Teach Me Daddy

“Of course, I’m good,” I said. “The party was good, and I’m good. I’m giving this matter a bit of… personal attention.”

“Keep your guard up, brother,” he said. “They’re ruthless. I can’t have you dying off before Junior can tell you the fun little thing he told me today.”

“And what did that troublemaker tell you?” I asked.

“He told me you were his hero.”

I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes. I allowed the air of my beloved city to wash over me as his words fell deeply into my ears. The day my brother had called me and told me he and his wife were pregnant, I didn’t think I could get any happier. They named him Lorenzo Camillo Moretti, Junior, and I was there in the hospital the day he was born. I didn’t think I could get any happier until the first time I pressed a kiss to that little boy’s forehead.

Until this very moment.

“I promise you, no matter what happens, I’ll be around to watch that boy grow up,” I said.

“Good. Because you’re his godfather. If anything happens to me, I need you alive.”

“Nothing is happening to any of us, you got that?” I asked. “Quit that bullshit talk.”

“Just keep one eye open, brother. And if you need me, I’m only a short plane ride away.”

“I hear you. I’ve got this under control. Talk with you soon.”

Little did I know that would be the last time I would talk to him, and little did I know the Del Vecchio family would make a liar out of me.

CHAPTER NINE – ROSE

THREE YEARS LATER

The bulk of the dinner rush at the diner had just finished and I was wiping down the disgusting countertops everyone left behind. My eyes were glued to the clock, counting down the seconds until I could finally be free of this place. I had so many things I had to do and so many things I had to take care of.

Kevin was now thirteen years old, and he had school in the morning, which meant I had to make his lunch beforehand. I was working the morning shift, which meant the breakfast rush just after I dropped him off at school.

Not only that, but I had to get my three-year-old daughter, Ana, to a doctor’s appointment tomorrow instead of working the lucrative lunch shift.

At the diner where I now worked, there were two shifts you wanted: breakfast and lunch. The dinner shift—which I’d just worked—was full of people who wanted a cheap meal after drinking at the few bars in town and they always left shitty tips. I asked my roommate to keep Kevin and Ana tonight so I could pick up the extra shift when someone called out sick, but I was ready to get back home to them.

Ana had never been away from me for this long and I was getting worried that she thought I wasn’t coming back.

It hurt to give up my lunch shift tomorrow and miss all those tips, but I was adamant about taking Ana to all of her appointments. Cassie had been wonderful watching them for me, but I didn’t want her to do the things a mother should do for her child.

Three years ago, I’d had an amazing night of passion. A few weeks later, I’d started feeling nauseous and I had to keep calling out of work. I took medication to try and stave off the nausea so I could work and take care of Kevin, but Cassie was the one who dragged me to the drugstore. She bought me the ninety-nine-cent pregnancy test that changed my entire life and she held me while I cried that night.

She was there for every single doctor’s appointment and held my hand through every single ultrasound. She stayed up late at night, abating my fears and reassuring me that I could do this. She held my hand as I gave birth to the most beautiful consequence that could’ve ever come from that night I shared with my dark prince and, now, Cassie was my trusted babysitter when I needed to pick up other shifts. She had been there from day one with the revelation of my pregnancy and she held me up when I couldn’t hold myself up on my own.

Every time I looked into the beautiful blue eyes of my sweet baby girl, I was reminded of him, but I couldn’t let the ache overshadow the beauty that man had brought into my life.

The beautiful child he had given me was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Putting my life on hold for this little girl hadn’t been easy. Any dreams of returning to culinary school got tossed out the window. But there wasn’t a second that went by that I regretted any of it. I loved my brother and my daughter with a fire I hadn’t known I was capable of, and when Cassie and I teamed up to get through these tougher days, there was nothing that could stop us.