Old Flame: Dante’s Story by Sam Mariano
Epilogue
Dante
If there’sone thing you can always count on at a party my brother is paying for, it’s that he will spare no expense and go completely overboard.
Today, we’re here for my niece Rosalie’s sixth birthday party. I know Rosalie is crazy for princesses, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when we stroll through the archway into the back yard and it looks like a fucking carnival is in town. Disney princesses have their own zones—Elsa is passing out snow cones, Belle is reading to a small group of children under a rose-adorned canopy, Tiana is hosting some kind of cooking class, and Ariel is set up by the pool showing a little girl a fork and inexplicably using it to brush a lock of her long red hair. Cinderella is all decked out in a ball gown, but she’s running around cleaning up after everyone, affecting a painfully cute voice and saying things like, “Oh, my, how did this mess get here? Better clean it up before Gus Gus finds it. He’ll get a tummy ache if he eats all this food.”
It is utterly ridiculous.
Beside me, I hear a gasp and a small hand clutches mine tightly. I look down at my daughter and see her eyes wide with wonder. “Daddy, look at all the princesses!” Tugging desperately on my hand, she attempts to drag me across the lawn. “Come on, come on!”
“Look, there’s a bounce house, too,” Colette points out, adjusting our fussy son on her shoulder and gently patting his back.
“And a unicorn!” Gia shrieks, releasing my hand and dashing toward a white pony decked out in purple flowers with a horn on its head. She stops after only a few feet though, looking around as if she can’t decide where to go first.
A familiar voice rings out, drawing my attention to the French doors leading out of the house and into the back yard. Mia approaches with a big smile on her face and a veggie tray in her hands. “You made it. We waited a few minutes, but the princesses—” She stops, looking down at Gia, then decides not to say whatever she had been planning to say. “Oh, look at this, we have another princess in attendance. I love your dress, Gia.”
Gia puffs up with pride and smiles. “Thanks! I picked it out myself.”
“You have excellent taste,” Mia assures her, bending down to match her height. “Would you like a carrot stick to munch on?”
“She doesn’t eat carrots,” I tell Mia, just before my daughter runs over and snatches a carrot stick off the tray like it’s a chocolate bar.
Mia smirks up at me. “She does for me.”
I shake my head at her. “Witch.”
“Thanks, Aunt Mia.” Gia takes a bite of the carrot stick, then looks around. “There’s so many princesses, I don’t know what one to pick.”
“Well, you don’t have to pick. They’re here all day, so you’ll have plenty of time to do everything. Tiana’s teaching us how to make her famous beignets, but the powdered sugar can be a little messy, so if you head there first, make sure to grab an apron so you don’t ruin your pretty dress, okay? Did you bring a swimsuit?”
Gia nods and points back at Colette. “My mommy has it.”
“Oh, good. You might get wet playing with Ariel, so maybe save that one for a little later since you’re dressed so nicely right now. Rapunzel is painting faces over by her tower, how about you start over there?”
“Yeah! Can I pet the unicorn, too?”
“Of course you can,” Mia says, glancing over at the unicorn. “Her name is Glimmer, she’s from Rosalie’s favorite book series. A little bit later, Glimmer is going to take kids on princess carriage rides around the driveway. Won’t that be fun?”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“Do unicorns usually pull carriages?” I inquire, earning a hard nudge and a dirty look from my wife.
“Let them enjoy the magic, you meanie.”
“You realize now the next party we throw her is going to be a massive disappointment, right?” I point out.
Smiling faintly as she surveys the massive back yard that Mia has transformed into a child’s wonderland, Colette tells me, “Maybe we should ask Mia to plan it.”
“Maybe I should stab myself in the eye with a hot poker.”
Colette shrugs. “You could pull off an eye patch. Like a hot pirate. Mmmm.”
Despite myself, I feel a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. I stifle it and wrap an arm around my wife’s waist, absently leaning over and kissing her temple.
Apparently furious that Colette and I are enjoying ourselves for a moment, our grumpy, teething son smacks me right in the head. I turn my head slowly and meet his gaze, a move that would make grown men shit themselves, but Marco just drools all over the offending fist. “Da da!”
