Chapter 5 #2
Harper lifts him off the changing mat and turns him to face me. I scrunch my nose, making a face at the little fellow, and he laughs and claps his hands together.
Cute.
“Can you hold him while I change?” Harper asks. She puts her arms out with him in her grasp, handing him off like a football.
“I—um, if you need me to,” I stumble with what to say. It’s not that I mind holding Zeke, that’s the furthest thought from my mind. I just don’t want him to cry or be scared of me.
I take the toddler from her arms, and immediately, the tears start, as does the screaming.
Exactly what I was afraid of.
“It’s okay, buddy. Your mom is right here,” I say and turn him around to face her. That seems to settle him for the moment, at least from the tears.
He squirms in my grasp, wanting to be in her arms. “Mama. Mama,” he chants repeatedly, trying to get her attention.
“I know, Zeke. Just a minute.”
Harper unzips my duffel and rummages through the clothes. “What are you going to wear?” she asks, her gaze moving over my soaking wet ensemble.
“It’s fine. I’m only covered in rainwater.”
She yanks out my t-shirt and cargo pants for tomorrow. I doubt the cargo pants will fit her. “Turn around,” she demands, gesturing with her finger for me to spin around.
I turn Zeke and myself around, and the crying ensues.
“Aww, come on, Zeke. I’m not that bad to look at,” I say and spin him around to face me. I attempt to make silly faces at him, scrunching my nose and then sticking out my tongue. Nothing helps.
The soft thud of clothes hits the floor.
“He clearly wants you,” I say, turning back around because I can’t stand the sound of Zeke crying and screaming for Harper. It breaks my heart.
Harper’s eyes widen when she sees me staring at her in her bra and panties.
“Oh my gosh, Luca! Shut your eyes,” she snaps at me.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen it before,” I say with a smirk.
I close my eyes but keep Zeke in my arms, turning him around to see Harper, which at least makes the crying stop.
“Yeah, well, you don’t get a free show,” Harper grumbles at me.
A few seconds later, her hand grazes mine. “You can open them now,” she says.
I hand over Zeke, who gladly climbs into his mother’s arms. I don’t know how she manages to spend so much time away from him. It probably can’t be easy for her.
“I’ll get your clothes washed during dinner,” I say and gather her belongings. I lead her to the dining room, drop her off with the others, while I hurry across the hall to the laundry room.
I quickly toss her clothes in the washer before returning to keep her company.
There’s no sign of Moreno, Nikki, or Nova for dinner this evening. If I had to guess, Dante suggested they go out to eat. It’s not as though Moreno is doing much work this evening with Harper’s parents under their roof.
“You have a lovely house,” Catrina says as she takes a seat across from us at the dining room table. Her husband sits beside her, with Dante next to him, and Nikki sits across from him.
I grab the seat next to Mom, hoping to make it a little easier for Harper if I’m between Mom and her.
Harper sits with Zeke on her lap.
“Can I make anything special for Zeke?” Nikki asks after everyone’s seated.
“There’s plenty of food,” Harper says, noticing the spread on the table of everything from mashed potatoes and squash to roasted chicken and brisket. “He’ll be fine.”
Everyone serves themselves, passing the dishes around. I help dish out food on Harper’s plate since she’s holding Zeke and he keeps reaching for everything on the table.
I don’t know what she likes to eat. I also don’t have any idea if Zeke has any allergies. She hasn’t mentioned anything, so I’m hoping everything on the table is okay to serve her.
I fill her plate with enough food to feed two adults.
“That’s more than enough, Luca.” She laughs as I keep heaping more potatoes onto her plate. Those have to be a safe food for Zeke. I don’t want him choking on dinner. “Are you trying to feed a hockey team?”
“Well, in case he likes it, I wanted you to have enough.”
“Did I just hear hockey?” Jacks asks, grabbing my attention. “Do you play?”
“Yeah, I play for the Narwhals,” I say, putting enough food on my own plate for myself now that I’ve taken care of Harper. “I’d love to go pro someday.”
“Isn’t that every hockey player’s dream?” Dante says without the slightest hint of admiration for me.
Can’t say I’m surprised.
He’s made it known that he despises the sport and, even more so, my career aspirations. But it’s not like all of that matters anymore.
“Please, feel free to start,” Nikki says as she gestures toward everyone’s plates. She’s still dishing out her own meal onto her plate, but she’s trying to make sure that the guests know they can start eating.
Catrina smiles, her gaze on Zeke. “What are your plans after college if you don’t make it onto a professional team?”
