Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“We’ll see later, Tallon,” Giovani chuckled, sipping his coffee. “But we need to eat before we go. You all are still growing, after all.”
“I’m not,” I snorted, biting into my strawberry marmalade-covered muffin. “I stopped growing when I was sixteen. I’m just always going to be short.”
“But you’re our shortie,” Tallon batted his eyelashes at me, teasingly.
“Yeah, yeah, mister almost six feet tall,” I snapped, pathetically.
In truth, I didn’t care about my height. It made things inconvenient to reach stuff on high shelves, but what did that matter? I had the three of them to grab things off the shelves for me.
“I think it’s cute,” Giovani smiled, sending a flutter of butterflies straight to my heart.
If I didn’t have feelings for him, I’d assume I was having heart palpitations with the way my heart raced.
I blushed, not saying anything to that. I heard him chuckle as I took a silent bite of my muffin. Alessandro sent me a suspicious glance, still watching the two of us intently.
It was uncomfortable to feel like I was being watched all the time, and I shifted in my seat as the four of us finished breakfast in silence.
Tallon was the first to break it as he rattled on and on about the local sports teams. I remembered he was into sports when he was young–always too active to stay still.
Giovani kept up with him, surprisingly, a smile on his lips as he finished off his coffee. It took Alessandro’s attention off me too as they discussed a local football team. I’d never been into sports, so most of what they said flew right over my head.
At least it gave me a chance to devour the rest of my breakfast in peace.
I drank my coffee, relaxed with a full belly by the time they were finished discussing the sports teams.
“We should probably get going soon,” Giovani said as he stood up from the table. “Tallon, Alessandro, get dressed.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tallon mock-saluted him as he got to his feet, but Alessandro was less than pleased. He crossed his arms, unhappily, glaring at his older cousin.
“We’re not children,” Alessandro snapped. “And we don’t take orders from you.”
“Yes, we do!” Tallon called out as he headed out of the kitchen and Giovani smirked, triumphantly.
I laughed into my drink at Tallon’s antics. Nothing had changed since we were kids. Alessandro was still prickly, and Tallon was still a jokester.
Alessandro stubbornly stayed in his seat, glaring at Giovani as if daring him to move first. I was lucky Giovani didn’t play these kinds of games. He simply raised an eyebrow questioningly and then shook his head as he followed Tallon out.
Alessandro stood up in a hurry, his chair squeaking across the floor as he watched intently as Giovani walked away without a single care.
He ground his teeth together and I sighed, disappointed with his actions.
“You know, you could be a little nicer to him.” I frowned. “He is letting you stay here rent-free, you know. Plus, you’re cousins. Can’t you get along?”
“Don’t meddle, Olivia,” Alessandro snapped. “You don’t know him. He’s different than you think he is.”
I flinched as he stormed out so fast his bar stool hit the kitchen floor with a clatter. He just ignored it as he went after Giovani.
I sighed, putting my plate in the sink and picking up the bar stool after him. I wasn’t his mother or nanny, but I still felt like I had to pick up after him.
Maybe Dahlia was right, and I could be a push-over sometimes. I climbed the stairs to head back to my room, and when I turned the hallway, I spotted Alessandro at the end of it, stepping into a room that very much wasn’t his own. The door shut behind him, leaving me alone. I blinked, confused and unsure of what I had just seen.
Did Alessandro just enter Giovani’s room?
What was he getting at here? Was he trying to bother Giovani? And what did he mean that he was different than I thought?
I was torn between thinking Alessandro was being dramatic and wondering whether there were still family secrets I had yet to discover. It wouldn’t have surprised me in the least.
As much as I liked him, Giovani was still very much a mystery to me. It felt like with every step I took to know him, there were two more questions it brought up.
Alessandro could be on to something. Maybe I didn’t know Giovani as well as I thought I did. But that didn’t mean I was going to stop trying.
Whatever their problem was, it had nothing to do with me, and I was tired of trying to get in between them. If Alessandro wanted to act like a jerk, I wasn’t going to stop him.
I huffed as I headed back to my room, shutting the door loudly behind me.
They were both big boys. They could handle themselves.
*Giovani*
The minute I left, I heard the clattering of one of the stools hitting the floor. If I had three guesses as to who it was, all of them would’ve been the same name.
I heard his footsteps following me, and he didn’t even bother to hide it with how loud his stomps were coming up the stairs. I entered my room and glanced down the hallway.
Alessandro was following me, just as I suspected. I didn’t even bother closing my door, letting it swing open as I entered.
“Close the door behind you,” I called out to him as I dropped into one of the chairs by my bed. No doubt this was going to take a while.
Alessandro did as I asked, and I heard the door shut much quieter than I thought he would. It was expensive wood, so I would’ve beaten his ass if he’d scratched it up.
“What do you need?” I cut straight to the point, not in the mood for any of his nonsense.
Alessandro didn’t look at me. He slowly moved across the floor, the boards creaking underneath his shoes as he paced around. There was a blank look on his face like he hadn’t been the one to follow me into my own room.
I sighed, waiting patiently as I tapped my fingers along the armrests in the chair. Alessandro took his sweet time as he looked around my room like it was more interesting than it was.
Olivia had called it orderly and put together, but in my eyes, it was just basic–what I needed and nothing more.
It felt empty in a way.
Before Olivia, every time I’d come home, my room was just a place to sleep. Having been spoiled with her in my bed, it felt wide and lonely without her.
Alessandro turned to me finally, a firm look in his eyes as he finally got to what he wanted to say.
“I think I’m going to stay a while,” he said casually. “I want to be a part of this life, so I want to ask for a position in the organization here.”
I clenched my jaw, having already expected this. It wasn’t like I didn’t want him around, but he had a real attitude lately and it was getting on my nerves.
So long as he could follow orders, I had no problem with it, but I couldn’t imagine him backing down and respecting me as the authority in the organization.
I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling like there was something else he wasn’t saying, but he only stood strong, completely open, and honest.
This felt too much like a show, but there was nothing else I could do.