“Aw, he didn’t mean it,” Colette lies, affectionately kissing the side of his head.
Marco grins at me victoriously, then bobs and turns his attention to his mom, starting to whine again.
“What’s wrong, baby?” she asks, swaying and kissing his head again. “Do your gums hurt?”
“Aunt Mia, come on,” my daughter prods. I look over to see her tugging on Mia’s free hand impatiently, eager to get her face painted.
“Just one second, honey, I want to say hi to your brother.”
Gia sighs and releases Mia’s hand, crossing her arms and scowling. Mia wanders over to Colette, who turns so Marco can see her.
“Hello there, you handsome little man,” Mia says, offering her finger for him to grab. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Boy, you got big!”
“He’s a little grump today,” Colette says apologetically.
“He must take after his daddy,” Mia jokes.
“He likes you; he certainly doesn’t get that from me,” I offer, dryly.
“Daddy, that’s not nice at all,” Gia informs me, arching her dark eyebrows in disapproval.
“Oh, he’s just kidding,” Mia assures Gia. Shaking her head, she tells Marco, “Your daddy’s so silly, isn’t he?”
No longer fussing, Marco grins at Mia and reaches for her.
“Do you mind?” she asks Colette quickly.
“God, no. He’s been fussy all day, please take my baby.”
Mia chuckles and unceremoniously shoves the veggie tray into my hand. I let go of Colette to steady it with my other one, narrowing my eyes at her as she takes my son in her arms.
Mia is referred to as the baby whisperer in our family because all babies—and children, but it’s more obvious with the babies—love her. As soon as Marco gets close enough to his favorite aunt, he squeezes her neck in his version of a hug and leaves an open-mouthed slobber kiss right on her cheek.
“Aw, I’m happy to see you, too,” she says, hugging him back. “You want to go see your uncles? Give Mommy a break for a few minutes?”
“Are you sure?” Colette asks. “You’re hosting a party; you shouldn’t have to babysit, too.”
Mia waves her off. “Please, I have tons of help with the party and I’m accustomed to juggling babies. Go, enjoy yourselves. Are you hungry? I’ll show you to the food table.”
“You’ll have to, since apparently I’m in charge of the veggie tray,” I tell her.
Mia kisses Marco’s head in the same motherly way Colette does, then reaches down, reclaiming Gia’s hand, and beckons us to follow after her. Colette takes advantage of her free arms and wraps one around my waist, leaning into me as we walk.
“I think this party’s going to be fun,” she tells me.
“Mm hmm,” I remark, unconvinced.
“I can’t stop picturing you as a sexy pirate now,” she adds, her tone a little lower. “I want to sneak off and do naughty things with you.”
I change my hold on the veggie tray and sling an arm around her shoulders. “Well, this house does have a ton of spare rooms.”
“I didn’t bring a spare blouse, though,” she teases.
“Take one of Mia’s. She’ll never notice it missing.”
Once we reach the food table, I add the veggie tray to the impressive array of snacks already assembled. No matter how picky the eater, there’s something for every kid to devour on this table.
Nodding her head toward the poolside patio, she tells us, “There’s a bartender serving adult beverages over there.” Glancing down at Gia, she asks, “Are you thirsty? Should we stop and get some pink lemonade on the way to Rapunzel’s tower?”
Gia nods her head, but her eyes are glued to the unicorn. “Can I meet Glimmer on the way?”
“Sure,” Mia says easily, leading us over to the white pony.
Tugging on Colette’s waist to slow her down, I ask, “Why are we still following her?”
Colette’s dark eyebrows rise. “You think I’m not going to take a picture of Gia with a unicorn? Have you met me?”
I roll my eyes. “For Christ’s sake, it’s a pony in a costume.”
She swats me in the stomach again for trying to ruin the magic and we continue over to the damned unicorn. Rosalie is over there right now, brushing the pony and talking to it. Her gaze drifts to us as we approach and she slowly stops grooming the animal.
