Page 37 of Smitten with the Single Dad

Vica’s mouth dropped open. “Parla italiano?”

He winked. “Si.”

“W-why did you not you say anything until now?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, actually. I’m sorry. My boys don’t. I actually learned Italian to impress a girl in high school. She was there for a year on an exchange, so I worked my ass off learning Italian to impress her. Languages have always come easy to me; I’m pretty good at Spanish and French too. But I like Italian the best. So I keep up with it by playing some of those language learningapps.”

Well, now she was falling for him even harder. He learned an entire language to impress a girl.

Wait, was that girl his wife?

“What happened with the girl?” she asked, her heart beating like a hamster’s beneath her ribs.

“She was impressed, and we went out a few times, but her father had a heart attack and she returned home before her year was over.”

That hit way too close to home for Vica and her hand flew to her chest. “My father died the same way.”

“He didn’t die, but she realized he wasn’t well, and she wanted to spend as much time with him as she could. He ended up passing about a year later. So I’m glad she went home to be with him.”

“May I ask where your sons’ mother is?” she said, hating that her voice quavered slightly as she spoke. She was still grappling with the fact that Wyatt spoke Italian. Of all the languages for him to speak, Italian was not on her radar. Spanish? Yeah, that made sense. So did French, or even Mandarin, or Arabic. But not Italian.

“She passed away a little over five years ago,” he said solemnly. “All of our wives did.”

Vica gasped. “All of them?”

He nodded. “Clint, Bennett, Dom, and I were all married. Jagger—who I’m sure you’ll meet eventually—wasn’t, and isn’t, married. Nor does he have children. But the wives were heading to Vegas for a girls’ weekend when their car was sideswiped on the freeway. Two women died on the scene and two in hospital. But they were all gone before we could get there.”

Vica swallowed. Whatever story she’d been concocting in her head about the boys’ mother, this hadn’t been it at all. She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard such a tragic story in her life. Six children became motherless in the blink of an eye. She was only six when she lost her mother, so she could feel the children’s pain so deeplyin her chest that she had to pull out a chair and sit down. “I am … I am so sorry.”

“It was hard. Felt impossible for a while, but the five of us really banded together and we’ve created a wonderful life for our children. We take care of each other and the cousins are so close.” His smile was crooked and entirely forced. “Griffon doesn’t remember her, but the boys have lots of photo albums of her, as well as digital frames in their rooms with rotating photos of them with her.”

“I … I am sorry, I was just curious because I didn’t see any photos in the house.”

He exhaled. “Yeah, I had to put them away for a while. It was too hard on me. I couldn’t grieve her and be present for my kids. So I needed to just put them away so I could get through it without the constant reminder. I’m better now, so maybe its time to put some pictures back out.”

“My mother died when I was six. Nothing as tragic as a car accident, but it was still awful.”

“How did she pass?”

“Insulin overdose.”

His eyes widened. “Dear god. I’m so sorry.”

“My father passed from a heart attack several years ago, and my brother died in a parachuting accident three years ago.” That lump at the back of her throat was the size of a lemon. “I’m all alone.”

He was pulling her out of her chair and wrapping his arms around her before she could blink. And she surprised herself even more by melting into him without hesitation. “You’re not though,” he said against her shoulder. “We’re here for you. We’re not going to let anything bad happen to you. I promise.”

God, he felt good. And he smelled good too. He was solid and warm, and so damn safe, she never wanted to let go. Wyatt McEvoy was everything Vica had ever wanted in a man, and he was promising to keep her safe while holding onto her with his big, muscly arms.

She may have pulled in a deep inhale of his shirt and committed that scent tomemory for eternity, but she wasn’t going to let her heart get too hopeful. All of this was temporary, and she had no idea if he felt the same way, or if this was all just a total manifestation of her in hardcore damsel-mode.

A mode she hated, by the way.

Vica had always been fiercely independent and self-reliant. The fact that she was so reliant on other people right now to not only feed and clothe her, but to keep her safe and out of prison, wasn’t sitting right with her at all.

But Wyatt? She was okay with him protecting and taking care of her. And she’d never been okay with a man doing that before.

He finally let go of her and stepped back. She muted her whimper of sadness at his departure and blinked up at him. He seemed almost surprised with himself that he’d breached that barrier between them and hugged her so abruptly.

---