Kissing The Moon Goodbye - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Forty Eight

Kate

"You are three days early!"

"I've missed her." He insisted.

"You're making me out to be the bad guy here. If I say no then I'm the asshole keeping a father from his daughter, daughter from loving father, but if I say yes than I'm negligent mother who never sees her daughter and pawns her off every chance she can get!"

"You're reading too much into this. I've just come for a visit."

"Oh I'm so sure."

"I'll bring her back tonight."

"No, you'll watch a movie after dinner and then it'll be so late you figure she might as well just stay!"

"Her uncle is visiting." He sighed.

Finally, some honestly. "Sergio? How long have you known he was coming up for? A week? Two weeks? A month?" I asked and could tell by his expression it had been even longer. "You should have told me. I don't mind altering our agreement for occasions but a heads up would be great!"

I turned around to continue my task of cleaning up toys, I picked up a stuffed animal, a doll Donato had chewed up but Charlie had refused to part with, and a wand and put them in the basket under my arm. "Honestly Alessio sometimes you can be so unfair. How long did you want her for then? Tonight? Until it's your day? Until it's mine again? That's almost a whole week?!"

He took the basket from me and picked up a car and Ken doll and added to it. "You've taken her on vacation before. A whole week without seeing me. I've never had her for more than a few days."

"Yeah but - that's different." Now he was talking about a whole week? I couldn't go a whole week without seeing my daughter! The weekends alone were already torture, when she left, no matter how many times she had left before, no matter what plans we had for the weekend, I always felt myself lost. It was like I sat down and said now what? Only to find no answer.

"The last time they saw her she was barely walking."

I groaned and pulled the basket back as he filled it with the last of the toys. "I never said they couldn't see her, I just don't like the idea of not seeing her for that long." I dropped the basket and gave it a kick so it slid across the floor into its designated corner.

"So come with her. You've always been welcome, you know that."

"That's...that's inappropriate." I countered.

He took a step forward and put and hand through the back of my hair. "You've cut your hair again." He mused. It was so short I could barely muster a pathetic pigtail. "Feeling restless are you Katherine?"

I raised my chin as though his hand running through my hair didn't give me chills. "No."

"It grows and grows and grows as you feel comfortable and when you need a change off it goes."

I swatted his hand away. "It's just hair Alessio."

"You're bored Katherine. You thought you wanted this life but I have taught you more. You've seen passion and danger, felt the adrenaline and power, you can't escape that feeling, you crave more."

"You don't know a thing about me anymore. I've been blessed beyond my means, we are comfortable, financially and emotionally. My daughter is well loved and healthy, everything is as it should be."