“Hi Uncle Dante, hi Aunt Colette. Thanks for coming to my birthday party.”
Not even giving us a chance to respond, Gia breaks away from Mia and approaches the pony, gazing up at it like it really is a magical creature. “I can’t believe you got a unicorn at your house. Is it yours?”
Rosalie shakes her head. “No, she belongs to Princess Bella. Mama said she was just letting Glimmer visit today for a surprise for my birthday.”
“Who’s Princess Bella? You mean your big sister?”
“No, not her.” Rosalie hops down off her stepping stool and lifts her floor-length, giant, poofy purple dress. She makes her way over to a basket full of books and grabs one. Bringing it back to Gia, she says, “Here you go, you can meet her in this book. We ordered a lot of copies of book one to give away so other kids can read about Glimmer now that they’ve met her.”
Gia flips over the book, inspecting the back. “Thanks.” She makes a beeline over to Colette and holds up the thin paperback. “Can you hold this for me?”
“Of course,” Colette says, taking the book and bending to stuff it in Marco’s diaper bag. She extracts a package wrapped in pink gift wrap while she’s at it and holds it up, looking at Mia. “Where should we put Rosalie’s gift?”
I have no idea what Colette got her. It’s hard as hell to shop for Mateo’s kids. They already have everything imaginable, and some things no sane person would ever imagine.
Mia holds out her free hand. “I’ll drop it off on the way to the tower.”
Things that can only be said at my brother’s house. Colette makes me hold the diaper bag while she takes a dozen pictures of the girls in various poses around the unicorn. A brunette woman with a big camera hanging around her neck comes over and snaps a couple photos of them. Mia assures me it’s the photographer, like that’s a normal thing to have at a children’s birthday party, then she and Colette talk about the birthday scrapbook Mia’s going to make.
After promising to send Colette copies of the photographs with Gia in them, Mia hauls both of my children away to the newly erected gray tower my brother had built in his back yard. I love the hell out of my little family, but I still think it’s crazy how much Mateo does to please his wife and kids. A far cry from our childhood, that’s for fucking sure.
As we walk away, Colette hugs my waist again and murmurs, “I can’t believe he built her a tower for her birthday. I mean, plenty of kids get a tree house or a play house in the back yard, but Rapunzel’s tower?”
“He’s fucking crazy. He had to bribe the chairman of the zoning board to get special approval just to build that fucking thing.” I look around until I find the bloated bastard I spotted a minute ago. “Right there at that table, that’s the chairman and his wife. Their three kids are probably running around here somewhere. Bet he really thinks he’s something now, being invited to Mateo Morelli’s house like they’re friends.”
“Oh, stop. I think it’s sweet Mateo went to all that trouble just to make his girls happy. I like seeing him finally settled and happy. You’re right, though, the bar has definitely been raised. Gia’s going to think we’re the worst parents ever if we don’t get her something really good this year. It might be time for a puppy.”
“Goddamn Mateo,” I mutter.
---
After a long dayand way too much sugar, Gia crashes on the couch curled up beside me. It was supposed to be my night to put Marco to bed, but Colette didn’t want to wake Gia up, so she took him up instead.
When she comes back, she curls up on my other side and rests her head against my chest. “What a long day. I’m beat.”
“That was entirely too long to spend with that many children,” I agree. My brother has enough children to fill a party all by himself, but adding in all the guests they had, it was a fucking tiny human zoo.
Colette nods, absently rubbing my thigh. “I think when we have Gia’s birthday party, we’ll keep it at four hours.” Tilting her head to look up at me, she says, “Unless of course you’re planning to surprise her with a tower.”
“Definitely not.”
“A life-sized pirate ship? She’s very into pirates right now.”
“I think you’re confused about which Morelli you married. I’m Dante, not Mateo. I might buy her a puppy, but I’m not going to commission part of a castle.”
With mock disappointment, she says, “Clearly you just don’t love us enough.”
I squeeze her in the side right where I know she’s ticklish. She laughs and squirms to get away from me. I stop when I feel Gia stirring. Colette claps a hand over her mouth, but Gia just snuggles up, puts her hands under her face, and stays asleep.
