CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

ARIES

Knowing your time is limited changes things, it makes you appreciate every minute you've got with the people you love before you'll be separated again. I sit at the dining room table, with a vase of blue dahlias in the middle, and several pieces of artwork on the side. Our son's art is everywhere in this house. Straight ahead is the open concept kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a cream-colored granite island. I'm drinking my coffee while Dalia plays sous chef for Ares, who decided he wanted to cook breakfast for me. I don't generally eat breakfast. In the last decade, I think the only other time I did was in Vegas, when Dalia was my wife. I'm not really hungry but when my kid asked if he could make me breakfast, there was no way I was going to turn that down.

They laugh constantly as Ares mixes the pancake batter, and Dalia gets the hot food ready. She's a loving mother and gives him everything he needs. How she did it alone for six years, I'll never understand, but that's just Dalia, I guess. Watching them together is one of my favorite things to do, but it does cause the guilt to compound. I frequently wonder, if she had her mother, what their relationship would be like.

My father, Vincent Lombardi, yeah not the football player, wasn't a good man in any way. He was a shit husband that spent his years cheating on my mother. He thought it was his right as a man, and the breadwinner, and she should keep her mouth shut about it. Dad was very much a ‘if I want your opinion, I'll give it to you', kind of man. And had I agreed we should help the De Lucas, I would've paid the price for that. I guess the guilt comes in because I didn't even consider it. I know now that we should have intervened and saved that family. Saved Dalia from the pure hell she went through. I was only twenty at the time, and I had no clue what the future had in store for me.

"What else do we need?" Dalia asks and Ares excitedly yells, "Orange juice. You have to have orange juice with breakfast."

She hands him a glass of orange juice, "Bring that to Aries, but be careful, it's glass."

"I'll bring the food in," she says and he complains, "I have to bring it."

After bringing me my drink, he returns to the kitchen to get the plate, and she narrows her gaze at him, "Be careful with this."

I tilt my head at Dalia, "If something gets broken, I'll clean it up, no big deal. Let him bring it."

She nods but says quietly, "These are my mother's plates. Were. One of the few things I have left of her."

Again, the guilt cuts like a sharp blade in my chest.

"I'll be careful, Mommy, you'll see," Ares says with confidence.

Touching him affectionately on the head, she smiles down at him, "I know you will be."

Gripping the plate in two hands, he carries it slowly to me and sets it in front of me, "Breakfast is served," he giggles and it hits me. He looks like me, he has the same hair, dark eyes, and that lopsided grin that I've hated for my entire life. His laugh is all Dalia, as is the way his eyes sparkle when he's happy. Our child is the perfect combination of the two of us.

I start eating with Ares staring at me, waiting for a reaction to the food.

"Do you like it?" He asks, ready to burst.

I nod as I chew my bite of pancakes, after swallowing I say, "It's delicious. You could be a chef if you wanted, I told you, you can do anything you set your mind to."

"My brothers will be here in a few hours."

I wink at Dalia, "Looking forward to it."

She bites her lip to stifle a giggle, "I'm sure they'll be equally excited to see you."

After we finish eating, Ares asks me, "Can we play catch?"

I nod, "In a few minutes. I'm going to do the dishes, since you and mom cooked breakfast."

Getting up, I stack the plates and carry them into the kitchen, and start my manly task. Dalia comes up behind me, wraps her arms around my waist, pressing her face against my back, she murmurs, "This might be the hottest thing you've ever done."

I hum, "Mmm, does that mean I get a treat of ice cream later?"

She giggles against my back, "I don't even think you like ice cream, you just like torturing me."

"You aren't wrong, baby. I do enjoy watching you squirm and, fuck, hearing you beg is probably my favorite thing."

When I hear the back door shut, I panic, "He's outside by himself?"

She giggles, "He's fine. We have security out there."

I rinse off my hands and turn to face her, "Since when? I've never seen them."

Dalia rolls her eyes at me, "That's the point, Aries. They stay out of sight, but they are there. Trust me, they will not let anything happen to Ares. We're safe here."

"Why did you name him after me, if I wasn't going to be around?"

Tilting her head back, she gazes at me with a small smile on her lips, "I'm not sure, honestly. I think it was my way of holding on to some piece of you."

