Lib Novel Page 62
“That’s not what I meant.” She sucks a deep breath, closing her eyes. “You didn’t think to—I don’t know—maybe give me some privacy?”
“I had that thought for a fleeting second.”
“And what happened to it?”
“I remembered that you are mine and there is no such thing as privacy between us,” I tell her and take a bite of the breakfast croissant.
Zoe shakes her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. “For the love of… Matteo, go to work before I kill you.”
“I can’t.”
“And why the hell not?” She narrows her eyes at me but once again there is nothing threatening there since that blush is still firmly intact on her cheeks.
“That will be a quarter from you.” I point to her. “And I’m on paternity leave.” Those narrowed eyes disappear as she rolls them and sighs.
“Matteo, you are not on a paternity leave, and you’ve already been here for a week. It’s bad enough I’m intimately familiar with your horrible eating habits, I don’t need to know anything else. Go to work.” She points to the front door.
We were having such a great morning with me making her breakfast she moaned over, then having such a lovely conversation about her extracurricular activities in the bathroom while Mellie is sleeping soundly in my arms, but she just had to go and burst my happy bubble.
Tough shit, I have plenty of tape to seal the holes.
“And what is wrong with my eating habits?”
“Nothing apart from being as ridiculous as you.”
“Hmm, I don’t think so.”
“Matteo, just last night you were eating an apple and chasing it with a Coke. When you don’t like apples.”
“What? I really wanted that Coke but it’s bad for you, so I had to add something healthy in there.” Zoe looks at me from underneath her eyebrows. “What? It’s all about the balance.”
“Like I said, ridiculous. But since you are such an advocate of the ‘balance’”—she puts quotation mark around the word—“go to work so you don’t lose it.”
I don’t know why she says it like it has been any kind of hardship for me to be here. I’ve been enjoying every second of these past six days.
“See this baby in my arms?” I reference to Mel. “Paternity leave.”
“Lord give me patience. Matteo, Mellie will be here when you come back. I promise. So, put that baby—my baby—back in her cot and stop being ridiculous. Aren’t you tired of us yet?”
“Tired?” I gasp, press her closer to my chest, looking at Zoe like she’s grown a few heads this morning. “How could I ever tire of my perfect little watermelon or my future wife who puts on a show for me.”
“Jesus Christ. Now he escalated it to a wife,” Zoe sighs. “And that show was not for you.” She shakes her head and takes a sip of her tea but that little blush she’s spotting doesn’t escape my attention. “You are impossible. When are you going to drop that girlfriend—excuse me—wife crap?”
“Crap?” I shriek. “That is a very serious business, Zoe Holsted. I will not have you belittling it.”
“Okay, okay.” She holds her hands up in mock apology. “We can postpone that conversation to when you come back from work.”
And she’s back at it. The truth is my heart aches at the thought of leaving them. “What if she forgets me? Or does something cool while I’m away?”
“Matteo, she’s a month old. The coolest thing she could do is sleep for solid four hours at a time.”
“See? I could totally miss that.” I bulge my eyes out at her because solid four hours of sleep is badass, and I need to be here for it. I need to be here for all of it.
Zoe sighs. “I promise I’ll FaceTime you if that happens, deal?”
“What about the part where she forgets me?” I ask, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Part of me understands how ridiculous I sound but there is this other part that refuses to listen to any logic where Mellie and Zoe are concerned. I want to be with them twenty-four-seven. I want to be the man they rely on. The one they turn to if there is a spider in the house or another silly reason.
I may not have been ready for any of this, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how. My dad showed me every day how to be a great husband and a dad. In fact, he still is, thirteen years after he passed away.