Page 84 of Daddies of the Underworld

“Can we watch a movie? I want to show Uncle Scarecrow the princess movie.” Sofia spun her fork through her noodles, then shoved a giant bite into her mouth.

Matteo bit into a breadstick, then pointed it at Sofia. “I thought we were going to watch the documentary about bridges.”

Sofia’s nose scrunched. “No thanks.”

Dante held up his breadstick. “I vote for what Sofia wants.”

Luca stood and began picking up empty plates and carrying them to the sink. “I also vote for what you want.”

Matteo exhaled slowly. “That is not how voting works.”

“It is when I’m adorable.” Sofia giggled when he mock-scowled.

Luca pointed at her. “Strong argument.”

“Thank you.” She wiped her face using the napkin Dante handed her, then bounced off the seat and ran for the living room.

The rest of us cleaned up, including Marco. My brother gave me one single pat on the shoulder when we finished and shuffled off toward his room. “See you in the morning.” He spoke over his shoulder, his voice barely audible over the sound of Sofia singing and dancing in the middle of the living room. His gaze drifted that way, and a ragged sound cut the air between us before he entered his room and closed the door.

Sofia lasted twenty minutes before she dragged the chessboard onto the coffee table. Matteo sank onto the floor across from her without hesitation, still in a shirt that cost more than my first car, and started explaining sacrifice for position. I should probably stop him, but Sofia soaked up everything he said, nodding along with a serious expression.

I sat on the couch with Dante beside me and Luca at my feet, his shoulder resting against my leg. Dante’s hand settled near mine, his knuckles brushing mine whenever Sofia thumped a piece too hard.

“Would you sacrifice a horse piece?” Sofia picked up the knight and made neighing sounds.

“Knight,” Matteo corrected. Sofia glared at him until he sighed. “Yes. Sometimes I would sacrifice a horse piece.”

“For the queen?” Sofia neighed again, then galloped the knight across the board to where her queen was getting surrounded.

Matteo’s gaze flicked to me, and my skin warmed before he answered. “Yes. I would sacrifice for my queen.”

The chess game stretched past bedtime because every adult in the room had become useless. Sofia yawned over the board, insisted she was wide awake, then moved her queen in a way that made Matteo cover his face with one hand and make an exaggerated groaning sound.

She fell asleep against his side while waiting for him to explain why her move had worked.

Matteo looked down at her, one arm frozen behind her back. Sofia’s cheek rested against his ribs, her mouth slightly open, one hand curled around a captured pawn.

Dante stood. “I’ll check the hall.” Which meant he needed a minute where no one looked at his face. I’d picked up on his little quirk of taking off every time an emotion became too big. No doubt he was checking the house too, but the consistency of his leaving the room during big emotions wasn’t lost on anyone.

Matteo carried Sofia upstairs. I followed because bedtime still belonged to me in some deep, stubborn place. No matter how many fathers she had now, some part of me needed to see the blanket pulled up and the window checked with my own hands.

He laid her on the bed with more care than I had ever seen him use with anything, then stepped back while I tucked her in.

Sofia’s eyes fluttered open. “Night, Mom.”

“Night, baby.” I kissed her forehead, checked the blanket, checked the window, then forced myself to leave before I climbed in beside her and hid from the rest of my life.

The men waited in the hallway, all three watching me. All the emotions I’d been trying to control rose to the surface. I was tired of feeling scared and worrying over every little thing. Add in the frustration of not knowing what we might face next, and I needed them to hold me and tell me it would be okay, even if they were lying through their teeth.

I walked past them and down the stairs, forcing myself to go through a normal routine instead of falling into their arms and letting them deal with all my problems. I’d worked too hard for my independence, and while it wasn’t wrong to let them carry some of the weight, I wasn’t fully ready to let go.

The living room felt too quiet after the bedroom. The cartoon still played softly, some animal running across the screen with no idea every person watching had abandoned it for chess. I grabbed the remote and turned it off before I faced them and crossed my arms. “We can’t keep pretending this is temporary. You have lives in Italy. At some point, you have to go back.”

“We have lives here.” Luca had stopped near the fireplace, out of arm’s reach but close enough for me to read the angst in his eyes. “Is there something here stopping you from returning with us? Right now, this is where you are. This is where Sofia is. That makes it ours too.”

Dante moved closer, stopping beside the couch. “We are not asking you to return because we want what we had before.”

“Good, because that’s gone.” I shuddered at the memory of running from them in the storm. We could not get back the before, but we could create something new…if I let us. Did I want to? Absolutely. But I still had to count the cost. I had to decide if living in their world and accepting the danger that could come our way at any time was worth the return.