“You’ve always been good with kids, Rachel. They’re your calling. I knew you would be a natural. I might have been wrong about literally everything else about you, but I knew I wasn’t wrong about that. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being exactly what they need. What Bee needs. I don’t say it often enough, but I am thankful. You brought her back to us. The light in the darkness.”
“I’m not all light,” I murmured.
“I know. Buttheydon’t know that. You know how to keep that side of you hidden from them. To them, you’re just their mum. And they love you. I know you come with darkness of your own, but your soul is a good one. Fucked up and vengeful,”he chuckled, moving his lips to my neck. “But a good one.” He kissed me briefly before inhaling deeply, as though he couldn’t get enough of me. I closed my eyes, savouring the moment.
“You have a tough exterior, Rachel, and you’ve seen some shit, done some shit, and experienced more shit in your thirty years than most people ever see in five lifetimes. But it hasn’t tainted you. Not like it has me.”
“It can only ruin you if you let it,” I murmured. “Look at them,” I pointed at the kids, who were still jumping in the puddles. “They’re not asking for perfection. The bare minimum is enough for them, because they love us unconditionally, and with no expectations. Our love for them is what makes us strive to do more than the minimum. And that’s something only you have control over, Dante. You think I have a good soul, but that’s because I choose to not give into the darkness. And I think that’s something you need to decide, and decide quickly. Are you a good man that does bad things, or a bad man that does good things? Because there is a difference, and I can only make this thing between us work with one of them.”
I twisted my head and captured his lips with my own for a brief second before I pulled away and walked over to the kids, letting Dante think over what I had said.
Dante interrupted our dancing and asked the kids if they wanted to get some lunch. He took us to a small restaurant, and I left him at the table with the kids, telling him to join in with the colouring books, and went to the counter to order our food.
As I was waiting for the waitress to come over, I felt eyes on me, making me spin around to confront whoever it was.
“Whoa, whoa,” a man said, holding his hands up in surrender with a small laugh. “I come in peace.”
“Sorry,” I grinned back. “Have I pushed in front?”
“Not at all,” he said. “I just came over to say hi.”
“Hi…” I said slowly, looking him up and down. He was attractive, of that there was no doubt. He had a few tattoos on his arms, his hair was dark, and his eyes sparkled with mischief. He was exactly my type, and yet I felt nothing.
Because he’s not —
Let’s not go there.
“Look, I’m going to be forward here, because I’ve had more than one missed opportunity like this,” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Are you seeing anyone?”
I burst out laughing before I could stop myself. “I see my therapist once a week, my inner demons when I close my eyes, and I guess, technically, an angry biker that burns houses to the ground for a laugh.”
“Is that a yes?”
“It’s a…” How did I answer that? In a few months' time, he could ask me again and everything would be different. Right now, me and Dante were not technically together, but we were so far away from being apart either. I was his old lady in name only, and yet I was contractually bound to say otherwise.
I looked around and saw Dante leaning against one of the columns near our table, his arms folded, looking at us in amusement. The smirk on his lips said a thousand words, and I didn’t want to hear a single one of them.
“It’s a yes,” I said, pulling my attention back to the man in front of me. “And to be honest, he probably wouldn’t take too kindly to me even talking to you for this long, so if you’d excuse me…”
I tried to turn back around, presenting him with my back, but he seized my arm and prevented me from completing the movement.
“Take this,” he said, offering me a card. “Just in case you change your mind.”
“I won't.” I replied firmly, letting the card drop to the floor between us.
“Your loss,” he shrugged, his eyes hardening. I braced myself for the inevitable personality shift, as most men did when they were rejected, but he surprised me by walking away without another word. I glanced back at the column, but Dante was nowhere to be seen.
I turned to the waitress and placed our order before heading back to the table, seeing Dante colouring in a hot-air balloon with Axel.
I took my seat next to him and he sat back, dropping the crayon and draping his arm over the back of my chair.
“How much did that pain you?” He murmured in my ear.
“What?”
