to help you take care of this family the way I should have been doing all along.”
His brow furrowed. “Do you think… Do you think I’ve been disappointed in you all these years?”
I cleared my throat, shifting around in the wingback chair. “I didn’t accept the responsibilities and duties that fell on my shoulders like I know you wanted me to. Like you expected me to. I just want you to know that everything is different now. Whatever you need, I’m here.”
Appearing disturbed by my words, Dad rose from his chair and came around the desk. Facing me, he leaned against it and pierced me with the most intent look I’d ever seen from him.
“I need you to understand, Nico, that I have never been disappointed in you. When you chose your own path all those years ago, I respected you for it. I’ve always tried to raise my children to think for themselves and make their own way in this world. I would have been disappointed if you hadn’t had the courage to tell me what you really wanted.”
“But I was an irresponsible jackass for over a decade,” I sputtered. “That couldn’t have made you proud.”
He chuckled. “All my children are their own people, and that makes me proud. Luka’s a smartass most of the time and can’t control his temper. Cris tends to be too rigid and controlling. Ace can be an overly-analytical know-it-all when he wants to be. And Rome’s solitude can sometimes come off as indifferent or rude. We all have our frustrating quirks.”
I smirked. “What about Gia?”
He snorted. “Gia still wants her papa to believe that she’s sweet and guileless and doesn’t possess a single conniving bone in her body. So, that’s what I choose to believe. You’ll understand when you have daughter.”
My chest swelled with love for that daughter who hadn’t even been born—yet. Boy or girl, all I wanted was a healthy baby. But I couldn’t deny harboring some hope that Lexi carried our daughter.
“I’m extremely proud of you, son.”
My eyes flew up to Dad’s.
“You say you were an irresponsible jackass, yet you’re the first of my children to get married and have a baby. You’ve built a thriving enterprise over the last ten years, and you’ve taken care of this family in more ways than you want to acknowledge. I couldn’t be prouder of my first-born son.”
Emotion clogged my throat. I sensed it in him, too, and well, neither of us wanted the other to witness it. The only person who ever got to see me cry was Lexi, and it was only on rare occasions.
Instead, I rose to my feet, shook his hand, and hugged him. “Thank you, Dad.”
After a prolonged series of back slaps, he pulled away with a grin and produced a bottle of whiskey from one of his desk drawers.
“I’ve been meaning to try this,” he said, popping the cork. “But I wanted to wait for the right moment.” He got out two glasses. “And I think it’s time.”
It was a bottle of my Saluzzo Reserve.
Jab. Cross.
Jab. Cross. Uppercut.
Cross. Jab. Hook.
Straight kick. Jab.
Roundhouse kick. Uppercut.
Cross. Her—
Fuck.
Not this bullshit again.
For nearly two goddamn months it had been like this. I’d start working out on the bag or the weights or in the ring, and at some point, her face would appear in my mind’s eye like a taunt.
Or a disease.
The way I felt every time I thought about her sure as hell made it seem like I had some kind of illness. I’d start sweating—more than usual—my heart would pound, and my hands would start shaking. Again, more than usual.
Then I’d usually have to go stroke one out somewhere. Locked inside a bathroom stall, or upstairs in my old apartment. Or right behind my own fucking desk. The owner of the most popular gym in Brooklyn was regularly masturbating in his office to the image of one girl.
Well, it was more to a dance.
And I didn’t even know her name.
Other than the fact that she could move like the kind of dream a man never wanted to wake up from, all I knew was that she was a dancer at Rumors, one of the less seedier strip clubs in the city. The first time I saw her was at my brother Cris’s bachelor party two months ago. She’d caught my eye as she was slinging drinks to the customers at the tables, and I’d paid for a private dance from her specifically. Of course, that dance had gotten interrupted