“The realist,” Nikki says with a soft laugh.
Dante’s cold stare is on me, waiting to hear what I say. “I plan on joining the family business.”
“Oh,” Jack says. “What is it you guys do?” He turns his attention to Dante, waiting for him to explain his profession and endeavors.
I take the opportunity to shove food in my mouth, so I’m not forced to talk. If I’m eating, then hopefully they’ll leave me well enough alone. Plus, I’m starving. I skipped lunch, big mistake, so I’m more than hungry for dinner.
“We handle quite a bit of temporary contracts and provide support services for those businesses that need assistance,” Dante says.
That’s my father’s code speak for shaking down businesses and offering muscle for those businesses he acquires.
“Sounds quite busy,” Jack says, clearly not having any inkling of what Dante does for a living. He glances around the dining room. “But clearly, your business does well. You have a beautiful home.”
“Thank you,” Mom says. “What about the two of you?” She always knows how to steer the conversation away from trouble.
It’s probably wise that Moreno and his family were out for the day. It might seem odd having two families that live and work together under the same roof.
No sense in rousing suspicion with Catrina and Jack.
“I’m home with Zeke,” Catrina says, “but I worked as a barista at the ski resort in town since they first opened. I’ve been with them since new management.”
“How do you like the owner?” Dante asks.
“He pays better and takes our suggestions seriously, so I’m happy with the new changes. When Harper graduates and I don’t have Zeke full-time, I’ll probably go back to work.”
“And what do you do, Jack?” Nikki asks, keeping the conversation rolling.
I’m grateful that there hasn’t been an inquisition on Harper’s and my new relationship. Yet I know there’s still time, the night is young.
“I’m a manager for Blue Sky Resort. I handle the hotel side of things, making sure the guests are taken care of,” Jack says.
“That sounds wonderful,” Nikki says and reaches her hand across the table for Dante. “We’ve always wanted to spend a weekend at the resort, haven’t we, honey?”
Dante grumbles about skiing under his breath but forces a smile to appease my mother.
“You’d like it. We offer both ski and snowboarding lessons for beginners,” Jack suggests to Dante. “The spa is great, always makes the wife happy, and they have a pretty decent golf package with the course down the road, if you play and decide you want to come off-season, which is our summer.”
“I don’t play,” Dante says, his tone clipped.
Jack nods and takes a bite of his food.
I lean toward Harper, my breath against her ear as I try to keep our conversation solely between us. “How do you think it’s going?” I whisper.
Harper has a small spoonful of mashed potatoes that she’s feeding to Zeke.
He keeps reaching for the spoon to feed himself, but she clearly isn’t letting him. “Do you want me to feed him while you eat?”
“Would you?” Her eyes widen, and she turns him to face me but keeps him on her lap. “He’s super messy, and your parents have carpet in their dining room. I don’t want them to kill me when they see the mess he’ll make in this place.”
If Dad wasn’t mafia, I’d say she’s overreacting, but I sense her hesitation and fear. I take the spoon, giving him a few more bites of mashed potatoes as she cuts up the roasted chicken into teeny tiny bites.
“You can give him some chicken; otherwise, this little monster will fill up on potatoes.” Harper kisses the top of Zeke’s head and then stuffs a few bites of dinner into her own mouth.
Her eyes momentarily close, and I can see how hungry she is as she enjoys dinner.
That’s the one advantage to having wealthy mafia parents: they have a professional chef who knows how to cook just about anything, and it always tastes divine.
I keep feeding Zeke, moving away from the mashed potatoes and offering him chicken, which he insists on removing from my fork and putting in his hands to feed himself.
I grab my cloth napkin and set it on his lap and cover Harper to keep the mess from spilling everywhere.
“How about I feed you?” I say to Zeke and try another bite of chicken. “Open up, little tiger,” I say as I bring the fork to his lips.
Zeke’s mouth opens and then his hands clench closed. “Roar!” Zeke mimics a tiger, although it sounds like it could be a bit more of a lion.
But I’m not correcting him, and it gives me the opportunity to feed him another bite without making a huge mess.
“Don’t you miss when Luca was that age?” Mom asks, smiling across the table at Dante.
“I was never this little,” I counter, knowing it isn’t true but still not believing it when I stare at the little tiger in Harper’s arms. He’s adorable. I doubt my father was doting on me when I was Zeke’s age.
“You certainly weren’t that little for long,” Mom says. “You had a growth spurt that I swear started when you were eighteen months. You just kept growing.”