37. Zoe
37
Zoe
“Actions speak louder than DNA.” – Unknown
I feel my arm hit the mattress beside me with a thump. Empty. That’s not right, usually there’s a warm cushion for my blows.
My head snaps up, my eyes still bleary from sleep but see the empty side where Matteo always sleeps well enough.
I drag my hand over it. Cold. So, he hasn’t been sleeping here for some time. Rolling over to my back, I scrub my face with my hands. Well, I guess he finally had enough of my bed-time karate, not that I blame him, but so much for, “I can take it, Beastie. Do your worst, Beastie, I’m still sleeping here. I’m not leaving you.”
Wimp.
Where did he sleep then? The couch?
Frowning, I get up and make my way into the living room, but the space is empty, and his broad frame is not hanging off the sides of that brick disguised as sitting material.
I really should get a new one .
I take the stairs to the loft, thinking he probably went up here, to our make-shift sex bed as Matteo calls it. But he’s not there either.
This is so weird. Where could he have gone so early in the morning? Both of us fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows, tired from the day before as we spent it setting up Mellie’s room.
We decided—well, I decided, and Matteo pouted about it the whole time—that it was time for her to start sleeping in her own room and spent the whole day in there. First, Matteo insisted he needs to draw watermelons on the walls. Go figure. Then we built her crib, moved the changing table and her stuff from my room in there and ended up going to Fifi’s Goods to get a new dresser for her because apparently, according to that overbearing papa bear, the old one didn’t fit with the vibe.
God forbid anything be out of place for his little Mellie.
Just thinking about how much Matteo loves and cares for my girl makes me all giddy on the inside. And throbbing.
Where is that man when I need him?
Sighing, I make my way back down and decide to take a peek into Mel’s room. I was worried my little girl wouldn’t take it well, sleeping on her own and expected to be up with her for half the night, but Mellie slept like a champ. I didn’t hear one noise coming from across the hall.
Carefully, I prop the door open only to swing it open all the way when I find the missing man, instead of my daughter in the tiny crib.
What in the world is he doing in there? And where is my daughter then? I stride toward it, fully intending to shake Matteo awake but I can only blink when I see this hulking man wearing only a set of neon orange boxers and that silver chain of his, with long hair sticking through the crib bars. His beard a mess as he seemed to try and keep it from poking her soft skin while his strong, tattooed arm is curled up protectively around a tiny bundle that is my daughter, who is wearing that ridiculous onesie about them both loving my milk that I certainly didn’t put on her last night.
The sight takes my breath away.
He barely fits in there and looks absolutely ridiculous, yet this is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. And now we know that crib was worth the money I spent on it, because somehow it didn’t break under his weight.
Careful not to wake them, I back out of the room with a smile and run for my phone. I need to frame this for eternity.
Once I’m done, I smile softly and just stay there, watching them together. I don’t know what I did to deserve this man, for him to want me and my daughter. To deem us enough, but I know I’m not letting go of this gift.
Even if he escaped from me in the middle of the night.
Gently, I run my fingers through his hair and Matteo stirs away, letting out a small moan from my touch.
“Shhh,” I murmur softly, and Matteo pries his eyes open, giving me a smile of his own to match mine.
Full of love and adoration.
“Beastie,” he whispers, his voice coarse from sleep and tries to move, but only winces when he does so. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, running away from your bed and sleeping in a tiny crib will do that to you,” I whisper, keeping my voice low and quiet.
“I didn’t run away,” he whispers back.
“Mm-hmm, sure. If you couldn’t take my superior fighter skills anymore, you should’ve just said so.”
“Bestie, I can take you on any day or night. Especially night.” He smirks, shooting me a sultry look that looks particularly devastating in the morning light. “But my little watermelon needed me, so I climbed in with her.”
“Needed you?”
“Mm-hmm. She woke up around midnight, crying so sadly. Feeling all betrayed that we moved her in here all by herself.” Sure, she did—can you feel how far my eyes have rolled? “So, I stayed to keep her company. And when I came to give her the bottle, so not to wake you, she clung to me with her little fingers and wouldn’t let go”
“Strange, I didn’t hear a single noise come from the room.”
“Strange indeed.” He puckers his lips. “Now, help me get out of here.”
