8. Dominic #2
“PAPA, YOU’RE MISSING IT!”
“Go see the dolphin with your daughter.” Liana pulled her hand free and picked up her wine again. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
I went to the bow where Bianca was hanging over the railing, pointing excitedly at the water where a dolphin was indeed doing jumps, its sleek body arcing through the air before splashing back down.
“Did you see it, Papa? Did you see?”
“I saw it, piccola.” I lifted her onto my hip so she could see better. “That’s a beautiful dolphin.”
“I think it’s showing off for us.” She wrapped her arms around my neck. “Dolphins are very smart. Maybe it knows we’re watching.”
“Maybe it does.”
We watched the dolphin for a while, Bianca narrating its every move with breathless excitement, and I held her and felt the warmth of the sun on my face and thought about how close I had come to losing all of this.
When the dolphin finally swam away, Bianca squirmed to get down.
“Papa, my hair is a disaster.” She grabbed a fistful of her wild curls, which the wind had turned into a tangled mess. “It keeps going in my mouth and my eyes and everywhere.”
“Come here, let me fix it.” I sat down on the deck and patted the space in front of me. “Turn around.”
She sat down between my legs and I started working through the tangles with my fingers, the way I had learned to be when she was a baby with curls so fine they tangled if you looked at them wrong.
“Papa, how do you know how to do hair?” She held still while I separated the sections for a braid.
I started the braid, my fingers moving through the familiar motions. “I wanted to be able to take care of you myself, without always needing to ask someone else for help.”
“Mama says you’re not always responsible.” Bianca’s voice was matter-of-fact. “She says sometimes you forget important things.”
“Mama’s right.” I tied off the braid with the elastic from around my wrist. “I have been forgetting important things. But I’m going to do better.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
She turned around and threw her arms around my neck. “I love you, Papa. Even when you forget things.”
“I love you too, piccola.” I hugged her tight. “More than anything in the whole world.”
She pulled back and examined her braid, twisting to try to see it over her shoulder. “It’s very good. You should do Mama’s hair too. Her hair is also a disaster.”
I looked over at Liana, who was watching us with an expression I couldn’t quite read. Her hair was indeed a mess, dark strands whipping around her face in the wind, escaping from the loose knot she had tried to put it in.
“That’s a very good idea.” I stood up and held out my hand to Bianca. “Why don’t you go back to captaining while I fix Mama’s hair?”
She ran back to the wheel and I walked to where Liana was sitting, stopping in front of her with my hands in my pockets.
“Bianca says your hair needs fixing.”
“My hair is fine.”
“Your hair is everywhere.” I gestured at the deck in front of her. “Let me braid it for you.”
“I don’t need you to braid my hair, Dominic.”
“I know you don’t need me to.” I sat down behind her without waiting for permission and gently tugged her back until she was sitting between my legs. “But I want to.”
She was stiff against me at first. But as I started to run my fingers through her hair, working out the tangles, she began to relax. I could feel the tension leaving her body inch by inch, her back softening against my chest.
“You have the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen.” I separated it into sections, taking my time. “Did I ever tell you that?”
“You used to tell me that every morning when I was getting ready.” Her voice was quiet. “You would sit on the bathroom counter and watch me brush it and tell me it was beautiful.”
I started the braid, my fingers moving slowly. “I remember everything about those mornings. The way you would catch me staring and pretend to be annoyed.”
“I wasn’t pretending.”
“Yes you were.” I smiled against her hair. “You loved that I watched you. You loved that I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”
“Maybe I did.” She leaned back against my chest, finally letting her weight rest on me. “Maybe I miss being the thing you couldn’t look away from.”
“You still are.” I finished the braid and tied it off, then pushed it aside to bare the back of her neck. “You’ve always been that. I just forgot to show you.”
I pressed my lips to the nape of her neck, soft, lingering. She shivered under my mouth.
“I’m still mad at you.” Her voice was breathy now, the anger fading.
“I know you are.” I kissed her neck again, letting my lips drag across her skin. “You have every right to be.”
“This doesn’t fix anything.”
“I know it doesn’t.” I wrapped my arms around her from behind, pulling her back against my chest. “But let me try anyway. Let me remind you what we have.”
“Dominic.”
“Forgive me.” I pressed my mouth to her ear, speaking low and soft. “I know I’ve been absent. I know I’ve made you feel like you don’t matter. But you matter more than anything else in my life. You and Bianca, you’re everything. You’re the only thing.”
“Saying it doesn’t make it true.”
“Then let me prove it.” I tightened my arms around her. “Every day, from now on, let me prove it. Let me show you that I can be the man you married. Let me earn back what I threw away.”
She was quiet for a long moment, her hand coming up to rest on my forearm, her fingers tracing patterns on my skin.
“I love you, Liana.” I said it directly, needing her to hear it, needing it to land. “You are my everything. My heart, my home, my reason for any of it. Without you, none of this means anything.”
“I want to believe you.” Her voice cracked on the words. “I want to believe that things are going to change.”
“Believe me.” I pressed my lips to her temple. “Give me the chance to show you.”
“And Angela?”
I took a breath. “Angela doesn’t come to the house anymore. Meetings happen at the office, with Stefan in the room. I’ll tell her tonight.”
“I need more than that.” She turned in my arms to face me. “I need to know that I come first. We come first.”
“You come first.” I cupped her face in my hands. “You’ve always come first, even when I was too blind to show it. But I see it now. I see you. And I’m never going to let you feel invisible again.”
She searched my face for a long moment, looking for the lie, looking for the crack in my armor.
“One chance.” Her voice was muffled against my shirt. “You get one chance to prove you mean it.”
“I won’t waste it.” I pressed my lips to the top of her head. “I swear to you, Liana. I won’t waste it.”
She didn’t say she forgave me. She didn’t say everything was okay.
But she stayed in my arms and kissed me.