Page 5 of Undeniable

He takes a healthy step away from me before turning to Alessandro. “Alright, I have to get going. I will try to be home before bed. I love you.”

“Love you papa,” Alessandro says softly before he focuses back on his breakfast.

Giovanni gives him a tight smile, his eyes filled with concern that he quickly dismisses before turning back to me. “I should be back around 5PM. If I am late, I will pay you for any extra time, of course.”

“Oh uh, sure. No problem. Have a good day at work,” I say with a soft smile and an awkward wave.

Giovanni gives me a tight smile, his eyes searching me. For what I am not too sure, but he soon walks out of the room, opening then closing the front door. I turn around to Alessandro, wearing a tentative smile.

“So, what do you want to do today?”

He shrugs as he hops off the stool and places his empty bowl into the sink.

“What do you like to do?” I try again.

“Play with Seraphina,” he answers simply.

“Okay…who is Seraphina?”

“Uncle Luc and Aunt Ashlynn’s daughter. She is my favorite.”

I smile. “Well, that is awesome. I don’t think we can play with her today though. What is your favorite thing to do when Becca watches you?”

He shrugs again. “She just leaves me alone.”

I furrow my brows. I am not an expert, but I feel like you should at least try to interact with the kid, right?

“Is that what you want me to do?” I ask.

He looks up at me for a moment before he shakes his head. I see something I recognize all too well in those big green eyes. Pain. I am not sure what pain someone so young could feel, but it looks raw and way too deep to be in such a small person’s eyes. I look out the window and see that it has started to rain so playing outside is out for the day.

“Have you ever built a fort?” I ask.

He furrows his brows. “What is that?”

I gasp in mock outrage. “Oh my gosh! How can you not know? Okay, that settles it. Go round up as many big blankets in the house as you can.”

He gives me a skeptical look before he slowly walks down the hallway, hopefully in search of blankets. I start arranging chairs in the living room so that they will hold the blankets up at the high points. My cousin and I used to do this all the time growing up. He practically lived at my house most of the time and we would transform my huge bedroom into one giant fort. It was some of the best memories I have as a child. I feel like anyone that hasn’t built a fort before is majorly missing out.

We spend the day building an elaborate fort that takes up the entire living room and even part of the kitchen. Alessandro’s logic was that then we wouldn’t have to leave the fort for snacks. I like the way this kid thinks.

He started to open up a little after we had finished the fort. His little eyes turned to the size of saucers when he saw it all constructed before he scrambled inside. I loved the feeling that I got in my chest when I saw the wonder across his face, knowing that I gave him that.

After watching The Lion King over and over again, he went to his room and brought down a bucket of Lego’s into the fort so that we could build villages to live in our fort kingdom. We had a few battles in our kingdom which he won every time, of course.

I never in a million years would have thought that I would enjoy hanging out with a 6-year-old all day, but it has honestly been one of the best days that I have had in a very long time. Not sure if that speaks to how many shitty days I have had over the last few years or how great this kid is. I like to think that it is the latter.

The day flies by and at 5PM on the dot I hear the front door open and close.

“Alessandro? Tasha?” Giovanni calls.

I pop my head up from one of the holes in the fort and see Giovanni looking at our masterpiece with a shocked expression.

“Hi,” I smile nervously.

“Hi. What is all of this?” He asks as he gestures to his torn apart living room. Before I can answer Alessandro pops his head out of the side.

“Look papa! A fort!” Alessandro shouts with a wide grin.

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