Page 8 of Secret Mafia Daddy

But I don’t want to think about that night. I don’t want to think about anything but how good this breakfast burrito tastes as I nearly inhale it.

“Where’s the little one?” she asks, speaking of Chelsea, and I grin.

“With my mom, and guess what.”

“What?” she asks suspicious, but with a smile on her face.

“I’m kid-free for the weekend,” I tell her. “She’s staying with her grandparents. They’re going to take her to the water park so I can relax.”

“That sounds good,” she says. “You need it. You wanna stay at my place?”

“Not tonight,” I say. I look at her. “Maybe Saturday?”

A slow grin spreads across her face. “Are you going to go out with me on Saturday?”

“I’m not sure if I’m going out, but I’ll come get you for the afterparty,” I suggest. Going to a strip club called “Pasties” isn’t exactly my idea of a good time, but I’m down for a few shots and some dancing afterward.

It’s not like I have anything against strippers, but I’m easily embarrassed, and they’re… well, naked.

“Aw, boo,” Alyssa whines, but I can tell she’s happy that I’ll be at least showing up after.

I feel relieved that she isn’t going to ask me more about a couple of nights ago or my disappearing act just now. It’s not something I want to talk about.

We head back to Alyssa’s place for some day-drinking because she talks me into buying some margarita mix.

“How come you never have fun out anymore?”

“What? What are you talking about?” I know it’s been a while since our partying days together, but I still have fun. Right?

Thinking back for the past few years, I notice a trend of memories with my daughter and my parents, but not much more.

“You don’t go out, you don’t date. Do you at least have one-night stands?” Alyssa asks.

“Why do you ask, you weirdo?” I ask, laughing a little uneasily as I blend our margaritas.

“Because, you used to be all fun in high school, and now you’re kind of a stick in the mud,” she says bluntly, and I turn around, blinking at her.

“Gee, thanks,” I say flatly, but she just laughs.

“Seriously, Cat. You were a hellion when we were younger. What happened?”

I shrug. “I don’t know, Alyssa. It’s just with what my dad does...” I trail off. Alyssa isn’t in the life, per se. She dates guys who are. That’s kind of her thing, but she didn’t grow up in it.

Hell, neither did I. Not really.

But I’ve been through enough in the last few years that I understand life in the mafia better than she does.

“I dunno, Cat. I plan to marry into it.” She grins.

I snort. “Marry who? One of those guys you’re having one-night stands with?”

She waves her hands. “Nah, not any of them. Maybe I’ll marry Santino.”

I gasp. “You will not.”

Santino has cheated on her twice already.

She groans, “I don’t know. I think about it sometimes. At least he buys me stuff, pretends to love me.”

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