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‘Yeah, I really do.’
‘But why?’ Aldo asked, as if he genuinely couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to be his father.
Luke blinked, too, getting misty-eyed himself.
Jesus, the kid is killing me.
He could have said all the obvious things. That he’d come to adore the little boy’s tenacity, his tough boyish exterior and the tender heart beneath it, so like his mother’s. That he wanted to do everything in his power to make them all—all four of them—a family. That he couldn’t think of a child who needed a dad more than Aldo. And he couldn’t think of anyone better to do the job than someone who wanted to be Aldo’s dad as much as he did. But somehow he didn’t think any of that would wash as well as one simple truth.
‘Because I need someone to play football with if I’m going to live here full-time,’ he said. ‘And Lizzie’s not into playing football much any more. Plus, she’s mostly living in Paris these days.’
And when she wasn’t, she was way too busy flirting with Trey, he thought but decided not to add.
‘I could do that.’ Aldo’s face split into an eager grin, his eyes sparkling like the fairy lights they’d strung on the Christmas tree together two days before. ‘I love playing football and I live here all the time, too.’
‘I know. That’s why I can’t think of anyone better to be my son,’ Luke said, emotion careering through him. The way it had when he’d first held Lizzie in his arms, when she was a couple of minutes old. ‘So the job’s yours if you want it,’ he added as nonchalantly as he could manage while his throat was aching.
Aldo might be ten, but he would be Luke’s kid now, too. A Best in a lot more than name only. If he said yes.
‘Would you get angry with me if you were my dad?’ Aldo asked, still sounding eager. And although Luke knew he would do his absolute utmost never to lose his temper with the boy again, he sensed that wasn’t what Aldo wanted to hear right now.
‘I might,’ he said, trying to look grave. ‘If you did something as diabolical as you just did again. And I would have to discipline you. But I promise never to spank you.’
‘Why?’ Aldo said, sounding curious rather than intimidated, which Luke took as a very good sign.
‘Because hitting someone doesn’t make you right. It just makes you meaner. Especially if you’re bigger than they are.’ And Luke refused to become his father, no matter how many buttons Aldo pressed, or Harry Potter castles he kicked over.
‘But what would you do, then?’ Aldo asked, intrigued now. ‘If I was really naughty?’
‘I’d probably ground you, I guess. Or make you go to your room,’ he said, making it up as he went along. This was new territory for him, too. He’d never had to discipline Lizzie as a kid, because he had only ever been Super Dad with her, never Everyday Dad. ‘Which would be a hell of a pain in the arse for both of us,’ he added. ‘Because then neither of us would be able to play football.’
Aldo glanced around him at the mess he’d made. ‘If I cleaned this up now, would you play football with me after dinner?’
Luke smiled. Damn, the boy drove a hard bargain—especially as they’d have to play in the frostbitten garden in the pitch-dark. ‘I would if you were my son.’
Aldo climbed off his lap and started the arduous task of clearing up Harry Potter’s decimated castle with undisguised enthusiasm, then said, very nonchalantly, ‘OK, Dad.’
Luke’s smile burst into what he figured was probably the cheesiest Christmas grin imaginable, even though he felt pretty idiotic.
To think he’d agonised about getting Aldo on-board for weeks, when all he’d ever really had to do was ask.
He was carving the roast five minutes later, Aldo still picking bits of Lego out of Halle’s window pots, when he spotted Halle and Trey and Lizzie all coming down the basement stairs together.
‘Look who I found outside,’ Halle said as she walked in the door. She raised her eyebrows at Luke in the silent they-were-kissing-again signal the two of them had been using a lot in the past two days, now that Trey and Lizzie were officially an item.
Trey had stopped being Aldo’s au pair five days ago. He was going to be starting an access course in January so he could think about going to college with the money his mother had left him in her will. And with Lizzie just back from Paris, where she had started her art course two months back, the two of them had been spending every spare second together.
Luke wasn’t comfortable with the situation, but he was doing his best not to go off at the deep end. And Halle was helping out by running interference.
‘Yeah, I can just imagine,’ he whispered to Halle as he drew her close for a kiss.
‘Mmmm, that smells glorious,’ she said, smelling pretty glorious herself, her signature scent and the feel of her chilly cheek against his making his stomach muscles go all tight and tingly. ‘Watching you carve is such a turn-on,’ she added, the naughty twinkle in her eye making him want to forget all about dinner and sl
ing her over his shoulder.
‘Mum, Dad, get a room,’ Lizzie said, laughing, as Trey helped her out of her coat.
Ever the gallant young suitor, Luke thought, shooting the guy a cautionary glare as he picked up the carving knife and fork. Trey sent him a level look back, not cowed in the slightest.
