The Babysitter (BWWM)

xix

"What are you two doing?" I hadn't even noticed him walk in. Cami looked over the bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough as if it would run away, wiping excess dough off her fingers.

"Wha- you weren't supposed to be home for another hour." I said. "We wanted to surprise you."

"Yeah, I closed up early. It was a slow day. Figured they could all just go home." My head cocked to the side.

"You own the shop? You never told me that, I thought you only worked there." His eyebrows furrowed, seemingly thinking up a way to cover for his previous statement.

"Uh, yeah. I thought I told you." He smiled, putting his bag down and picking up his daughter from the countertop.

"How about you go take a long shower and we'll finish up in here?" Lorenzo kisses Cami's head and my lips before retreating up the stairs. I huffed. "We need to get you cleaned up."

She hops down, but hesitates. "You need something baby?" Camila motions me to her. "Yes?" I ask, crouching down to her height. To my surprise, she hugs me. Tight.

"I love you mommy." My breath hitched. She ran off. I swallowed hard and immediately went back to cleaning.

Hours later, I'm sitting on the bed, rubbing my temples. Cami needs to have that 'mommy' talk with her father. In all honesty, I'm not ready to have that talk with her father.

Camila was exhausted today, so as I cleaned up, Lorenzo gave her a bath and put her to sleep. He walks into the room with a towel around his waist, showing his V-line, with his hair still slightly wet. My eyes are too focused on the line of dark hair disappearing behind the towel to realize that he had been talking.

He snapped his fingers, gaining my attention, before crossing his arms again. "I said, when were you going to tell me that Camila called you 'mommy'?" My mouth fell open.

"Whaaaat? Wow. I didn't even-"

"Stop playing dumb, Gabriella. We both know you're not an idiot. When the fuck were you going to tell me?" Although the rasp in his voice almost made me clench my thighs together, my eyebrows furrowed. I don't think he's ever cursed at me.

"I'm sorry. I was kind of stunned. I didn't know how to process it."

"You should've told me hours ago." He gritted. "I didn't think we would need to have that conversation but the least you could've done was give me a heads up. You need to be honest with me."

"I'm the one that needs to be honest?" I scoffed, "You own a whole shop and didn't even think to tell me. Do you own the bar too? You have two jobs, take a bunch of days off, and still maintain this big house. Something here is off, Lorenzo. Are you dealing drugs or something?"

"Am I dealing- do you know how dumb that sounds?!"

"Well it's the only plausible answer as to why you can afford all of this!" He paused and ran a hand down his face. Sitting on the bed next to me, he huffed and took my hands into his, rubbing the back of them with his thumb.

"Listen carefully because this is a long story. My mother came to America when she was twenty-two. She had already had Maggie a year before in Italy. She rented a shack behind a family's house. Until she got a job as a maid in the Giovanni house."

"Wait isn't that-" he put a hand over my mouth.

"Shush. Marc Giovanni took an interest in her. He was thirty-eight. It wasn't until later that she found out he was arranged to be married as part of a business deal. He got married and the wife saw the way he looked at my mother from time to time. She kicked my mother out, not knowing she was three months pregnant.