Page 41 of Unruly

He liked to say that as much, and as often, as he possibly could. Cross figured it was just his father-in-law’s way of reminding him that he took great enjoyment from Cece’s antics because her attitude matched her father’s as a child.

“Looks just like her mother did at that age,” Dante added after a moment, and passed a look to Cross. “With your eyes, of course.”

“Mmm.”

Cross kept one eye on his daughter, and half of his attention on Dante. The water wasn’t that deep, but kids could drown in an inch of bath water, for fuck’s sake. One could never be too careful when it came right down to it.

“They still haven’t come down from the room,” Dante said.

“Well, they weren’t quite finished arguing when I grabbed Cece to get her out of the warpath between them.”

Dante chuckled. “You’re exaggerating. Surely it wasn’t that bad.”

“Getting there.”

“Yeah?”

Cross shrugged. “Usually they don’t yell when they argue. This time, Catherine was yelling loud enough to bring the walls down.”

“Shit,” Dante murmured.

“That meeting didn’t go well last night.”

“Cat didn’t think it would.”

“She couldn’t have given Catherine a heads up before she went in on it?”

“How is Catherine ever going to learn to handle herself in those situations on her own if she always expects someone else to do it for her?”

“Point taken,” Cross lamented.

“It was bound to happen,” Dante said after a moment.

“What?”

“The arguing like they are.”

“It’s happening more often.”

Dante nodded. “Bound to happen, Cross. Considering. Catrina intends to hand her empire over to Catherine. She’s giving it all to her, but you have to consider, she’s built this from the ground up. Started as a young teenager, and she’s now a woman who has lived a lifetime doing this. She needs to know her reginella—the little queen she raised—can handle it all. After all, we are who we are, and we will not always be here to fall back on.”

“Catherine can handle it.”

“Sure,” Dante agreed, “but once she’s finally learned everything.”

“Catrina has an interesting way of teaching.”

Dante’s stony features cracked with a smirk. “That she does. No worries, Cross, her lessons are coming to an end. Catrina is almost done. I suppose once Catherine is finally finished with gallivanting all over the place for her mother, you will get some time to enjoy sitting where you both do.”

Cross heard Dante’s unspoken words loud and clear.

Things would slow down, then.

Life would slow down.

He couldn’t wait.

“You didn’t step in between them, right?” Dante asked.