Page 533 of One More Kiss

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

I shook my head.

“Then at least tell me you’re not shifting to another police field.”

I laughed. Oh, that was what he was worried about.

“I can assure you, Vin, I won’t be staying on as a police officer or any other capacity.”

“Good, then you have my blessing.”

I blinked twice. “Blessing?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “I’m not blind nor am I stupid. You and Avery are going to date whether or not I gave you my blessing. My daughter is very taken with you, Paolo, and from what I have seen, you are with her.

“I needed to know that you’d not put my daughter in a position to choose between us both. You being a cop would have done that. Now that I know that you’re not in that profession”— He snarled the word profession as though it was a dirty word—“I know that my daughter will be happy. So yes, you have my blessing.”

Vin pulled me into a hug.

“Thanks, Vin. I know that Avery will be happy to hear that you approve.”

He glared at me. “You planned to date her even if I didn’t approve, did you?”

I shrugged. “Yes. Your daughter did, so I’m glad you gave us your blessing. Things would’ve been harder on us, but I didn’t plan to walk away. You also stated you owed me, so I planned to hold that over your head.”

He shook his head, a smile on his lips. “You’re going to be a pain in my fucking ass, aren’t you?”

I rose to my feet and smiled.

“Probably,” I replied as I strolled to the door. “Now, I plan to whisk your daughter a way for a while.”

I walked into the kitchen, where Rosa was putting food away.

“Ah, Paolo, you hungry?” she asked, a smile on her face. “This is for the principessa. I didn’t see her eat once tonight. I planned to take it up to her room.”

“Thank you, Rosa. I’ll take it up to her,” I said as I took the heavy tray from her hands.

“My pleasure,” she said as I left the kitchen.

I made my way up the stairs to Avery’s wing of the house. After everything that had occurred today, she had to be running on adrenaline.

In her room, she sat on her bed, tears running down her cheeks.

When I entered, she looked up, startled.

“You’re still here,” she said. She grabbed a tissue from a box on the nightstand and dabbed her eyes. “Someone told me you left.”

“No, I had a meeting with your father. Rosa made you something to eat.”

She crumpled the tissue. “Oh, and how did your meeting go?”

I smiled as I sank down onto the bed. “Good. Your father gave us his blessing.”

Her mouth dropped open.

“He did?” she whispered. “I planned to demand he let me go tomorrow. Even though I thought you’d left, I was going to show up to your house and talk everything out. But he really gave his blessing?”

“He did. I’m leaving the force, as well.”

---