Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Katya
“Daddy’s home!” Leo shouts suddenly, his voice shockingly loud for coming from such a small mouth. I almost choke on my bite of apple, coughing as I whip my head around to see what he’s seen.
I didn’t hear anyone come in, but Leo isn’t mistaken in his statement. His father is two steps into the kitchen when Leo’s plastic Bluey plate scrapes against the table as he shoves away from it to clammer down from his seat and shoot toward the kitchen entrance with considerable speed.
“Daddy, you home! We make cookies.”
“You made cookies?” he echoes, catching Leo as he launches himself into his father’s arms. Leon puts his youngest on his hip and presses a kiss to the side of his head, his lips softly meeting bouncy blonde curls.
“I hope that’s not all you’ve been eating.
We’ll have a sugar monster on our hands if you don’t get your vegetables too. ”
Leo giggles wildly, finding the comment hilarious. “Silly, Daddy. We eat lunch, too.”
Bastian gets up as well, much less hurriedly than his little brother.
Still, I catch the smile that spreads over his lips as he walks over to join them.
He doesn’t say a word as he leans into his father, hugging Leon’s side gently.
He looks so small next to his father, a stark difference to seeing him next to little Leo and me all day.
Matching his sons, my husband’s smile spreads and he leans down to drop a kiss on top of Bastian’s head, rubbing his small back with his free hand. Leo squeals happily as he hangs sideways, not minding being shifted so his brother could be greeted too.
Blinking at the domestic scene, I swallow and set down the uneaten half of my apple slice and stand up from the table, plastering an easy grin on my face. “You’re early. Did you miss us?”
Leon’s eyes shoot up to meet mine and he stands up straight once again. “More than you know.” His reply is so direct that it hits me square in the gut, the intensity of his words nearly knocking me off balance. “I had to come see you all.”
Dreamy blue eyes meet mine, and my mouth goes dry.
“Are you hungry?” I manage to ask, shifting on my feet. “We’re having chicken wraps and fruit. I can make you a plate…”
“Please.” Leon nods. Bending his knees, he suddenly scoops Bastian up, causing him to laugh. Both kids in hand, Leon walks further into the kitchen, heading toward the table. “Come on, kids, let’s eat the rest of your food and you can tell me about these cookies you made.”
I have to force myself to look away from them and get to the counter to whip up an extra plate for Leon.
There’s plenty of extra chicken and wrap ingredients, thankfully, but having what I need to finish the task isn’t the difficult part.
Not staring at my husband as he settles in with his sons—not being swept up in the adorable view—that’s the nearly impossible part.
Leo is still babbling on about the process of baking cookies, all the candy we put into the batter, and his general activities of the day when I finally finish putting together a passable looking plate for his father.
It seems ridiculous to be presenting the Underboss of The Outfit a plate with a chicken tender wrap and a cup of cut fruit on the side, but the kids have been devouring the lunch option and he could always choose to eat something else instead.
“Thank you, Katya,” Leon says, accepting the plate and giving me a long look before setting it down in front of himself.
“You’re welcome.” I swallow, sitting down in my previous seat.
I’m not nervous to see him, that much I know.
But I’m acting like a scared little lamb because his intense effect on me is something so new that I don’t know how to handle it.
All I can think about is whether there will be a day when he comes home from work and kisses more than the kids.
Is there a future where he sweeps into the room and pulls me off my feet to hug me tightly and kiss me hard?
Is there a future where he has more than two little ones to greet when he comes home?
“Good manners,” Leo chirps, grinning as he chomps into a slice of melon.
I laugh a little at his compliment, smiling fondly. “You’re such a smart little cutie, aren’t you? Both you and your brother have learned so many nice manners. I bet you could teach my sister a few.”
“We nice boys,” Leo agrees with a firm bob of his head. “My Rain-uhh say so.”
“The nicest boys,” I confirm, feeling my heart swell. I’m definitely going to text Rayna about this moment.
“Gaia was nice,” Bastian adds politely.
“Yes, she was,” Leon says, sounding proud of his son’s response. “She’s a part of our family now. Since she’s Katya’s sister, she’s technically your aunt by law. But I think we can call her cousin Gaia, what do you think?”
“Cugina,” Bastian translates for his brother, just in case he doesn’t understand the full context of the word.
“Cousin,” Leo repeats, tasting the word and humming. “Yes, I think so.”
We lapse into a comfortable quiet, eating more and talking less until Bastian asks Leon about his day.