Her smile turns to a frown as she admits, "You might think it was easy for me to tell my brothers to get you out of the house. That it was easy for me to turn my back on you, but Aries, it wasn't. It broke me."

I cup her cheeks with my damp hands, "I'm sorry, I should've told you. Hurting you will always be my biggest regret, along with doing nothing to save you from what you endured."

Dalia wraps her arms around my waist, "It wasn't your responsibility, and you weren't the head anyway, you couldn't have done anything. Your father was the only one that could've made that decision."

I shake my head in disgust, "I don't know that he would've done anything if it was my mother and sister. If he did, it would only have been to not show weakness. There was no way he would have helped a rival family."

Rising to her toes, she kisses me softly, "I don't blame you, Aries, so stop blaming yourself. It happened, I lived through it. Do I hate that I lost my mom? Yes, but you couldn't have prevented that from happening. You were as powerless as I was. The only thing I wish you had done differently is told me. We've both made mistakes. Every day I wish I had told you about Ares. We can't go back, so we'll just have to move forward."

Leaning down, I take a moment to feast on her delicate neck. Fuck, I need to find a way to take this scent home with me.

"Aries," she moans, as I suck on the spot just below her ear that drives her insane.

I whisper into her ear, "I'm going to take a pair of your panties with me when I leave."

She giggles, "I don't think they'll fit."

I'm sure my woman thinks I'm joking, but I assure you, I'm not.

"I want to be able to smell your delicious little pussy, while I fist my cock thinking about you. The videos won't be enough anymore."

"What videos?"

I swallow hard because we are about to get into a fight, probably a massive one, and I leave tomorrow. This is not how I want to walk away from her for probably at least a few weeks.

"I love you."

She narrows her gaze at me, "I don't think so, Mr. Lombardi. What videos?"

Crinkling her nose with obvious displeasure, she says, "You videotape your fucks?"

I chuckle softly, "No, Dalia. There are cameras in my bedroom but normally they aren't on, and you were never just a fuck. It took me a while to figure it out, but I think I fell in love with you in that damn bar."

With a sexy little smirk, she says, "Are you going soft on me, Aries?"

I nip at her bottom lip and growl, "You can tell me if I've gone soft while I have you tied to the bed tonight, fucking you so hard you won't be able to walk straight."

Giggling, she says, "I know a certain part of you has not gone soft. What are you going to do to get that monster to go down?"

I bite her ear, "Not what I'd like to do. Instead I'll think about baseball. I've heard that works. Now, come on sexy little cheerleader. I'm going to play catch with our boy."

Dalia takes my hand as we walk out back, to find Ares playing on the slide. I glance at my gorgeous woman, "He needs a treehouse."

"Why?"

I shrug my shoulders because I don't have a real answer to that, "Every boy needs a treehouse. Maybe girls too."

She arches an eyebrow, "If you think you'll give him this idea when you're leaving, and make it my responsibility to build it, you better not."

I lean down and whisper in her ear, "You think I'd let you risk hurting those dainty little hands, that wrap so beautifully around my cock, baby? No. I will bring the supplies with me next time I'm here, and I'll build it. Ares can help."

I kiss her on the cheek and then yell to our son, "Come on. Show me your mad skills."

Halfway through playing catch he gets a melancholy look on his face, so I walk over to him and squat down, "Something bothering you?"

He nods slightly but doesn't tell me why he's upset.

"Ares, remember what we talked about? You can tell me anything."

So quiet it's nearly inaudible, he admits, "You're leaving tomorrow and-"

"And what?"

A little tear rolls down his cheek and fucking guts me, when he says, "I don't think you're coming back."

I stare at his sad little face, and attempt to swallow past the lump in my throat, "What makes you think that?"

He shrugs his tiny shoulders, "Maybe you don't like me."

"You're my son, of course I like you. I love you, and I promise I'll be back in three weeks, and do you know what we're going to do?"

"What?"

I smile at him, "We are going to build a treehouse."

"Just us?" He asks hopefully.

Nodding, I chuckle, "Just us. And then we'll camp out in the treehouse."

My little boy excitedly jumping into my arms, and wrapping his tiny arms around my neck, decimates me. My heart is breaking. It's been such a short time since I found out I have a son, and the thought of not seeing his little face everyday cuts. The emotion nearly swallows me whole, and I know leaving tomorrow will be the hardest thing I ever have to do.