After at least five minutes of careful maneuvering not to wake Mel, Matteo is out, although I really should have left him to deal with this himself. That little clingy liar.
Matteo was still stretching and wincing when he goes to take a shower and I make my way to the kitchen.
“We should go back to Fifi’s today,” he says, walking out of the bathroom in a towel alone and I can’t even pretend my eyes are not devouring all that flesh.
“Why?” I lift my cup to take a sip of my coffee.
“We need to get a bigger bed for Mellie.”
“No, we don’t.” There goes that eye roll again.
“I won’t be able to walk if I keep sleeping in there.”
I click my tongue, “Here’s a thought…don’t sleep in there.”
“I don’t like that thought,” he grumbles. “Maybe we can just move her back into our room? You know, for her comfort?”
This man…
“Just admit she wasn’t crying at all, and you were a needy little papa bear, sneaking into her crib,” I say with a teasing smile.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” And there he goes, puckering his lips again.
A second later Mellie lets out a wail loud enough to wake Hope and Alec in the neighboring cottage. Yeah, I didn’t hear her at night, right…
Before I can even blink, Matteo is already sprinting her way, that towel getting loose and falling off and I am greeted with his fine—very fine—ass.
“I’ll get her!” he shouts, running into our room and a second later hopping out of there while still pulling his underwear on. “Papa is coming, my little watermelon. You realized I was gone and woke up, yeah?”
At this point, I’m laughing so hard I have to grip the counter from falling over.
I’m heading to them, with every intention to give Matteo a hard time, when a knock on my front door startles me.
It’s six-thirty-seven AM, who could be coming here that early? Frowning, I stride over and open the door without first checking the peep hole. Because in Loverly Cave you just let everyone in.
But I should have checked. Damn it , I should have checked it because when that door swings open, I find the last person I expected—and that is saying something as you’d think it would be Mellie’s sperm donor…but no.
My mother. Sorry, I mean Kelly because she stopped being my mom a long while ago. Kelly Holsted is on my doorstep, wearing her favorite—and quite frankly, permanent—pinched face expression.
“Well? Are you going to let me in, or have you lost your manners completely since you moved out?” It’s only at hearing her voice I realize I’ve been just standing here, planted to the ground with only my eyes blinking as if they could somehow erase the picture in front of me.
I clear my throat and lower my eyes to the floor as I step aside and softly murmur, “Yes, of course. Sorry.”
Thirty seconds. Thirty seconds is all it takes for her to derail me. And ruin the most perfect morning.
With a little huff of annoyance, she strolls inside, and I shut the door behind us, still completely lost at what in the world she’s doing here or how she found me at all. But before I can think of asking her that, she says, “Imagine my surprise when I show up to your apartment and the new tenant says he has no clue who I am looking for.” She clicks her tongue. “How dare you move without telling me?”
The only thing I can do is blink. Kelly hasn’t bothered with me since dad packed us up and left. Sure, there was that one lunch together. As in the one after I became a doctor, and she deemed me important enough to meet me.
But that lasted all of one time, because she learned that I dedicated my life to being Dr. Joy Levine’s assistant and that, apparently, was a disgrace. So, I’ve never heard from her again. I don’t even know how she knew where I lived in Chicago.
Probably went up to a random apartment. Yep. That sounds plausible.
“Did you have to choose this middle of nowhere town? It stinks here.” She wrinkles her nose.
“Kelly, what are you doing here?” I finally brave myself to ask.
“I came to see my granddaughter, of course.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “How do you know about her?”
“I went looking for you and a very handsome doctor at your university told me you were pregnant when you quit and that I might find you in Loverly Cave town.”
Another sharp breath.
Justin. There is no one else who could have given her that information. He’s the only one who knew about my pregnancy and must’ve connected the dots between me and Joy to figure out that I was here.
“That’s just so you, to go get knocked up by some random guy and then crawl into this hole to hideout. You couldn’t even get married first,” she huffs some more.
I’m still lost for words when Matteo emerges from the hallway with Mel in his arms. The guy is still only wearing his underwear and his hair is loose because Mellie seems to enjoy pulling on it nowadays, so he leaves it down for her.
“Dear God, who is that?” Kelly asks with horror and not the usual admiration every red-blooded female gives my boyfriend. Well, I have suspected her to be a vampire a long time ago.
