Page 59 of Free Fall

He looked at me with the same fury in his eyes I recognized from myself. I had a lot of work to do if I wanted this to be right. How one man had messed up so much I’d never know. Even though I was the fuck up, I couldn’t begin to unpick when it had started.

“Can we just agree that I’m trying and you will give me a chance?” I asked, keeping my voice steady. “I want to try, and I want you to let me.”

His jaw tensed. A couple walked past us and gave a wide berth when they saw the sight of my son in the depths of his rage. He was quiet in his anger, had been since he was a child. Where Jesse would cry, Cole would seethe.

The tension increased, then extinguished with the roll of his eyes.

“Shit,” he said, sighing. “I helped you fuck it all up. I’ll help you unfuck it too. But Dad? Don’t expect any more than that.”

“I’m sure I can make more amends than you unfucking my life.”

“Yeah.” He ran his hands through his dark hair. “We’ll see about that.”

We began walking, falling into step beside each other, neither of us any good at this emotional crap. Only Zelda managed to wrestle that out of me and that had been one of the hardest things I’d ever allowed to happen.

“I won’t stop trying.”

“Okay, Dad.”

Franco, my secretary slash assistant, let the investors out of the building and clicked all the locks over. “Christ, they were a drab bunch,” he commented, shaking his body out.

I’d found him almost a year ago, and he’d helped me get set up here. I hadn’t just been following Zelda around and lurking in the shadows of Leo’s life. I wanted to prove my commitment, so I created roots. A building purchased, a business started, staff hired. Even if my only current member of staff was a grumpy little blond with a sense of grandeur that needed to be squashed, now I was here permanently.

“It went well, though,” I told him, turning back to my office, navigating the large space as he raced to catch up with me.

“Mm,” he said, biting his tongue.

“Just spit it out.” I’d learned long ago that he was going to say what was on his mind regardless of my opinion on it, so it was better to get it out of the way.

“The investors liked it,” Franco agreed. “But we all know who it rests on.”

“Whose we?” I asked, reaching my office and opening the door. Franco’s space was both at the reception desk and a smaller office off to the side, tucked down a quiet corridor. Still, he followed me up, the glint of gossip in his eye.

“You and me, dipshit.” He grinned. “When are you going to reveal all to her?”

“Get me a coffee.”

Franco’s smile grew wider. But he saluted me and sloped off to do my bidding, as was his job.

I let my mind wander to Zelda’s reaction as I sank into my chair. I wanted to tell her everything, to present the place to her with a puffed up chest and a needy look on my face, but refrained. For now.

The thought was both exciting and unnerving. What the hell was she going to think?

Thirty Two

Zelda

ThreelargeDiazmenstanding in the hallway was like something out of a joke. They were all so bulky and broody — Jesse less so — sucking the air out of the narrow space as they shucked off coats and kicked off shoes.

I’d had the genius idea of inviting them all for dinner. In the weeks since Luca had pushed himself on us, the change in Leo had been huge. It was like something had settled in him. He loved Luca, loved his brothers, and having them around more made his cute little face glow. Luca was doing what I knew he would, wearing me down through my son. And it was working.

He stayed over for an hour after bringing Leo home from a dinner date two nights ago, and together we settled him to bed. So domestic. So quiet and drama free. No tension lingering – good or bad – through the entire thing. He wished Leo goodnight, kissed me on the forehead, and sauntered from the house without looking back.

It was making me too comfortable.

So here the overwhelming presence of these three men could come to squash that.

“Jesus fuck, the pheromones in here are powerful,” Seren blurted, waving her hand in front of her face as she stepped into the hallway with us. “It’s like you bottled it up and sprayed it all over yourselves. Save yourself, Zel.” She stretched her arm out for me, wiggling her fingers.

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