The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(8)

It was the way he looked at me.

The way he squeezed my finger with his tiny hand.

The way he ran to me whenever he saw me.

It was the way he said my name and asked me to lift him onto my shoulders.

I love Luca for the little boy he is and not for his DNA.

After the shootout at Temptations, when Adrianna shot and killed Rico—the gunman who was about to whack me—we decided life was too short and we weren’t going to waste any more time not loving one another. Victor released me of my obligations to the mob and encouraged me to give his daughter a good life.

It was Victor who originally tried everything in his power to keep us apart, it made me uneasy at first as I didn’t know what to make of that. He took the rap for killing Rico, gave me his blessing and told me to enjoy the family I deserved. In essence, the man who stole my happiness was the one responsible for giving it back to me.

“Tell daddy what’s bothering you, princess. Are you wet? Let’s change your diaper and then we’ll get you a fresh bottle,” I whisper as her cries begin to ease and walk her over to the changing table. I tickle her belly, and that smile that Adrianna keeps telling me is gas, appears, melting my heart.

A heart I used to think was black.

I change her, reposition her onesie before lifting her back to my chest and carry her down the stairs. I fix her a bottle before heading back upstairs. I settled myself in the rocking chair I bought Adrianna after she told me she was pregnant. Rocking to a steady rhythm I stare at the perfect life I had a hand in creating. Victoria looks just like her mother but she has my blue eyes, something we weren’t sure would stick.

“How about a bedtime story?” I ask, nuzzling her cheek, drinking in that addicting smell of a baby.

I may not know a single fairy tale, but I know a great love story, the one I created with her mother.

“Once upon a time there was this guy who thought he had everything figured out. He thought running on the wrong side of the tracks made him a man. He wanted respect on the streets and didn’t care what he had to do to get it. It wasn’t until a princess came along and turned his whole world upside down. It was then he realized no one respected him. They feared him and that was something completely different. So, this guy, he tried not to fall for the princess, but she made it real hard. She was a spitfire, a girl who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it. I was the lucky bastard. Shit, I mean, I was the lucky guy she wanted.”

I’m still getting used to keeping things PG around the kids but I try to make a conscience effort. Even started setting my alarm a half hour before everyone wakes up so Luca doesn’t realize me and his mother never wear clothes to bed.

“It was hard not to fall in love with everything about her, including the way she ate her popcorn, mixing in Reese’s Pieces into the bucket whenever I took her to the movies.” I smile thinking back to the first date she conned out of me. I was supposed to escort her and Mike Valente to the movies but the two of them set me up. Mike took off to chase a piece of ass and Adrianna reeled me in—hook, line and sinker.

I was a goner.

“We were young, real young, and foolishly we thought we’d be together forever, that nothing could ever stand between us,” I continue, staring down at Victoria. I feel the lump form in my throat thinking about the first time Adrianna told me she was pregnant with the child we lost. Closing my eyes, I recall the words I spoke as I broke Adrianna’s heart, telling her the baby didn’t survive. A part of both of us died that day, and even now, after the healing, there’s still an empty spot in our hearts for the baby we never met.

“Things happen, baby girl, and as hard as you try, sometimes you can’t stop them from taking over. They pull you away from the things you want most and make them so far out of reach you give up, but I know you are going to learn, and you will learn from your mommy that you keep fighting for what you believe in. Let no one stop you from going after what makes you happy.”

If I had one wish for my daughter, it would be that she grows up to be a strong woman like her mother. Someone who won’t back down from a challenge. Someone loyal to both herself and those she loves. A woman who knows her worth, knows what she wants, and is the only one in control of her heart.

“I promise you I’ll never be the dad that takes away your smile because I’m too scared to watch you walk away. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to screen your dates and follow you around with a baseball bat, but when the time comes, and you find someone who loves you more than they love the air they breathe, I won’t be the dad that takes that from you.”

I won’t do to her what Victor did to us.

I’ve forgiven him.

We both have.

Our daughter is named after him for crying out loud.

Instead of harboring resentment we took what happened to us as a lesson in parenting. For me, I know now I have eighteen years or so to prepare myself for the day my daughter tells me she’s in love. I look at Victoria and as much as I don’t want to understand why Victor did the things he did, I understand his fear. Looking down at the baby I created, knowing these days and nights are the shortest part of her life, they’ll go by in a flash and she’ll grow up before I know it. That’s fucking scary. She’ll bring home a guy and with my luck, he’ll be like me, and I’ll feel like I’m losing a limb as she walks out the door holding his hand.