“He was a good man,” I agreed.
“So, why are we completely ruling out doing the same? Is it so unheard of that we can’t have a family?”
“Well, that time is now, brother. We have a son or daughter coming.”
Stefano leaned back in his chair. “That’s not what I meant. When we came up with this crazy idea of having Hailey first pay for her crimes via her body, and then having our baby, we didn’t plan on anything more. A baby to keep the Bennato family name alive. Nothing more. You and I both had no intention of truly raising the baby or being involved. Not like Pops was involved with us.”
“So, are you saying you want to raise this baby? Try to be a good father?”
“I’m just wondering why we’ve ruled that out?”
I leaned forward on the desk and locked my eyes with Stefano. “We’ve talked about this and all the reasons why.”
“I know. I guess I’m second-guessing that decision. It feels like shit. I don’t like the way I feel,” Stefano admitted.
I knew what he was talking about. I felt like shit as well. Ever since leaving Hailey on the bed with her heart ripped out, I couldn’t shake my own level of sadness.
“I miss her,” I confessed. Stefano had opened the door. We might as well get it all out.
“I do too.”
“She deserves better than us,” I said.
Stefano smirked. “She sure as fuck does. I won’t argue there.”
“So, what are we saying here?” I asked. My heart sped up, and my brain swirled with possibilities. The heavy, thick depression that had been plaguing me since arriving in Miami seemed to be dissipating as our discussion progressed.
“Hailey said she wanted to be with us. She said she loved us.”
I nodded.
“We have a woman who sees us for who we are. She knows what we do and isn’t asking for us to quit doing it. She isn’t choosing you or choosing me. She’s open to accepting both of us. She’s willing to have our baby and not demanding to know who the real father is.”
“Not to mention her sexual tastes mesh with our kinky asses,” I said with a small chuckle. It had to be said.
Stefano laughed. “She’s almost too good to be true.”
“She did betray us though.”
Stefano’s smile faded. “True. And there is a part of me that wonders if I can truly ever get past that. I don’t trust. I don’t forgive. I don’t allow someone in. I know this.”
“We don’t trust or we risk dying for letting our guard down. It’s how we survive. Or at least, it has been our creed up until now.”
“But she didn’t know us then. We’ve seen many a man cave under the pressure of the Feds. Can we really blame her for being scared and acting in self-preservation? We were just two faceless men who were bad guys in her eyes.”
“Well. Yes. We did blame her, but we also made her pay for it.” I paused for a long moment. “I think I’m over all that. My gut tells me she wouldn’t betray us again.”
Stefano nodded in agreement. “I think you’re right.”
“Let me ask you a serious question,” I said. “Can you share a woman that you actually care about with your brother? It’s one thing just fucking some chick who tried to fuck us over, but we both know that things have changed. And if we go down this road we’re considering… our feelings for Hailey are only going to grow more.”
“Can you?” Stefano fired back.
“I guess we should have had this conversation before.”
“Well, I sure as fuck wasn’t planning on falling in love with the woman when this all began,” Stefano said.
I stood up and began to pace the room. I rarely had relationships. True relationships. And the ones that I did have in the past—no matter how insignificant they were—I would have never shared. Quite the opposite. I was overprotective, over-possessive, and what was mine was mine.
Mine.
Hailey was not just mine.
Was I going to be all right with that fact?
“To answer your question,” I began. “I could. I would be willing to try. I’m not going to say it will always be easy.”
“We’ll need to establish rules.”
“And what about raising our son? We won’t have the same family unit we had with Mama and Pops,” I said. “Two dads and a mother that was forced to conceive is far from the normal upbringing.”
“That’s for sure. But we’ll figure it out. We don’t exactly live a traditional vanilla life anyway.”
I sat back down and stared at Stefano. “I know for a fact that I want Hailey. I want this baby. I have no idea how everything else will work, but I know the basics.”
Stefano steepled his fingers in front of his mouth as his eyes seemed to drift away into deep thought. “I do too. My gut is screaming for me to listen to my heart and to tell my cautious mind to shut the fuck up.”