My father manages to avoid even looking at me during dinner. If it wasn’t for Matthias begging me to let him stay and play with the twins, and the look of concern on my mom’s face, I would have left straight after Jax did.
“Can I sleep over, Momma? Please?” Matthias sidles up to me, his face covered in chocolate ice cream as he smiles up at me.
“Not tonight, munchkin,” I say, brushing his hair. “I have to be up early for work tomorrow.”
“Papa can take me to kindergarten,” he says, his eyes shining. “Can I stay? Pleeease?”
I look at my father whose eyes finally meet mine. “Let him stay,” is all he says.
I look down at my son’s excited face and can’t say no to him. I know my father is pissed at me and Jax, but that would never affect his relationship with Matthias.
“Fine,” I say as I lean down and give him a kiss on the nose.
“If you’re staying here, then you need a bath and some pajamas. You monsters are not getting chocolate ice cream all over my bed,” my father says with a grin as he pushes his chair back.
Matthias and Tomás shriek with delight, but Dario has already fallen asleep on my mom’s lap.
“You need any help?” my mom asks him.
“No. I got it,” he says, feigning a scowl that she would question his ability to control two little kids, but then kisses her forehead and takes Dario from her arms. “I’ll put him down first and then see to the other two.”
“Thank you,” she smiles at him.
He doesn’t look at me though and I swallow down the ball of emotion in my throat. He is so disappointed in me and it is breaking my heart. He is such a great dad and even though he is in the same room as me, I miss him already.
“He’s not angry with you, sweetheart,” my mom says softly.
I wipe the stray tear from my cheek, annoyed with myself for getting so upset. He’s being unreasonable here, not me. So I fell in love with his best friend—there are much worse things I could do. “He can’t even bear to look at me, Mom.”
“He’s angry. He’s just processing it, that’s all. I mean, it was quite the bombshell you two dropped on us.”
“You were shocked, but you’re not acting like a jerk about it,” I sniff.
“Lucia,” she warns me. “I don’t care what he’s done, you do not speak about your father that way.”
“I know,” I wince. “I’m sorry. But you’re still speaking to me.”
“Well, it’s different for me.”
“Different how?”
“Well, Jax isn’t my best friend.” She takes a sip of water. “And I know how it feels to fall in love with someone you’re not supposed to,” she adds with a shrug.
“You mean, Papi?”
“Of course,” she says with a smile.
“But he wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you either,” I remind her. “He knows how that feels too.”
“Yes, but you are his daughter and it’s his job to protect you, Lucia. In his eyes, Jax has betrayed his trust. You must see why he feels like that?”
“I guess,” I admit. Of course I understand why he’s so upset, even if I hate that he is and I don’t agree with him. “What about you, Mom?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. This is between you, Jax and your father.”
“Of course it matters,” I blink at her. “Your opinion means everything to me.”
“All that matters to me is that you are happy, sweetheart. Does Jax make you happy?”