Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
“Fay,” she says, clicking her tongue at me as she bends down to open the oven. “Don’t you know that those glasses are only meant to be filled to the widest point? You will ruin the flavor.”
“I poured it, Natalia,” Daniel says, leaning back against the counter and giving her a friendly smile. But I just shrug and drain the glass of half of its contents, until the wine indeed only reaches the widest point in the glass.
“There,” I say, giving her a wide and false smile. “Better?”
Natalia laughs a little at my joke but, as she moves past Daniel and I with a hot dish of lasagna she whispers a new dig. “There is nothing worse than a drunk woman, Fay,” she informs me, giving me a sad little look. “You should watch your drinking. We worry for you.”
And then she’s gone and I bare my teeth and snap at the air after her, making Daniel laugh.
“Damn,” he says, shaking his head after her. “She is going in for you tonight.”
“Is a drunk woman worse than a murderess of obnoxious Italians?” I murmur, narrowing my eyes to a glower. “Let’s find out.” And then I drain my glass. Daniel just obligingly gives me a refill as Kent comes around the corner, peering into the kitchen.
He frowns at us as I wipe my mouth with my sleeve and Daniel pours wine freely into my glass.
“Do I want to know?” Kent asks, looking between us.
“Nope,” Daniel says, giving him a bright grin.
Kent just takes a deep breath, raising his eyebrows, and walks towards the patio.
“Come on,” Daniel says, wrapping a supportive arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go eat. You need to soak up that wine.”
“No,” I murmur, stubborn and not willing to give up my melancholy just yet. “Liquid dinner for Fay tonight. The drunker I am, the less time I have to spend conscious with her.”
Daniel just grins and I wrap my arm around his waist, pleased to have my best friend by my side in these trying times.
When I step outside to the patio, though, any start to a good mood that Daniel raised in me begins to be wiped away by the sight of Natalia pressed close to Kent’s side. I scowl a little when I see her laughing up into his face, raising a hand to tuck his hair behind his ear like she did last night at that horrible dinner.
But I stop dead in my tracks when I see Kent smiling down at Natalia in response, his hand on the small of her back, tucking her body in close next to his.
Daniel comes quickly back to my side when he realizes that I’ve stopped moving, clutching my shoulder more tightly and pulling me with him this time. “Keep moving, Fay,” he murmurs to me, his voice serious and low enough so that only I can hear. “Your my fiancé tonight, remember?”
And then I scowl again, realizing that he’s right. That I have no reason, on the surface, to mind that Kent is looking down at Natalia like the long-lost-love she might very well be.
So I turn my attention back to Daniel, taking another big swig out of my glass of wine as he leads me over to the table and seats me down with him.
“Gonna be a long dinner, isn’t it,” I murmur to my fiancé as we watch Natalia put a fond hand on Kent’s cheek before heading again into the kitchen to get more food.
“At least there’s gonna be a show,” Daniel mutters back, drinking his own wine now.
Kent comes over to the table then, taking his place at the head, not bothering to acknowledge either of us as he takes out his phone and flicks through his messages, clearly preoccupied.
“Seriously?” I say to Daniel and Kent, and both look up at me at the same time with matching Lippert stares. “We’re doing this?” I ask, looking between father and son. “We’re just…having dinner again? Ignoring the fact that last night she ordered my father’s assassination and ended my engagement?”
“What would you suggest, Fay?” Kent murmurs, putting his phone down on the table and turning his heavy attention to me completely.
My mouth falls open, ready to respond, before I realize that…I don’t have any answers. I don’t have a suggestion for what we should be doing instead. I sputter for a couple of seconds before Daniel comes to my aid.
“She’s right, dad,” he says, sighing and leaning back in his chair as he takes another deep sip of his wine. “It’s kind of ridiculous to expect us to sit here and play nice, considering what went down last night.”
“Well,” Kent says, leaning back and studying us. “You’re free to go, if you want,” he says, giving a little shrug and a smirk. “If you’re feeling…cowardly.”
I glare at him a little, falling for his taunt even though I know precisely what it is.
Daniel opens his mouth to protest, but Kent cuts smoothly in. “Listen, I hear you both, okay? But the Bianci family is an incredibly important ally that I absolutely cannot afford to alienate completely, no matter how much they’ve pissed you off. And Daniel,” he says, looking at him closely now, “they are your family. Whether or not they’ve made you mad, you are tied to them for life. I would suggest you find a way to create a middle ground, especially with Alessi if not Natalia.”
“And what about me?” I ask, curious and a little miffed that Daniel is getting personalized mafia advice when I am not.
“You, Fay,” he says, smirking at me. “I’m getting the impression that you’ll make your own decisions regardless of my advice.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t want it just so I can do the opposite,” I say, narrowing my eyes at him and making him laugh. But even as Kent laughs a little, and Natalia comes back through the door, Alessi at his heels, I don’t miss the fact that Daniel frowns at me, just a little.
And I realize that Kent, in that moment…
Well, that intentionally or not, he communicated to both of us that he has a little more faith in me to make my own choices than he does his own son.
But there’s no time to discuss this not really as Natalia places a large bowl of salad on the table and then promptly sits down on Kent’s lap, wrapping her arm around his neck and pretending that this is a normal thing in the Lippert house. Kent, to my displeasure, wraps a steady arm around her waist as casual as a friend but, with the way he lets his thumb rub slowly up and down against her …
I turn away from the sight and finish my second glass of wine, doing my best to keep my face impassive.
But I place my empty glass on the table and nod at it, silently indicating to Daniel that I’m going to need a heck of a lot more wine if I’m supposed to get through this.
The food at dinner does me no favors by being absolutely delicious. The salad is tart and citrussy, the lasagna creamy and rich, the desert coconut sorbet which Natalia annoyingly made from scratch basically makes me moan when I taste it.
And I grudge every bite that I take, wishing to hell and back that I don’t like it as much as I obviously do.
“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, Fay,” Natalia says warmly to me once we’ve all finished, delicately holding the spoon that she’s been using to feed Kent sorbet. There’s a wicked gleam in her eyes. “I do like to see a girl who is not afraid to eat, no matter how much it expands her waistline.”
I do my best to hold back my glare as I slowly lick my spoon, savoring every drop. “Luckily,” I say, lowering my silverware leisurely to the table, “that’s not something I have to worry about, Natalia.” I give a little shrug. “Maybe in twenty, thirty years.”
Her smile falters a little on her face and I decide that this little victory is the perfect note on which to make my exit.
“Thank you!” I say, getting to my feet and stretching my arms above my head in the growing dark. “This was lovely. Daniel?” I say, turning to him. “Are you coming up?”
“Sure,” he says, getting to his feet as well and saying his goodnights and thank-yous around the table, as polite as he always is. Natalia, Kent, and Alessi say their farewells to us as well, but they stay at the table, turning towards each other as Daniel and I head to the door.
As Daniel leans forward to grab the handle, though, some of Alessi’s words catch my ear.
“Kent,” he says, “perhaps now is a good time to go through the details of the little deal that we’re working through ”
I turn then, my curiosity getting the better of me, and immediately meet Kent’s eyes as he frowns at me. I know, instantly, that he’s sending me a very precise message: that this conversation is not for me.
But, stubborn, I pause, turning my head and doing my best to listen further as Daniel pulls open the door and takes my hand, pulling me with him.
“Wait,” I murmur, straining my hearing to catch Alessi saying something about plans, about a shipment
But then Daniel catches his father’s glare as well, and he hurries to pull me through the door, despite my silent protest.
“Hey!” I say, frowning up at Daniel as he closes the door to the patio behind us. “I was listening to that!”