“Oops,” Colette whispers.
“That’s what you get for saying ridiculous things,” I state.
“Well, while I’m saying things you won’t like, I might as well tell you: I did ask Mia to help me plan Gia’s birthday party.”
I blink at her. “You’re kidding.”
She shakes her head. “I’m not. I know she’s not your favorite person—”
“That is a massive understatement. Want me to crunch the numbers and tell you how much her existence in our lives has cost me? I could build a fucking castle with that much money.”
Holding up a hand to stop me, she says, “But I don’t care. You saw the party she threw for Rosalie, you’ve seen all the parties she has planned over the years; she’s good at it. Your quibbles with her in the past aside, there’s no reason not to let her make Gia’s birthday as much fun as Rosalie’s was. I even told Mia we don’t have her budget to blow on a party, and she told me if we go over budget, she’ll pay for it. She’s throwing the party, she’s even helping foot the bill, so… there’s no acceptable reason for you to say no.”
“I strongly disagree.”
She shrugs. “It’s happening anyway. Suck it up, buttercup.”
“I can’t believe this. You’re selling me down the river for some fucking snow cones.”
“Mm.” She rests her head on my shoulder and bats her eyelashes at me. “They were really good snow cones.”
“This is some bullshit. You’re gonna have to work pretty hard to make this up to me, Mrs. Morelli.”
“Oh, yeah?” she asks, with interest. “What’d you have in mind?”
“Nothing I can put into words with our daughter in the room,” I tell her. “Seems to me you need a reminder of who the boss is in this family.”
Playfully tapping her finger against her chin, she looks up at me and pokes the fucking beast. “Mateo?”
I know she’s just fucking with me, but my hackles rise, regardless. “Oh, all right. I see how it is.”
“Do you? Do you see how it is?”
Fisting a hand in my wife’s hair and tugging her head back to force her gaze to mine, I tell her, “Seems to me, you’re looking to get your little ass beat.”
Her blue eyes heat with unrestrained desire. “Among other things.”
I pull her close for a crushing, brutal kiss. Her mouth softens and she kisses me back hungrily, twisting and turning until she’s on her knees with her arms wound around my neck, trying to pull me closer.
I need both hands to take this any further, so regretfully, I break away from my wife’s hungry kiss. “I’m gonna carry Gia up to bed, then we’re gonna continue this.”
Settling back against the couch with a soft smile, she says, “I’ll be waiting.”
I carefully move away from my daughter, scooping her up in my arms and catching her heavy, sleepy head against my chest. Her long, dark curls bounce gently as I carry her up the stairs, but she’s so worn out from the party that she stays asleep.
Her room is dark and despite being told to several times, she didn’t clean up her toys before we left for my brother’s house this afternoon. I have to walk carefully to get to her bed without tripping over any of her shit, but I make it. Shifting her in my arms and cradling her against my chest, I pull back her blankets so I can tuck her underneath them.
I had to move her too much, so when I pull the blankets up to tuck her in, she’s stretching her little arms over her head, looking up at me with her big, brown eyes.
“Hi, Daddy,” she murmurs, sleepily.
“Hi, baby,” I say, leaning forward and kissing her on the forehead. “You fell asleep on the couch, I was just bringing you up to bed. Go back to sleep.”
“But what about my bedtime story?” she asks.
“You’re sleepy. How about two bedtime stories tomorrow night instead?”
She shakes her head at me. “I’m not too tired for a bedtime story.”
I cast a glance back at the door, thinking of my horny wife waiting downstairs. Then I look back at my daughter, and she gives me her biggest, most innocent puppy dog eyes.
Sighing heavily, I stand and stalk over to turn on her light. “Fine. A quick one,” I stipulate.
“Yay!” she says, clapping her hands together. “I wanna read the unicorn book Rosalie gave me at the party.”
“I said a quick one. That’s a chapter book,” I tell her.
Utilizing the knack for getting her way with me that she clearly inherited from her mother, she tells me, “You’re smart, Daddy, I bet you can read really fast.”
