Tame the Beast : Small Beach Town, Single Mom Romance

Whoa…this is…Zoe’s dad?

Fuck…that’s not how I planned to meet her father. Well, I wasn’t planning on it at all before just a second ago, but what else is new today?

“Kevin.” My mom places her hand on his, gently tugging him away from me. “Why don’t we all take a moment to breathe, yeah? Right now, we need to focus on Zoe and the baby. Let’s light up some healing essence, shall we?” Mom proceeds to take deep breaths and I see Jenny and Rick Levine, Nina and Sam Colson along with their son Alec, Jacob and Grace all take a deep breath too.

“Okay, you all keep breathing,” I turn my head toward Zoe’s father. “Kevin, I’ll let you punch me some more after my babies are born, okay?”

As I’m rushing back to the room, I hear Fanny say in sultry voice, “My, my, Nerds, if you wanted to impress me, you did it.”

“Fanny! Leave the poor man alone,” someone hisses back.

Did she just refer to Zoe’s father as Nerds?

“Did you go to the Alps for this water?” Zoe grumbles as soon as I walk in and then her eyes widen slightly. “What happened?” She tries to get up but immediately cries out in pain and slumps back onto the bed.

“Zoe! Don’t move like that by yourself.” I rush over, lifting the water bottle to her lips so she can take a sip.

“Why is there blood on your lip, Matteo?”

“Um, I just met your dad,” I tell her, wrinkling my nose slightly. “It’s safe to say, he’s not my biggest fan.”

“What? Why? And you mean to tell me he…punched you?” she asks through labored breaths.

“He did. And to be fair, I’d punch me too if I was in his shoes.”

“Why?” Those magnetic brown eyes bore into mine.

“Because I wasn’t there for you. Because you did all of this on your own. Because I didn’t hold your hair when you were throwing up in the mornings or got up in the middle of the night to chase down whatever it was you craved to eat.”

And up until just now I didn’t realize how much I missed out on. Or how much I wanted to be a part of all of that.

What is happening to me?

Her eyes soften with tears gathering there. “Matteo, you…” She starts to say something but once again the contraction cuts her off. “Oh God, oh God! This is a bad one!”

I grab her hand, letting her squeeze the life out of me again because it seems to help her.

“Come on, let’s breathe.”

“Matteo, why are you breathing like that too?” Zoe asks when I expressively fill my lungs and stomach with air.

“Moral support.”

“Aha. It’s totally working.”

“It is?” I do it again, and she smacks my stomach with her hand.

“Not in the slightest so stop it! It’s pissing me off,” she hisses and grunts, squeezing my hand.

Why the fuck did my dick twitch just now? It’s her violence, damn it. It did me in last time too but now is so not the time. What’s also not helping is how beautiful she looks even now with her hair a mess, her face red and peppered with precipitation while wearing this hideous gown.

“Did I tell you how gorgeous you are?” I say, brushing away a sweaty lock of her hair from her forehead.

“MATTEO!” she screams.

“What, Beastie?”

“Stop. Talking. And using that stupid nickname. Oh God, it hurts so so bad.” She squeezes her eyes shut hard and all I want is to take away her pain.