’m pleased by this, knowing that peace-loving Daniel was unhappy about the rift between himself and his uncle. As much as he knows that we lied to the Bianci family to make this happy reunion possible, I can see that he’s still pleased with the result.
My happiness, of course, is tempered a little by my jealousy as I look around the table at everyone’s drinks. I sigh, pouting at my own glass of soda and then glaring around at everyone else’s espresso martini’s. They just look so frosty and delicious
Honestly, I’m not even that big of a drinker, but nothing makes me want to steal Daniel’s cocktail away from him like being told that I can’t
But before I can get too jealous, Natalia distracts me by giving me the shock of my life.
“Do you know, Fay, I owe you an apology,” she says, leaning closer to me so that her words are for us alone.
I turn to her in surprise, completely without words. What on earth is this?
“I admit,” she says, giving me a little smile as she rests her chin on her fist and looks me over, “I thought that you and Daniel did not have a real relationship.”
“Oh,” I reply, my eyebrows going up. And then I laugh a little, shaking my head. “Well, yes,” I say, sighing, “you made that pretty clear when you tried to set him up with about a hundred other girls.”
She shrugs along with me. “Honestly, I didn’t think that would work either, but I had to try.”
Curious, I tilt my head at her words.
She leans in towards me, giving a wink. “Do you know, I always thought Daniel was a little…well, that he liked men,” she says, laughing.
My blood runs cold to hear her say it, and it takes every bit of me to ensure that my fear doesn’t show on my face.
But somehow, I manage to simply laugh at Natalia’s suspicion that Daniel might like men as if it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heared?
“Really, Natalia?” I ask, scoffing pleasantly. “I mean, I know we’re not a very handsy couple or anything, but I didn’t think we’d pushed you that far along into the realm of the ridiculous.”
“Ah well,” she says, wrinkling her nose at me a little bit. “I suppose that it is just that you are Americans. In Italy, when the young are in love, they cannot keep their hands off of each other. You know?”
I laugh and nod along with her, giving a little shrug as if I can believe it.
“Well of course you do,” she says, chuckling a little as she fingers her martini glass, “you saw it with Kent and I, at the house.”
Again, I tuck my true emotions deep, deep inside myself. “Yes,” I say, smiling at her. “I could tell that you two…really had something.”
She nods, looking out at the ocean wistfully. “Perhaps, in another life…” she sighs.
I murmur something in assent, wanting nothing more than to grab her damn drink and splash it all over her face.
“But family and children are so important to us,” she says, blinking out of her thoughts and turning back to me. She gives me a warm smile, apparently dismissing the thought of Kent and reaching out a hand to stroke a tendril of my hair.
I force myself not to tense up under Natalia’s hand, to not clench my jaw or swat her away, instead smiling pleasantly. “Anyway,” she continues, “you will forgive me for trying to get Daniel to meet some other girls, yes? I had to try to find him a girl he might like, so that he could start a family. But!” she laughs now, drawing her hand away. “I was wrong he found the girl he wanted, without my help! As so many do.”
“Yes,” I say, glancing over at Daniel with what I hope looks like hero-worship in my eyes. “I understand that others don’t always see what we have. But Daniel and I love each other very much.”
“I can see it now,” Natalia sighs, pleased. “And soon the world will have evidence of it, when your little baby is born.”