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“Dada?” a small voice said from behind.
No, still not guilty. Nico wasn’t sure whether to be horrified or flattered or take Matteo for an eye test. Kaylin scooped him up as he toddled across the room and brought him over.
“Not Dada. Nico.”
The kid attempted to smush a toy giraffe into her face, and she ducked with practised ease.
“You’re a good mom.”
“You think? I had to learn everything from books and TV and Cesare’s mom.” A roll of the eyes told Nico what she thought of her mother-in-law. “As if I wanted my son to grow up like hers. Matty, you want a banana?”
The boy nodded.
“Toast and banana?”
Matteo nodded. “Toats and nana.”
“My mama left the parenting to my father,” Nico said. “Although I’m genuinely not sure whether it would have been any better if she hadn’t.”
“You turned out pretty good.”
“I had to learn everything from books, American movies, and internet forums. Hollywood’s idea of organised crime and the reality are very different.”
“Tell me about it. Same with assholes in romance novels and assholes in real life.”
“Ah, romance novels… I once granted an interview to a student newspaper in the hope of meeting my future submissive, but they sent a football player named Bart.”
He’d hobbled in with his ankle bandaged and explained that it was important to have a backup career in case sports didn’t work out.
“You read romance novels?” Kaylin asked.
“I was curious about women’s expectations, especially after an ex-girlfriend informed me I was a selfish jackass.”
“Why? You’re anything but selfish.”
“Because I flew to London for a business meeting instead of attending an album launch for a rapper named Bling Boi.”
“Bling Boi? You’re serious?”
“He’d replaced his teeth with diamonds, or so he claimed. I listened to one of his tracks, and his talent level suggested they were more likely to be cubic zirconia.” Cubic zirconia combined with stunningly bad taste. “But the launch party was on a yacht in Cancun, which made me a jackass for refusing to change my plans.”
“I bet the romance novels disagreed.”
“According to the romance novels, I should be hiring a maid who’s one paycheck away from losing her apartment and waiting for her to accidentally walk in on me in the shower.”
“Really? I thought you should be catching a penniless student after she trips on the sidewalk and nearly nosedives in front of a speeding SUV.”
“So that’s where I’m going wrong.”
“Of course, if you’d rather stay in Oregon, you could always try cutting down several hectares of forest and falling in love with the eco-warrior who’s determined to stop you.”
“I fought with the eco-warriors when I built this hotel, but it didn’t work out. The closest I got to being propositioned was when Elmira Fairbanks threatened to castrate me if I didn’t install a wind turbine.”
“And did you install a wind turbine?”
“It was already part of the plans. I was tempted to eliminate it out of sheer bloody-mindedness, but it provides the power to heat the pools and I quite like my testicles where they are.”
Kaylin got Matteo settled onto a booster seat she’d retrieved from the pile and mashed banana into a bowl. Having her around felt comfortable. Nico still wasn’t sure about the child—he’d never spent time with a toddler before—but how much trouble could a two-year-old be?
