Page 37 of Days Of Valentino

Me:

I want whatever file you have on Kayleigh.

Dante replies straight away.

Dante:

Sent.

I’m going to drive my wife to campus, and then spend the day deep-diving into this woman who’s somehow captured my brother’s heart.

Episode Sixteen

Seeing your kid with a kid is something else. I honestly didn’t think I could love another person the way I love Katy and Orlando. And then along came Sebastian. The cutest and smartest fucking baby I’ve ever seen.

It’s not ideal to have your teenage son bring home a six-month-old and inform you that you’re a grandfather. Or in mycase, aglampa. I refuse to be fucking old, and I look way too damn good to be anything other than glamorous.

Sebastian’s tiny hands reach out to grab at my face before he lowers his head and tries to eat my nose.

“Nice try, bud. Not this time.” I lift him off the changing table, blowing raspberries on his bare stomach and making him laugh the sweetest little laugh, then set him down again. “Your papa used to love that too.” It really does seem like it was only yesterday that Orlando was this age. “If you can develop some kind of condition where you stay this size and this cute and innocent forever, Glampa would really appreciate it,” I tell Sebastian.

“Really, Pops, you’re wishing an illness on my son?” Orlando is standing just outside the nursery Katy had furnished with Aleeka’s help.

“Not at all. I just want to bottle him up and keep him like this.” I shrug, lifting Sebastian from the changing table and swinging him back into my arms.

“You should have woken me up,” Orlando says.

“Why?”

“Because I should be doing that.” He points to the table.

“Fuck off. We’re all here to help out. It takes a village to raise a child, Orlando. It doesn’t make you any less his father to accept help,” I remind him. I couldn’t be prouder of my son. Orlando has really stepped into his role of being a parent. Taken it on with stride. His only fault is thinking he needs to do everything alone. “We’re family. We help each other.”

“I know. It’s just… you and Ma do a lot for us already,” he says.

“And we’ll keep doing it.” My free hand wraps around the back of my son’s head. “I love you,” I tell him, resting my forehead on his.

“Love you too, Pops,” he replies.

“Now, I think this one needs to eat. Go shower and get ready for school. I’ve got him.”

“Thanks.” Orlando starts to walk away before quickly turning back to face me. “Oh, Aleeka says you have to stop giving him chocolate baby food for breakfast.”

“It’s his favorite and it’s chocolateflavored. It’s not even real,” I counter.

Orlando lifts his shoulders into a shrug. “Just the messenger,” he says, before adding with a smirk, “Take it up with her.”

He knows damn well Katy has forbid all of us from arguing with or questioning Aleeka’s choices as a mother. My wife is determined to not let anyone overpower the young girl and claims that us Valentino men are intimidating. I laughed and reminded her that we’re supposed to beintimidating. It kinda comes with the job.

Still, she wants to make sure Aleeka feels in control and supported, not railroaded in raising her son how ever we dictate she should do it. Katy has always been strong willed. There isn’t anything she can’t do when she puts her mind to it.

But my wife struggled after Orlando was born. She was diagnosed with postpartum depression; it took a lot of therapy and work to get her through it. What’s worse is she felt like a failure. She felt like nothing she did was good enough.

Which was ridiculous. She’s the best fucking mother to our son. Always has been. She puts him above everything else, thinks the sun shines out of the boy’s ass. I mean, he’s a great kid. I would say he wasn’t anywhere near as reckless as I was at his age. But then he came home with a baby at seventeen. So, yeah, pretty fucking reckless.

I think I had the wholewrap it or lose ittalk with him a million times. He swears the condom broke, and I believe him. Still, I never got anyone knocked up at seventeen. I don’t think Iwas anywhere near as reckless as my brothers and parents claim me to have been.

“What do you feel like having today, little man?” I ask Sebastian while walking into the kitchen. He just babbles back at me.

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