Page 31 of The Mobster's Nanny

“I think it was around two. Wait, I’ll check Riccardo’s message again.” Matteo pauses at the doorstep of his office, scrolling through his phone, and when I catch sight of him I almost drop to the floor, pressing myself against the stairs. “Yeah, two a.m. at Mount Hope. Make sure to deal with your husbandly duties by then.”

He laughs, opening the door to the office, and I hear him talking about Sasha—but my heartbeat is too loud to make any sense of his words. I actually slump on the stairs and breathe out for a moment before slowly sliding down and out of Matteo’s proximity. God, I can’t believe that just happened. He just put the perfect piece of information right into my hands!

I can’t help but bounce in excitement, walking back to the kitchen to grab my phone. This one will give me a better weapon to get rid of him once and for all.

They have delivery on Tuesday, 2 am, Mount Hope.

Good. If it works, see you on Wednesday.

It should work, right? It should, so I breathe out and finally focus on the cookies again. I can’t mess them up, not when they’re a present for Romeo.

It’s just three hours later, and the cookies are resting on the cooling rack, safely tucked away from Dolce’s curious nose, when Romeo and I enter the house. Or rather, Romeo barges into the house while I follow behind with his backpack on my shoulder. It’s been a long day, with a karate lesson and an art class afterward, and his back deserves some rest.

“I’m home!” Romeo announces for the whole world to hear, pushing his sneakers off and opening his arms for Dolce who immediately runs to greet him. “Have you been a good boy? Miss Liss told me that you tried to steal a piece of butter, is that true?”

I can’t help but smile, watching him chastise Dolce in the gentlest way possible. I think Dolce himself doesn’t even understand that he’s being chastised, as a moment later he drops on the floor and rolls on his back, presenting his tummy. Ah, he is a good boy indeed.

“Romeo, wash your hands, change your clothes, and get ready for dinner,” I call to him from the kitchen a couple of minutes later, rolling up my sleeves to reheat the turkey.

Romeo responds with an unintelligible hum of confirmation, but a few minutes later I still see him on the couch, playing video games, so I walk to the living room and clear my throat. When he looks up at me, I put my hands on my hips and quirk an eyebrow.

“Shall I repeat?”

“But, just one more level!”

“Alright, but no games until you’re done with homework then.”

Romeo immediately puffs up his cheeks and stands up with a mighty frown. “Fine!”

“Don’t forget to wash your—”

“I remember!” he yells harshly, stomping away to the stairs, but I guess he catches his own mistake right away because he stops even before I call him.

“Romeo. Look at me.” He turns around, staring at the floor, so I cross my arms and wait until he huffs and looks up. “What did you just say?

“Nothing.” He looks away again, fidgets in his place, huffs and grunts for a moment, and finally mutters, “I’m sorry, Miss Liss.”

“Apology accepted,” I say with fake dramatism before chuckling and waving him off. “Now go, the cookies won’t be waiting forever.”

“Cookies?” Romeo’s face immediately lights up with enthusiasm, and before I can say anything, he runs to the stairs. I huff and turn around. Sometimes it’s really easy to handle him.

Romeo gets to the kitchen a few minutes later in a big t-shirt with a dog character from his favorite animation series and a stack of textbooks. Thankfully, the academic year is coming to an end, and the teachers are being a little easier with homework—but a lot more strict with in-class tests. So instead of spending hours on home tasks, Romeo and I usually go through various topics after dinner.

Matteo joins us a few minutes later, and Romeo repeats to him everything that happened today at school—I already heard it all on the way back home—with his mouth full of sweet potatoes. It looks adorable, and I share a few chuckles with Matteo, our hands involuntarily touching whenever we turn to each other. He even wraps his arm around my waist when he puts his plate in the sink, but I shush him and he quickly pulls his hand away.

Yeah, so we haven’t really told Romeo about, you know, the shift in our relationship. We decided to take it slow because what if something goes wrong? It would break Romeo’s heart—if he accepted our relationship in the first place. So for now, we keep quiet about it, and Matteo keeps his hands to himself for the rest of dinner before retreating back to his office while Romeo and I open the textbooks.

“Miss Liss,” Romeo says sometime later, after we’re done with science but not yet started on grammar. He’s chewing his lips, staring down at his knees, and it means he’s really thinking about what he wants to say.

“Yes?” I encourage him with a smile after he says nothing for a long moment. “Do you want to tell me something?”

He shakes his head.

“Do you want to ask me something?”

He nods.

“Well, go ahead, I’m not gonna bite you,” I say with a chuckle, gently nudging him with my elbow, and Romeo visibly gathers himself for the question before looking at me.

---