Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 789 : Lucky

*Cat*

“There you go! Come on, come to Mama!” I cheered happily, clapping as I sat on my knees across the living room. I held Emilia’s favorite plushie in my hands, a stuffed blue dog from her favorite cartoon, holding it out to her and wiggling its little feet.

Emilia had her little face scrunched up in concentration, chubby arms flailing on the floor as she lay on her tummy, now able to hold up her big head all by herself. She didn’t quite know how to crawl yet, only waving her arms excitedly like she was trying to swim across the carpet and sometimes, she’d managed to scoot herself a couple of feet, but that was all.

She looked adorable, like a little duckling trying to learn how to swim for the first time, and I stifled my laugh behind the plushie, grinning madly at how cute this was. I was recording with one hand, shaking the plush with the other as I encouraged her to head to me where I was just out of reach.

I didn’t expect her to crawl. It was still far too early for that. She’d get there eventually but for now, this was just an exercise to build up her muscles, to prepare her for when she’d be standing up then walking then running all over the house.

As many times as I’d been warned about the terrible twos, I was excited to experience it with Emilia, though I’d miss these days once they were gone, I was sure.

“Alright, here you go, good job, Emilia,” I laughed, ending the recording as I handed Emilia her plush dog.

She grabbed it with her hands, immediately sticking its ear into her mouth to suck on and I laughed, lifting her up into my arms and taking a seat on the couch.

She leaned against me obediently, giving a soft little yawn as she nibbled on her plushie’s ear. I chuckled, taking the moment to send the video to Elio but right before I was about to send it, I got the ding of a text from my phone.

‘On my way home. Be there soon. Love you.’

I smiled, gently whispering to Emilia, “Daddy’s coming home soon. You’ll be so excited to see him.”

Emilia loved him dearly, sometimes I think even more than me, and I thought it probably had to do with how she was stuck with me twenty-four seven and Elio was gone most of the day. She was really clingy with him once he got home though. I sent the video, wrote back a quick text basically saying okay, and lifted Emilia up.

I settled her into her pack-and-play, making sure her toys were in sight. She continued playing with her plushie happily.

That gave me a chance to get something done. I cleaned up the living room, putting up all her toys in the cute little basket I’d bought for that purpose. Usually, the maid helped me, but I was feeling pretty active today. I wanted to do it myself, just to give me something to do.

By the time I was finished, pretty proud of myself for how spotless it now looked besides the few toys thrown around her play mat, Elio was already pulling into the driveway.

“Welcome home.” I grinned brightly, holding Emilia in one arm as Elio came.

He blinked in surprise at us standing in the foyer to greet him, but that quickly disappeared into a tired smile.

“My princesses.” He reached out, pressing a kiss to Emilia’s forehead then taking her from me as she whined excitedly, curling her little hands immediately around his curly locks. He kissed me on the lips, smiling as he pulled back.

“I saw you at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Leo sent me the pictures. You looked amazing,” I teased him, leading him to the living room by the hand. My smile faltered though as I saw his gloomy expression.

“Yeah,” was all he said, taking a seat on the couch with Emilia. He grinned brightly at her, lifting her up in the air as he cooed at her.

Something was up.

I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to find out what was wrong just by a look, but all I could determine at this point was that he was not very excited about the ribbon-cutting. Was it the event? Did it not go well?

Shoving those thoughts to the back of my mind, I switched topics.

“How was your meeting with Franky?” I asked, remembering all the text updates he’d sent me throughout the day. I hardly remembered this morning except for vaguely saying bye to him and waking up in a mountain of pillows confused.

Elio’s eyes lit up at the mention of Franky.

“Turns out I’m not on the Feds’ radar, so all of our guys have remained loyal. Leo and Franky are in the clear as well, thankfully. Franky’s come up with some plan to get our guys out and back to Italy but he wouldn’t tell me the details.”

“Frustrating, isn’t it?” I smirked, crossing my arms at the irony.

“Yeah, yeah.” He rolled his eyes. “How long are you gonna hold that over me?”

“Probably forever.” I laughed at the look of dismay he sent me, bumping into his shoulder playfully as I leaned on him, snuggling my head on his shoulder. “I’m just kidding. Does this plan of his include pissing off the Feds cause that seems like something important?”

