Tame the Beast : Small Beach Town, Single Mom Romance

“Um, what?” I gulp. That’s not what I thought he was going to say. I expected an order of wings with a side of fries, instead I got served a hot one myself.

“It’s not a hard question, Matteo.” He takes a sip of his beer. “You can even use only one word for the answer. A yes or a no.”

I look at him, sputtering over my thoughts inside my head. What the fuck does he mean am I done being a chickenshit? When was I ever one?

I feel the heat inside me rising up, bristling out of me.

“I’m not a fucking chickenshit!” I don’t mean to snap at him, so I take a deep breath and add, “Respectfully, sir.”

Kevin raises one eyebrow at me, taking another sip. “Good job reining yourself in there. You’ll need it in the future.”

What is he talking about? What the heck is going on here? But before I can ask anything, he continues. “Did you know Zoe is not my biological daughter?”

“What?” I frown. “No…no, I didn’t.” And I would have never thought that. From what I’ve seen—which granted, wasn’t much, he loves her like his own flesh and blood.

“Didn’t stop me from loving and taking care of her like she is,” he says while casually drinking his beer. “It also didn’t make me run away as fast as I could from her mom with my tail tucked between my legs. Even though that woman didn’t possess half the good qualities my Zoe girl does.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, was that a dig at me?

“I didn’t run away as fast as I could with my tail tucked between my legs, if that’s what you implied,” I say through clenched teeth.

“Oh? Sure could have fooled me.” The man is on a roll here.

“I’m not boyfriend material, let alone a father. It was never what I wanted.”

Kevin regards me with an assessing gaze, then turns back to his beer and keeps drinking like nothing is wrong.

“What? That’s it? No more comments my way?”

“No point. You are not the man for my Zoe, so maybe it’s for the best they called that other one.”

Again, with this fucking phone call bullshit. I don’t care. I don’t care. I. Don’t. Care.

“I knew it the second I saw her that she was my daughter. Zoe was peeking from around the corner, assessing me, when her mother invited me over, and just one look into those curious brown pools and I knew,” he says with a smile, clearly reliving that day right now. “Smart as a whip and cutest kid I’ve ever seen. Then she smiled at me, and my heart was hers from that moment on. I knew it.”

Fuck, why does it feel like there is not enough air in this bar? And my gut feels like I’ve been sucker-punched right through it again because everything Kevin just said? That’s what I felt. Those were the feelings that ran through me like a hoard of wild horses as soon as Mellie let out her first cry.

Those are the thoughts that I try to shoo away every morning and every night for the past three whole weeks. The thoughts I’ve been fighting since I first met Zoe because this is not just about Mel. This is about my family.

Mellie is mine. Zoe is mine.

Mine.

Kevin leans back, and I swear I see a small smile pull up in the corners of his mouth while I’m on the verge of a panic attack over here. “There. That wasn’t so hard now, was it, son?”

No. It’s all way too simple, actually. It was right there in front of me seven months ago, yet I was too blind or too lost in my ways to notice the gift that I was given. The gift that walked through my door.

Because yeah, I never wanted to dip a toe into monogamy. Until that ray of sunshine with an identity of a feral beast, parted my clouds with her mere presence and I won’t allow some uptight bastard steal my thunder. Or my family.

I have no idea what I’m doing or how to do it, what I do know is that no one will love my Mellie more than I do. No one will touch my Zoe the way I do. And I won’t give them the chance.

I don’t bother answering Kevin, I simply step out from the bar and run upstairs. Moments later, I’m headed out the door with a packed bag in my hands and determination written all over my face.

“Matteo? Where are you going?” I hear my mother call out from somewhere in the back.

“You better have bail money saved up, mom, because if I’m already late, I won’t go down without a fight.”

18