20: ZENON

It's been raining the last several days here on the island. Zee Zee wasn't too happy about that at first, but she eventually cheered up when both Dani and I agreed that she could have one of her friends spend the night with her at a time.

She's met a group of five girls, and they're usually crowded in our living room space, laughing about something, texting, or whispering. That's only when they're not stuffing their faces full of food.

Dani has been able to try out her new culinary skills on the girls, and they love everything that she's prepared so far.

When the girls aren't here, it's just Dani, Zee Zee, and me talking or playing games. We've successfully kept Dani off the internet and TV unless we're watching a movie together.

"Are you ready?" Zee Zee shouts, bouncing into the kitchen.

She's a ball of endless energy and brings sunshine wherever she goes. I love how well she and Dani are getting along. The daily check-in calls to Larisa have stopped.

Or at least I've stopped checking in with her. She can have her daughter check in all she would like, but I owe her nothing. I understood her fear initially, but I've done all I can to squelch that.

Zee Zee is safe and happy, and that's all she can ask for. There have been pictures of my daughter, myself, and Danica on the internet. There have been wild stories accompanying those pictures.

They have ranged from accusations about Dani and I kidnapping Zee Zee to stories that we ran off and eloped. I don't allow those stories to bother me. The only thing that bothered me was seeing my baby girl's image in the stories when I've done a wonderful job of protecting her image until now.

Even after the fiasco a few years ago, that man never obtained pictures of my daughter. This is a new thing altogether, especially now that one of the pictures that he took of Zee Zee has gone viral.

Images are all over the internet talking about how beautiful she is and whether she is going to be the next supermodel.

Those ideas are out the door, and I told her that the moment that she showed me the story. Thankfully, she hasn't said anything about wanting to be a model, and her interest is still in becoming an anesthesiologist.

"Almost, honey. Can you check to see if Dani's ready? I'm going to grab these last cans of soda to pack in the cooler, and I'll be ready."

"Okay," Zee Zee says, leaving the kitchen.

My phone rings, and I pull it out of my pocket to see that it's my friend, Mattia.

"Hello."

"Ciao!"

"Mattia! How's it going, man?"

"It's wonderful. I just wanted to check in on you. I saw that you were in the States, and I wanted to see if things were going well with you."

Laughing, I say, "Oh, you saw that I was in the States, huh? Well, I'm sure that whatever you saw didn't paint me in a positive light."

Chuckling, Mattia says, "No, it did not."

"Well, suffice it to say, my friend, I am actually doing better than I've ever been before."

"And Danica? I saw that she was involved in that little skirmish, too. I didn't realize that the two of you were back together."

"I wouldn't say that we're together, but I will say that we unexpectedly ran into each other."

"Unexpectedly?"

"Well, I was at her cottage, and she came here after being away for some time."

"Doesn't sound like you weren't expecting her to me. Are you sure that you didn't go there with hopes of seeing her?"

"Maybe I did. I don't know. I've been asking myself that a lot lately, too."

"I will never tell a man how to run his life, but after she hurt you that last time, you weren't in a good space for a long time. Do you remember that?"

"How could I forget, Mattia? I thank you for being there for me to this day. I don't know how to ever repay your kindness."

"You repay it by remaining whole and sane. Don't find yourself in the bottom of a bottle again."

"Never that."

"Do you still love her?"

"I love her more than life itself, Mattia. I just wish that I could get her to see it."

"Okay, well, if you ever need anything, you know where to find me. Make sure that when you return home, you drop by to see me."

"I will, meu amigo," I say. "Obrigado."

"You're welcome," Mattia replies.

I end the call as I stuff the final cans of soda into the overpacked cooler.

"I do, Zenon," I hear from behind me.

Standing, I spin around and see Danica walking slowly into the kitchen.

"You do what?"

"See that you love me more than anything. I feel your love for me, Z," she says, stepping forward and taking both my hands into hers.

I cup the sides of her face and brush a soft kiss against her lips.

"I am so grateful that you see me, Z. That you love me the way that you do. You and that precious girl of yours have been instrumental in my healing over the last couple of weeks. I love you, Zenon," she says, sparking my heart to life again.

"Come here, girl," I say, pulling her close to my body and brushing my lips against hers again.

Dani opens her mouth to mine and allows me entrance into her sweet mouth. My tongue brushes hers, and our lips are sealed together.

"Don't mind me at all, guys. I'm just going to take this and head on down to the beach with my friends," Zee Zee says from somewhere behind us.

I break the kiss and rest my forehead against Dani's. She squeezes her eyes closed tightly, bites her bottom lip, and giggles.

I sigh. Looking up, I see Zee Zee tugging the handle of the cooler from the kitchen. She smiles at me, gives me the thumbs up, winks, and leaves the kitchen.

"What am I going to do with that kid of mine?" I sigh.

"Love her," Dani says sweetly.