“I don’t know but probably,” Elio shrugged. “Breaking out of a federal prison tends to piss off the guys in charge. Shocking, I know.”

“They’re so unreasonable,” I teased. “Are you sure you’re okay with Franky taking over on this project? I know you like to be in charge of things, especially when it comes to the Valentinos. It’s your family legacy.”

“I trust Franky to handle this without me,” Elio said confidently, giving me a small smile. “And it’s not just my family legacy but Al’s too. He trusts us to handle this, so I can trust the person he picked out to help me. Besides, Franky has more than earned his place here. We’d never have gotten this far without him.”

“True,” I nodded sagely. “Though, I still say he’s a bit of an asshole.”

“No argument there,” Elio snorted.

Emilia babbled in agreement, pulling tightly on one of Elio’s curls and I stifled a laugh at the pained expression on his face.

“Damn, she’s getting strong,” Elio grumbled to himself.

“Yes, she is!” I cooed, proudly at our little girl, giving her a big kiss on her chubby cheek. She blinked her wide eyes at me, looking absolutely stunned that I would do such a thing to her and her lips wobbled before she let out a wail.

She buried her face into Elio’s chest, acting like she’d been so horribly wronged and I pressed my lips together to stop from laughing as Elio sent me a mock offended look.

“How could you? To our princess?” Elio gasped.

“I know! I’m so evil,” I cried dramatically, falling back to lean on Elio’s shoulders. I laughed as Elio comforted our daughter who wasn’t even crying, just faking it to get attention from her daddy.

I sighed, happy with our family but also that he’d finally let me back in. I told him so, giving him a kiss on the cheek as a reward and he grinned.

“I wouldn’t be where I am without you. You’ve been the driving force behind everything.” He sighed, closing his eyes peacefully as he pulled me into a side hug. “I’d never be as great without you by my side. I just needed a little reminder of that.”

“Or a few,” I corrected with a pout. I was still a bit bitter from the many conversations we’d had and the promises he’d failed to keep over and over. Frustrating didn’t even come close to how I felt.

But I was learning to trust him again, just as he was learning to let him in behind those walls he’d built up.

“Do you have any more meetings to go to tonight?” I asked, curiously, not wanting to be alone tonight again but Elio shook his head, giving me a sweet smile.

“I’m all yours tonight.”

At this promise, he kept whole-heartedly.

I picked out a few movies to watch, some rom-coms I liked and then a few action movies I knew Elio liked, and then one that was somehow both we’d never seen before. We ordered take-out from my favorite Chinese place, dismissing the rest of the servants for the night.

Emilia, as always, tried her best to get a taste of Mom and Dad’s food, but Elio was much more careful this time, not letting her sneak a piece of his sweet and sour chicken. I sneakily pretended to feed her scoops of my rice, throwing in one of her toys at the last minute.

It seemed to work as she calmed down, content with just being involved. After a while, she fussed again and I gave her a bottle.

The night passed by as Elio and I just hung out together, enjoying one another’s company as we snuggled up on the couch. Emilia passed out after the second movie and I put her down in her crib. I headed into the kitchen to make some popcorn at the same time, with extra butter, of course.

I settled back onto the couch with him and we kept watching the movie.

I smiled to myself, lying on top of Elio as he played with my hair, my eyes feeling heavy and fluttering shut as the lights were off, the movie played quietly in the background and his soothing heartbeat lulled me into a blissful sleep.

I didn’t know when I fell asleep but I did apparently cause I woke up, eyes opening blearily to feel myself being lifted into the air with strong arms underneath me.

“Elio?” I murmured, tiredly and I heard his heartbeat thumping in his chest. I yawned, curling into his embrace as he hushed me, carrying me to our room.

He slid me on top of the bed and I let him maneuver me as he pleased as he tucked me into bed, sliding in right after to hold me together. Once we were settled, I gently nuzzled up to his neck, entwining my cold feet with his warm ones much to his ire.

“I’m glad we’re okay again,” I murmured sleepily to him.

“Me too.” He chuckled, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Get some sleep. You’re slurring your words.”

I hummed, not having enough energy to respond though I remembered wondering ‘How did I get so lucky to be with him?’ before sleep overtook me and the rest of the night was just a blur.