“It was an unimportant day, figlio. There were more things left to do when I decided I wanted to leave, but Gino took care of them so I could come see you.”
“Gino funny,” Leo giggles, sputtering suddenly.
Leon chuckles, shaking his head fondly as he watches his son crack up.
“What’s so funny about Gino?” I ask, vaguely remembering meeting the man a few days ago at our wedding.
He’s a stocky man with a classic Italian style.
His dark eyes, and even darker hair went perfectly with his simple designer suit.
His wife, on the other hand, there was nothing understated about her. Maria is beautiful by every standard.
“Gino fell on his A double S in the driveway when it was particularly icy one day, and Leo hasn’t stopped giggling about it since.”
“He breaked his butt,” Leo squeals, laughing harder.
Leon shakes his head, trying and failing to stop looking amused.
“It took him a little while of struggling to remain on his feet before he fell, and Leo started laughing at him before he even hit the ground. Gino didn’t actually break anything, but he was clutching his back on and off for weeks after. We’re not as young as we once were.”
Leaning across the table, I tickle Leo’s little belly and he squirms, continuing to crack up. “Does Gino know he’s so hilarious?”
“Leo teases him every time he sees him.” Leon’s lips twitch, and his eyes seem far off as if he’s recalling a vivid memory. “Gino was one of the first people he met outside of the family, and it makes me happy that he’s comfortable enough with him to make fun of him.”
I understand what he means immediately. Gino is a big guy, and Leo came into this family in a vulnerable state.
Someone like Leon’s right hand man could have frightened the once three-year-old boy.
But even before he turned four and got truly settled into his new family, he felt self-assured enough to laugh at one of his father’s very dangerous friends.
“I think the way you’re laughing yourself silly it might be close to nap time, hmm?”
“Nooooo,” Leo pouts, shaking his head at his father’s inquiry.
Bastian worries his bottom lip and taps Leon’s forearm. “Will you be here when we wake up?”
“I’ll be here all day and night,” Leon assures him, putting his hand on top of Bastian’s. “I’m going to try not to have to go anywhere tomorrow either. I’m not going back to working my full hours again for as long as I can put it off, okay?”
“Okay.”
My heart swells at the soft reply, feeling the genuine trust and belief in it. He trusts his father without question, taking him at his word so easily.
And Leon, God, he makes my insides turn to mush.
The way he so obviously cares for his sons and doesn’t want to be away from them is so attractive that it almost hurts to think too much about. He’s the kind of dad who makes women want five plus children—the kind of man that causes women’s ovaries to physically ache.
“Cookies after nap?” Leo asks, batting his pale eyelashes like he knows exactly what he’s doing with his puppy dog eyes.
“I don’t know,” Leon hums, considering it. “How many have you had already?”
Turning to me with a determined look, he smiles. “Kat, how many we have?”
“You both only had one,” I remind him. They were big ones, but Leon didn’t ask about the cookies’ size. “I wanted you to save room for your lunch, remember?”
Satisfied by my answer, he turns back to his father and grins wider. “We eated lunch.”
“Yes, you did.” Leon dips his head. “Tell you what, you take a good nap and we’ll share some cookies for a snack when you wake up, okay?”
“Yes, yes. I like dis idea.”
With the children properly bribed by the promise of future cookies, Leon is able to easily whisk them up to their room. Since they’ve all clearly been missing one another, I don’t tag along and quickly put away the food, leaving only what’s left on Leon’s plate in case he isn’t done with it.
It takes just over ten minutes for Leon to come back downstairs, not that I’m counting.
“Sleeping already?” I ask, smoothing my hands down over my thighs. This is the first time I’ve worn jeans in front of the man who’s become my husband and I feel supremely underdressed given that he’s wearing a suit and tie.
“Yeah, they went down easily.” He doesn’t make a move to head back to the table for his food, coming closer to me instead. “We need to talk.”
My heart drops into the pit of my stomach.
No good conversation starts that way.
“Leon, I apologized about last night—”
“And I told you not to be sorry,” he cuts in sharply. “You kissed me, Katya, you didn’t stab me. I kissed you too.”
Gaping at his blunt reply, I try to form a response to no avail.
“That isn’t what I wanted to talk about, though. It’s the only fucking thing I could think about today, but it’s not why we need to talk.”
My eyes bulge. “You’ve been thinking about it all day?”
“You don’t want to know, baby.”
Oh. My. God.
My thighs press closer together and I gulp.