Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
Kent moves swiftly through the door into the ship, not looking back. His eyes do flick, just once, down the hall towards the room where they ate dinner where he knows his son is still sitting, enjoying his evening.
Part of him hesitates, knowing he needs more time with his boy
But…
There’s time for that lots of it now. It’s the gift that Fay gave him: plenty of time to make up for the years he lost not being a good enough father.
Still, there’s precisely one thing he wants right now, and one person he wants to be with. And he has a feeling that she’ll have taken the opportunity of his absence to make her way downstairs.
So Kent turns sharply away from the tiny dining room, heading instead for the stairs, going down one level and striding through the hall. Again, the numbers of the cabins flash by his eyes until he finds it: four.
He reaches out a hand, but suddenly the door opens.
And he scowls a little he can’t help it to see Janeen standing in the doorway, looking up into his face.
She bursts into laugher as soon as she sees his expression.
“Oh come on, Kent,” she says, grinning, putting a hand on her hip. “We’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other these days. You’re going to have to pretend to like me just a little bit.”
“I don’t dislike you, Janeen,” he returns, narrowing his eyes at her a little bit and slipping his hands into his pockets. “I just ”
“Wish someone else was opening the door?”
Kent sighs, but then he nods, confessing it.
Janeen gives him a softer smile and then steps out of the room, gesturing in towards it. “Go ahead, lover boy,” she says with a warm smile warmer than he’s seen before. “Though I’m not sure you’re going to be as happy with what you find.”
Kent frowns, not understanding, but Janeen just pats him on the arm and turns away, heading down the hall towards the stairs. Kent steps inside, closing the door behind him, looking around the room for Fay but…
Again, again she’s not here.
Sighing sharply through his nose, Kent grits his teeth but then he turns towards the bathroom, hearing movement there.
“Fay?” he calls.
“Oh geeze,” he hears her murmur, dismayed, maybe a little embarrassed.
Kent crosses the room in a few steps, pushing the already-open bathroom door a little further ajar and peering inside.
She’s there, and his heart breaks to see her looking so miserable, sitting on the floor, her cheek pillowed on the back of her hand, which is in turn pressed against the toilet seat.
“Sorry, Kent,” she sighs, looking up at him with her shining blue eyes. “It’s not the reunion you expected, is it?”
He just smiles at her, shaking his head, and her expression changes from contrite to remorseful when he steps into the room, closing the door behind him.
“Kent, you don’t have to ”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he murmurs, moving behind Fay and settling himself on the floor as well, stretching his long legs on either side of her and leaning against the tiny bathroom’s wall, starting to slowly rub her back. “Do you honestly think I’m just going to sit in the other room while you’re sick in here? Waiting for you to finish?”
“Maybe,” she sighs, and he shakes his head when he hears the misery in her voice. “I don’t know if I like the idea of you watching me barf, Kent. It’s not me at my cutest, is it?”
Kent laughs and is pleased when he sees her smile just a little bit.”Is it pregnancy?” he asks, moving on from the ridiculous notion that it would make him see her any differently. “Or sea sickness?”
“I don’t know,” she murmurs. “Both, I think. I haven’t really been on a boat before not a big one like this, not for a long time.”
“Well, we’ll get you through it,” he murmurs, steady, still stroking her back.
“Okay,” she sighs and they’re quiet for a long, peaceful moment before her body goes rigid again.
“Are you all right?” he asks.
“Nope,” she says, taking a deep breath and pushing up to her knees. “Here we go again…”
And Kent sighs, desperately sorry for his sweet girl who whether this is pregnancy or sea sickness is only in this state because of him. Fay quickly rises to her knees and Kent leans forward, gathering back her hair and continuing to brush her back in long, slow strokes as she loses her supper.
About forty-five minutes later, Kent helps me to my feet. My legs are still shaky, but Kent stands close by as I brush my teeth and gargle mouthwash.
“I don’t know about all this,” I murmurs, glancing up at him and feeling awkward as I dab at my mouth with a clean hand towel.
“What do you mean?” he asks, peering down at me.
“This new intimacy,” I say, wrinkling m nose a little as I look up at him. “Kent, our entire relationship or whatever it is ”
“Relationship,” he says instantly, with a sharp nod.
“Fine,” I say, waving a hand and brushing it off. “You’ve kept me at arm’s length. The bodily realities of our lives have been mysteries I’ve never even seen you shower. And now we’re living in close quarters, and you’re watching me barf? Standing over me as I brush my teeth?”
“What?” he asks, smirking a little. “Do you want me to move to the cabin next door? Give you your privacy?”
“No,” I say, growling a little and taking a step closer hating, categorically, the idea of him going anywhere at all. “I just…” I shrug, and sigh, “you like me to be…perfect, to come waltzing down the stairs every day dressed in my cute little outfits, my hair all done. You’re going to be grossed out when you discover that I’m…real. And pregnant, which is a whole different level of real.”
Kent sighs, and dips his head to press a quick kiss to my mouth before hastily bending lower. Before I know it I gasp to find that he’s scooped me up into his arms. I laugh a little in my surprise.
“I’m a little ashamed of myself,” he murmurs, looking down into my face, “if you’ve taken my bullshit boundaries as anything about you. You’re perfect, every iteration of you, Fay perfectly-dressed Fay, throwing up on a container ship Fay they’re all very good.”
I laugh now, wrapping my arms around his neck, pleased to the core of me to hear him say it, though I admit…I still have my hesitations. “Well,” I say quietly, “why did you put up so many boundaries? Why didn’t you let me in?”
“I did,” he says, raising his eyebrows at me. “More than you probably know. More than anyone else in…years.”
“Daniel said something about that,” I say quietly, looking up at him. “About…me being the only one of your girlfriends you let sleep in your bed every night.”
Kent frowns a little, letting loose a sigh. “He noticed that, did he?” Then he looks up, glancing towards the door, through which somewhere Daniel exists.
“Daniel noticed a lot,” I say quietly, peering up at him, curious about his emotions about his son.
“Well, he’s not wrong,” Kent replies, looking down at me and then starting back into the bedroom, sensing that I’m well enough now to leave the toilet’s side, at least for now. “I’ve opened up to you, Fay, just…in my own way. I’m afraid you’ll have to continue to be patient with me now it’s not going to be perfectly easy for me, after years of being shut off from everyone.”
He carries me over to the bed, sitting down on its side and then twisting to place me, gently, on the mattress, my back against the two pillows up against the bed’s plain wooden headboard.
“Why did you shut people out,” I ask quietly, wrapping my arms around my knees after he pulls the blankets up, tucking me in a bit so that I’m warm, even though I’m still in the little black dress I put on at…