Destiny: A Small Town Single Dad Romance

Chapter 1 – Bea

“Bea!” little Aurora and Alessia call out after seeing me pull into their driveway.

“Hey, girls!” I say back before scooping them up into a hug. “How are you today?” I always love seeing them after a long day working at my family’s record shop. It’s surprising how busy we still get given the outdated technology we offer, but the residents of our small northern Wisconsin town seem to keep things old-fashioned. Sometimes a little too much.

“Good!” Aurora answers.

“Yeah!” her sister echoes.

Even though they are technically fraternal twins, they do look a lot alike with their olive skin and dark blonde hair. But I can always tell them apart because Aurora has pale green eyes, whereas Alessia’s are brown—just like her dad’s.

Speaking of their father, he comes out shortly after.

“Hey, Bea!”

“Hi, Marco.” Just saying his name makes my heart skip a beat, and I can hardly bring myself to look at him.

“How are you?”

“Pretty good. How about you?”

When I do meet his gaze, his devastating looks amaze me.

As his name would suggest, he was born in Italy but raised mostly in the United States. In fact, for almost a decade, he lived just down the street from the record store and was a regular customer. But if he didn’t come alone, he came with his girls—never any other female companion. Which surprised me.

“Well, these two have given me a run for my money, like usual.” He rustles the already messy buns on top of their heads.

The twins scoff, roll their eyes, and cross their arms. “We just think we’re old enough for cell phones. What do you think, Bea?”

Their father also crosses his arms and looks at me eagerly for my opinion.

“I—uh . . . I don’t know. Six seems pretty young for that kind of responsibility.”

“We’re going to be seven in two months!”

I smile at them. “Still.” Then, I crouch down to their level and place a hand on one of their shoulders. “Trust me. Being an adult is not all it’s cracked up to be. If I were you, I’d hold on to being a kid for as long as I could.”

“Thank you! That’s what I said!”

“No, it isn’t, Daddy. You said phones were too expensive; they will open our world to weirdos, and we’ll just break them right away.”

He moves his head back and forth as he listens to the ever-feisty Aurora talk. “Yeah, well. What Bea said is what I meant.”

“When did you get your first phone?” Alessia asks me.

Oh, boy. “Honestly, my parents didn’t let me have one until I was fifteen.”

They count from their age up to that. “Oh, man! That’s eleven years from now!” Aurora complains.

I just shrug. Remember what I said about people around here being old-fashioned? My parents are certainly no exception. It didn’t help that they felt the need to constantly watch me like a hawk after I was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. So, a phone didn’t seem necessary when one of them was always breathing down my neck.

“When you were fifteen? Wasn’t that like two years ago?” Marco jokes as he walks past me.

I hate that he just sees me as a little kid. “I’m twenty-five, for your information.” And he is only thirty-six; it’s not like our ages are lightyears apart.

“Yeah, yeah. Do you have everything handled here?” he asks after opening the door of his truck.

“I think we should be able to manage. Have you started your homework, girls?”

“Ugh. I hate math,” Aurora announces.

“I know. We’ll work on it together. Everything will be fine,” I reassure their father with a nod in his direction.

“You’re a lifesaver.” He smiles, runs his hand through his thick, dark hair that falls long on both sides and then climbs in.

“It’s no problem.” And I’m not lying. The more time I get around his kids, whom I genuinely love, the more attention I get from him.

“Okay, well. I’m off. My meeting shouldn’t run too long.”

“No worries. I’ll make sure they’re fed and ready for bed by the time you get home.”

“Perfect.” He starts the ignition and drives off.

As the record store is owned by my parents, they are pretty lenient with my schedule and typically have no issue with me cutting my hours a bit to help the single dad out when he has a meeting with a client after hours. He is, after all, the only attorney for miles. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he helped my folks settle my grandfather’s messy estate after he passed. For that, I believe they will always be eternally grateful.

“Come on, girls. Let’s get you inside.” I scurry them toward the front door. It’s a fall evening, so there is a crispness in the air, and I don’t want them to get chilled.

I know from experience that Marco is not exactly the best chef in the world, so I came prepared and went out again to get the groceries I bought.

“Ooh! What are you making?” Alessia asks.

“Macaroni and cheese!”

Her face contorts into a funny expression. “That doesn’t look like the mac n’ cheese Daddy makes.”

I laugh. “Yeah, well. Mine doesn’t just come in a blue box.” I prefer to make my own roux and add my own unique blend of spices. Oh, and a few minutes in the oven with extra shredded cheese on the top is an absolute must.

Then, I put all of the perishable ingredients away before guiding them to the dining table. “Okay, so let’s talk about this math homework.”

They both groan.

I throw my hands up. “Hey! I was never a big fan of the subject either, but unfortunately, we all have to go through it. Let me see this.” I scoot one of their sheets closer to me. “Oh, come on. This is simple multiplication. You two mastered your times tables ages ago.” I should know; I was the one who went over them time after time with them.

“It’s just tedious . . . having to show our work and all of that.”

“I get it. But you two are very smart girls. Just concentrate, and you’ll have it done in no time.”

With time to kill as they did their work, I found a pile of dirty clothes—which I could tell needed washing based on the grass stains on the soccer uniforms inside—and loaded them into the washer.

However, when I came across a pair of Marco’s boxers, I couldn’t help myself from sniffing them a little.

Ohhh. I could detect hints of the expensive cologne he wore and his other natural scents. It was so, so good.

“What are you doing?” I suddenly hear a tiny voice from behind me.

“Uh . . . laundry?”

I turn around and see that it’s Aurora.

“Oh. I’m stuck on a problem.”

“Okay, I’ll be right out.”

She then turned around and walked away just as quickly as she’d appeared.

I finished loading everything and adjusting the settings before I returned to address her concerns.

“Let me see.” She handed me the paper and read the next scenario out loud. “If Johnny has four apples, and Susy brings three times that amount, how many apples do they have together?”

“So . . .”

I look at her with suspicion. “What’s four times three?”

“Twelve.”

“Correct. Good job.”

I knew she could have solved that by herself, no problem, but sometimes I also wondered if they both just craved female attention since their mother left and everything. And if that was the reason why they sometimes wanted extra time with me helping them, I was happy to give it to them. Not to mention that I understood craving someone’s presence—but mine was for their father’s.

After doing a few more chores here and there, I started making dinner.

“Can I help?” Alessia soon asks.

“Is your homework done?”

“Mhm!”

“Then, of course!” She often liked helping me around the kitchen. On the other hand, Aurora was more of an artist and liked spending her free time on her drawings, which were incredibly detailed and accurate for a six-year-old to come up with. It even took me having to see her drawing with my own eyes to believe that she wasn’t just tracing something.

So, before we started, I ensured her sister was all set up with her paper and supplies at the table. Then, I rolled up both of our sleeves and asked if I could redo her hair.

“Yes, please. He’s getting better, but . . .”

We laugh together. “Your dad tries the very best he can.”

“I know. We always have the messiest hair at soccer practise, though.”

“Well, that’s okay. That probably makes you look tough.”

She shrugs. “Maybe.”