“Oh, you little manipulator, you.”
Cocking her head in confusion, she says, “I don’t know that word.”
“Yes, you do,” I say wryly, walking over to her dresser. I grab the chapter book Colette put there and make my way back to Gia’s bed, taking a seat on the edge. “Only one chapter,” I tell her, sternly.
Gia nods her head obediently. “Yes, Daddy. Only one chapter.”
Two chapters later, Gia is tuckered out and struggling to hold her eyes open, so she is too exhausted to beg me for a third. I put the book down on her nightstand and lean down to give her another kiss.
“You get some sleep,” I tell her.
“Mm, night night, Daddy,” she mumbles, rolling over and tossing an arm around the stuffed puppy toy she sleeps with each night.
I turn out Gia’s light and check on Marco real quick to make sure he’s asleep. Last thing I need is the baby monitor interrupting all the filthy shit I plan to do to my wife as soon as I get back downstairs.
Marco is passed out, his pacifier on the bed beside him, his chubby fingers clutching the soft, crunchy spider toy he likes to squeeze when he’s trying to fall asleep. A wave of contentment washes over me and I reach into the crib, lightly running the backs of my fingers along the side of his face.
“G’night, buddy,” I whisper, even though he can’t hear me.
Now that the kids are both settled, I can finally go back downstairs and enjoy the woman who made my life what it is. I lick my bottom lip, still tasting her. I envision her surprising me by already being naked when I get back to the living room, saving me a little work and having that beautiful body of hers on display as soon as I walk in.
Instead, I walk into the living room and find her fully dressed, passed out on the arm of the couch, holding onto a decorative pillow.
I sigh loudly, hoping she’s barely asleep and that’ll be enough to rouse her.
It’s not.
I stand there and watch her for another minute, hoping she’ll wake up, but she’s completely out. Finally, I give up. I do my bedtime routine and check all the locks to make sure the house is secure, then I shut off the lights. I hit the living room light last, then I approach my drowsy wife and pry the pillow away from her.
She mutters at me incoherently, something about sheep. She says the weirdest shit when she’s half-asleep. I shake my head at her and pick her up, pulling her against me and carrying her up the stairs to our bedroom. I kick the door shut on the way in, but don’t bother turning on the lights. I put her down on the bed and undress her in the dark. I give this woman every chance in the world to wake up, but she doesn’t.
Resigned to going to sleep with a case of blue balls, I undress myself and then climb into bed. Colette is sleeping on her side with her back to me, so I reach over and drag her back against me. A soft, sleepy, contented sigh slips out of her and brings a little smile to my face.
“Are you awake, beautiful?”
No response. I wait another few seconds and when she doesn’t answer, I finally close my eyes. It has been a long day, and I’ve got an early morning tomorrow, so it doesn’t take long until I’ve just about joined my wife in sleep.
That’s when her hand snakes back and brushes my hip. That’s when she wiggles her little ass against my cock and whispers, “Thought you were gonna teach me a lesson.”
Oh, this woman.
I’m gonna teach her a lesson, all right.
I know she expects me to grab her and handle her roughly, so instead, I lean forward and tenderly kiss my way along the back of her neck. A faint noise of surprise slips out of her, then she leans her head forward to give me more space to work. I move her hair aside, letting it tickle her skin as I do. I run the blunt tip of my finger lightly along the curve of her neck. I drag my lips lower, kissing my way across her bare shoulder, then I finally take a fistful of her dark hair in my hand and tug her head to the side. She’s so soft and pliant, so aroused she’s willing to be my puppet, if that’s what I’m in the mood for. As I kiss my way up the side of her neck, I murmur lowly, “Who’s your king, Colette?”
Already breathless from my sensual assault, she sighs and whispers, “You are, Dante.”
“Damn right, I am.” I yank my beautiful wife underneath me, climbing on top of her and looking down into her perfectly flushed face. “And don’t you forget it.”
Smiling softly, all the love in the world right there in her eyes, she reaches up and cradles my face in her hand. “Never.”