“Dear God, who are you?” Matteo matches her tone before I can introduce them.
“Well, I never…” Kelly huffs. “I am Zoe’s mother.”
“Oh, thank God,” he exhales dramatically. “For a second there I was afraid I was being rude to someone important.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her at a loss for words. I guess there’s a first for everything.
Don’t smile. Don’t smile. Don’t fucking smile, Zoe. But it’s a lost battle. Especially when Matteo comes over and wraps his free hand around my waist, looking Kelly over with one eyebrow raised.
Matteo knows about my history with the woman. Over the time we’ve been together I have told him everything and it’s safe to say he hated her even more than I did.
“I wasn’t aware you were coming. Don’t you know it’s rude to show up at someone’s house at this hour without at least a call?” Matteo keeps going, stealing the words from my mouth.
Kelly seems to finally pull herself together and narrows her eyes to him. “Who do you think you are? Speaking to me this way! And I came to see my granddaughter.”
“Ha.” He makes a sardonic sound then nods to me. “She really thinks I will let her come near my daughter. Funny woman.”
Kelly turns her gaze at me. “Of course, you had a baby with this…this riffraff. That child is probably no good either. I don’t know why I even bothered coming to save her from your incapable parenting.” She looks us over. “Look at you! You didn’t even bother to get your weight under control after pregnancy. I should have never let you leave with Kevin. He always did enable your laziness.”
Matteo grows stiff beside me, his skin hot to touch and then an almost feral growl comes from him, but he doesn’t say anything.
Years of not seeing each other and that’s what she has to say.
I didn’t realize I had given up hope for a normal relationship with her until this moment. Until I feel Matteo pulling me closer, as if landing me his strength and shields from her venom, allowing me to deal with her. To say my peace. I didn’t realize I no longer needed her approval or love until the words she spewed made no difference to me.
“You know, Kelly, it is none of your damn business who I had this baby with. It’s none of your business what my weight is. And it’s definitely none of your business how we parent our daughter.”
Never. I have never talked back to her. I have never stood up for myself and the stricken look on her face is living proof of that.
“I think that door is calling your name.” Matteo points to the exit. “What a waste of a trip.”
Indeed.
Kelly opens her mouth to undoubtedly say something ugly but the voices from outside interrupt her.
“I’m just going to talk to her, Nerds. Relax your buttocks.” The sounds travel from outside and a moment later Fanny kicks the door open, striding inside in all her neon green track suit glory.
“I know how you talk to people, Fanny. That waitress at the diner is still terrified to look at me anytime we are there,” my dad says to her, but his eyes are set on Kelly. “And just what the hell are you doing here?”
Why am I not even surprised that they somehow already knew she was here?
“Last I checked, she’s my daughter,” Kelly snarls back.
“Last I checked, you are no one to her,” Matteo adds.
“And last I checked, you didn’t care about her as long as you got your money,” my dad says, and we all turn to look at him.
“What money?” I ask, my eyes narrowed and dad’s shoulders sag as if the weight he’s been carrying all this time finally took its toll on him. But weight for what?
“Start talking, Nerds.”
“That was the only way she let me take you away back then.” His eyes lift to mine. “She was your blood-related parent, and no court would have given me parental rights over her. So, I struck a deal, promising to send monthly payments if she signed the custody papers.”
I don’t think I heard that right. That can’t be right, right? I knew she never thought I was good enough to be her daughter, but this? And my dad, this kind-hearted person whom I didn’t share a shred of blood with did whatever it took to get me out.
“How long?” is all I can ask.
“Until you turned eighteen.” He looks away.
“Dad—”
“I would do it again and again,” he cuts me off. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for my daughter. I’m just sorry I didn’t take her threats seriously this time.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She called last week, somehow figuring out you had a baby and saw it as another opportunity for easy cash, right Kelly?” But she doesn’t respond, only pursing her lips together and dad sighs heavily. “I should have just paid before she made this unwelcome visit.”
My eyes ping pong between them and the look on my mother’s face says it all. She did, in fact, come here just for that and my mouth goes dry.
“Damn it, Nerds. You are so hot right now.” Fanny sighs, looking at him like kid at an ice cream. Good for you, Dad, but I might be sick right now. Especially after this news.
