“She never said I’m the devil. She said I’m a button pusher.”
“You’re a devil. For sure.”
I reach for her and hoist her over my shoulder, spinning her around and making her scream with laughter. As I lower her to the bed, the door swings open and smacks against the wall.
“Stop!” Mateo cries. “Don’t hurt her!”
I release Sofia so she can go to him. “He wasn’t hurting me. I was laughing.”
“I heard you scream,” he says, his voice hitching on a sob that breaks my heart.
“I was laughing. I swear. Nico would never hurt me. Would you, Nico?”
“Never. I love your mama so much. All I want is to make her happy and make her laugh. She was laughing, Mateo. I swear to God.”
He breaks down into heartbroken sobs that make me want to smash things as I imagine what he’s seen and heard in the past that makes him fear the worst.
Sofia holds him until he calms.
“Will you come see me for a minute?” I ask the little boy.
He hesitates, but only for a second.
I lift him onto my lap. “I want you to know something really important, okay?”
He nods.
“I love you as much as I love your mom, and I promise you, man to man, that I will never do anything to hurt either of you. All I want is for you both to be happy, okay?”
“Okay.”
“If I ever do anything to make you afraid, I want you to tell me, okay?”
“I will.”
I kiss the top of his head and hug him tightly before releasing him to go back to bed with his mom.
I hear her talking to him before she returns to my room and sits next to me on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Please don’t be. I’d always want him to come to your rescue if he thought you were being hurt.”
“I hate that he has reason to be worried about that. You were great with him. Thank you for that.”
“I’d never, ever touch either of you with anything other than love on my mind. I swear on the lives of everyone I love, and that’s a lot of people. You never need to be afraid of me that way. I’ll spend the rest of my life proving that to you and Mateo.”
“I know, Nico. I already know that, and now he does, too.”
When I put my arm around her, she rests her head on my shoulder.
“Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day for you.”
We crawl into bed and snuggle up to each other in the middle. With our arms and legs intertwined, I decide that sleeping wrapped up in Sofia is better than the best sex I ever had before her.
I intend to continue showing her—and her son—how a real man treats the woman he loves.