The Mafia's Babies by Kaycee Romano (rocket ebook reader txt) 📖

"Were you dropped on your head when you were a child? Because that shit's serious." She retorted. "And that was what, fifteen years ago!"

"You are thirty one."

"And you are thirty three." River rolled her eyes again. She did that a lot too these days, curtsey of the Italian man. "I would actually expect you to know all of this about me."

"I wanted to hear it from you."

"Ugh!!" She jumped up and turned to him. "Get out! Let me sleep!"

"Marry me."

You know that emoji, spirals for eyes and a wide mouth? That's probably how River's face looked at that moment.

"What the fuck Mateo?" River smacked him across his arm, completely shocked and annoyed at his sudden statement. Note the point, not even a question. He straight out said it as if it was an order or something.

"What?" Mateo gave her a look, as if she was the ridiculous one in the room.

"Are you pregnant? Coz I am ultra confused by your behavior right now! None of this conversation makes sense!" She groaned.

He was just watching her, not replying so she decided to continue after taking a long deep breath.

"Look, right now, focus on Mona Petrov and the imminent danger because that's the problem at hand. Our kids need a normal life, for that this has to be dealt with." He nodded. "I know you have more enemies and things aren't going to be calm and quiet once this has been dealt with but at least let's not pile up our problems."

He nodded again, a small smile on his face. What the fuck was this dumbass smiling at?

"And I want to move back to New York. I want the kids to continue going to school and I want to continue working because I thought I will be happy with a little vacation but I am going cuckoo because of the lack of shit to do."

He nodded again.

Why are you stopping then? Just keep bobbing your head!

The inner voice was just as irritated by this dude.

"And then we will think about where our relationship stands." River sighed. "I trust you, Mateo and I care for you and I know we are stuck together for life thanks to the invisible ridiculous universal laws of the Mafia but marriage is the last thing on my mind right now. And it's even more frustrating because there's nothing I can do to help right now."

He nodded, "See that wasn't so bad."

River raised a brow, her face scrunching up in confusion. "Umm.. what?"

"You just laid out everything that has been bothering you." Mateo shrugged.

She gave it a thought. Hmmm, he was right.

She leaned down so that she was face to face with him. "You really don't give off Mafia man vibes, you know that right?"

"Don't you worry; my Papa makes up for it."

"Great."

.

.

.

"You know a normal guy would ask the girl to be his girlfriend before proposing marriage." River said out of nowhere.

It was some five in the evening and all of them were at the beach.

The kids were making sand castles, Susan and Lilith were with them, Jacqueline and Alessia were talking as they strolled around, Adam went to the public part of the beach saying he had to take care of his needs. Dumbass.

And Mateo and River were sitting on the picnic mat, eating the heavenly PB&J sandwiches that her mother had made.

"So you want to be my girlfriend?" He looked over at her, smirking and a playful glint in his eyes.

"Hmm.." River thought. "Well, let's be honest; we have trust, care and sexual tension between us-"

Mateo burst out laughing. "You know you can be very blunt sometimes, right?"

River shrugged. That's who she was and she was not at all apologetic about it.

"Yep." She said. "Anyway, I was wondering. What about sex?"

He coughed out his sandwich and turn to her, his eyes wide and watering.

Rive rolled her eyes as she passed him a bottle of water.

"You want to have sex with me?"

River raised a brow. Why was he speaking as if they had never had sex before?

Thinking back to a year ago, it hadn't seemed like Mateo was very bashful about it back then. What had changed now? Except the fact that they had babies together.

"Not exactly you dumbass. I want to have sex with someone."

He placed the bottle and sandwich down. "Who are you planning to have sex with, if not me?"

"I don't know. One night stands are my thing."

He gave her an extra sugary smile, one that Kiara gave me before she disagreed with whatever she was told. "Don't even think about it. I ask you to marry me and you are talking about having sex with someone else?"

"What? I haven't had sex in about three months." He yanked her by her arm and made her face him.

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"I haven't had sex in over a year." He said it as if he was accusing her of something.

River gave him a confused look. Why? And then it hit her, like a bucket of ice cold water.

Her eyes widened as she looked at him, and he looked down, clenching his jaw.

"You haven't had sex ever since me?"

He didn't answer and just kept his stare down.

"Mateo?"

He finally looked up and said, his words emotionless and even. "How was I supposed to know I was the only one in love here?"

What?

What??

WHAT???????

And without another word or waiting for a reply, he got up and walked away and joined their kids, not sparing River another glance.

If this wasn't complicated, River really did not know what was.