When the door bangs closed again, I sigh and say, "I think my kid approves of you."

"Good. I'm glad that she does."

"I know that you were greatly worried about that in the beginning, but I always told you that she would be okay."

"I know. It's just after that fiasco picking her up, and then the tabloid stories, and her face being planted all over social media—"

She stops speaking when she realizes what she's said and claps a hand over her mouth. Dani's hazel eyes go wide with regret, and then she winces.

"I just told on myself, didn't I?"

"Mm-hmm."

"I'm in lots of trouble, aren't I?"

"Mm-hmm."

"I wasn't trying to, but I wanted to check my messages to see if anything had come from my brother or my parents. And then I found myself on social media, and it was hard not to go down that rabbit hole."

I rub my thumb in circles around the right side of her lips.

"When did you see that?"

"Last week."

"How did you handle it?"

Squinting and looking down at the floor, I can tell she's searching her memory.

"Um, I think I was upset about it at first, but I remember that I prayed, showered, and went into the kitchen and cooked."

"Was that the night that you made the spinach ravioli, salad, and homemade garlic bread?"

"Yep," she says, popping her "p" at the end.

"Good for you. And then what did you do?" I ask, pressing my forehead against hers again.

"Then I went outside and meditated. And eventually, it washed off me."

"Good girl," I say in a low rumbly voice.

Her smile shoots me straight in the groin, and I have every urge to skip the beach and take her to my bed.

"I know what you're thinking," she says softly.

"You do?"

"Mm-hmm. But we have been doing so good. We're not about to break it now."

"Fuck," I grumble.

Dani pulls away from me and says, "Another cold shower for you tonight. In the meantime, your daughter and her friends are waiting for us to join them for the fireworks show."

I roll my eyes, but I let Dani tug my hand, leading me from the kitchen, out of the cottage, and down to the public part of the beach.

***

"She looks so happy, Zenon."

"She does," I say, watching my daughter with her new friends. "She never has difficulty forming friendships. I love that about her."

"Yeah, most girls her age are all about themselves, but Zee Zee is very selfless and concerned about others. Especially considering that she's an only child who travels the world."

"We try to keep her grounded as much as possible."

"What does her mother do for a living?"

"She doesn't do anything to earn a living. She's a spoiled mafia princess who enjoys traveling the world, spending a fortune, and partying with her friends."

"Mafia?"

"Yeah. Russian Mafia. The Volkovs."

Dani's eyebrows lift. "I've heard of them."

"They're very protective of family, and Larisa's father is even more protective of Zee. He'd kill himself before he allowed anything to happen to her."

"How old is Larisa?"

"Thirty-four."

"And she does all of that traveling and partying with a daughter in tow?"

"She travels and shops with Zee Zee a lot. The partying comes in whenever I have Zee Zee with me or if she's with either set of her grandparents."

"How can she possibly keep her grounded with the lifestyle she lives? I mean, that's one of the reasons that I haven't considered having children. I know that they don't need to be corrupted by the life that I've led."

"When I said that we keep her grounded, I meant myself and my parents," I say, shaking my head. "Thankfully, Zee Zee is who she is, so she sees through her mother's fa?ade. They travel most weekends, flying out on Fridays after Zee is out of school, and they travel every school break."

The sky begins to light up with the first displays of fireworks. A panorama of blues, reds, and whites starts the show, but within five minutes, a brilliant exhibition of greens, yellows, purples, and oranges is added to the basic colors.

Everyone oohs and aahs. A dog barks somewhere in the distance, and the wail of a baby crying can be heard not too far away.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asks with her eyes glowing in the dark.

I can barely take my eyes off her as I watch how mesmerized she is with the fireworks show. Her full lips part with a sigh, and her golden eyes compete with the night sky for dominance of my attention.

"Zenon?" she says, slowly turning her attention from the sky and back to me.

"Yes?"

Dani's eyes take me in, dropping to my lips and then back to my eyes. It's as if she can read my mind because she leans in toward me.

We don't touch. Only our lips pass by each other in the faintest trace. It's so light that I almost wonder if our lips touched at all.

The warmth of her breath, the scent of sunshine from her earlier romp on the beach, and the freesia fragrance of her shampoo tickle my nose.

I cup the back of her head and pull her closer wanting to make sure that I feel her this time, that we don't miss each other after all. I trace her lips with my tongue, and she releases a soft whimper that no one can hear over the thunderous explosions of the fireworks, except for me.

"I need you," she whispers against my lips.

"Maybe Zee will go to bed early," I say, trailing my kiss to her earlobe.

"Not just that way, Z. In so many ways, I need you in my life. You keep me afloat," she says.

"I know, babe. I know."

"Z, I've fallen so deeply in love with you," she says as her eyes fill with tears.

I kiss her deeply and passionately, knowing that I've always loved her. I never stopped.