“You all are so fucking weird!” Kelly shouts, and Matteo cuts a cold look her way.
“That will be twenty-five cents,” he says and walks up to her, his palm up.
“What?” She blinks at him.
“Twenty-five cents. We don’t swear in this house.”
“I’m not paying anything—”
“Twenty. Five. Cents,” Matteo repeats with a low, threatening voice, and I nearly trip over my own feet when my mother scrambles for her purse, finding the damn quarter and places it in his waiting palm.
“Happy?”
“Not just yet,” he says. “Tell us why you are here.”
“I already told you. I’m here to see—”
“Cut the crap,” Dad cuts her off. “Not one soul will believe you came to see your granddaughter. Just admit I’m right and you ran out of money.”
Kelly purses her lips and that right there is answer enough for all of us.
“Now I’m happy,” Matteo says, then adds, “She’s all yours, Fanny.”
“Finally.” Fanny claps her hands. “Let’s go, intruder, it’s time to pay up.” She grabs onto Kelly’s arms and start dragging the sputtering woman out the door.
My dad sighs. “I better go because the officer told me last week there is no more bail available for Fanny.” And follows them with a small wave
Okay then…
I’m still stunned at the morning events when Matteo’s warm hand slides across my waist. “You okay?”
“I think so.” I frown to myself. “Honestly, I’m not even sure what happened here. Did she really come here to scheme some more money out of Dad after he’s paid her so much already? Why show up at our house then? It’s just…a lot.”
“Will it make you feel better if I admit it was me who needed to be with Mel at night?”
“Marginally, but only because that wasn’t a secret to me.”
“Then name your price. What can I do to put a smile on that beautiful face?” Matteo grazes my cheek with the back of his hand.
Little does he know, there is nothing he needs to do. Just being here with me, loving and caring for us is so much more than enough. I’m not upset over Kelly’s visit or the fact that dad had to pay my way out.
A couple of months ago, I would be a wreck. A mess of tears on the floor at the revelation, but Matteo have thought me so much about myself. It’s a lot to process but it’s not painful.
However, I’ll never turn down his offer…
My lips curl up. “Well…I can think of a few things after Mel goes down for her nap…”
A few hours after the morning mess, Matteo had to go to the bar. His new menu is about to be launched and I couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s worked so hard to perfect each drink. He also created a new appetizers menu to go with each drink for the best experience and I’ve definitely enjoyed helping him with that one.
Matteo is so much more than I originally thought of him. So much more than just a guy looking for a good time. And he’s all mine.
Well, mine and…Mellie’s. Maybe even more hers since this is the fifth voice message he’s sent her—because God forbid she forgets him—since he left an hour ago. This one telling her a story about a purple lemon.
Yep, this man creates stories on the go for his daughter.
Me: Why is it always that only Mellie gets these pictures and voice memos, hmm? Aren’t you worried I will forget you?
Matteo: Aww, are you feeling left out, Beastie? Don’t worry, I’ve got a little something for you too. I wanted to give it to you later, but my needy girl obviously needs it now *wink face* There is a box in the closet in the loft. Open it.
No, I’m not embarrassed how fast I ran up there, but that doesn’t mean my cheeks didn’t grow as pink as they could when I did find that box.
Texting won’t do. I need to call the bastard.
“Matteo! What the hell is this?”
“This is you putting twenty-five cents in the swear jar.”
“Stop it. You know what I mean.”
“Oh, so you mean the little toy I left for you?”
“Little?” I squeak. “There is nothing little about this,” I whisper-shout, as if someone will overhear me and know that my boyfriend left a massive dildo as a gift for me!
“Why, thank you, Beastie.” He sounds too pleased with himself. “You are really good for my ego. And my cock.”
“What does your cock have to do with anything here? There is only this rubber one.”
“Hmm, you see no resemblance? They promised it would be the perfect match.”
My jaw drops and I keep whispering. “Matteo, you mean to tell me this is a replica of your cock?” Well, that last part is all squeaky and definitely not whispered.
“Sure is.”
“Jesus Christ.” I slap my hand to my face. “He got me his dick in a rubber form.”
“Well, I didn’t want you to forget me,” he says smugly. “But I can send you voice messages instead.”
“Shut up,” I grumble but there is a smile on my face.
This man…I swear.