I blush a little. As Dante breathes me in, calming himself. I look past him over at Leo, who is watching us eagle-eyed, so I reach out my hand to him, to encourage him to come over too. I wait on bated breath to see what his reaction will be. Jumping off the stool and running around into the kitchen, his little body slams into my side, his small arms wrapping around me and his father, and the three of us stand like that for a moment, feeling secure in each other's embrace, before Dante is calm enough to speak.

“It is very good tiramisu, Little Red,” he says, as he lifts his head from my neck, a small grin appearing on his face.

I smile at him. “Well, Maria taught me everything I needed to know,” I say before looking at Leo. “And little Leo here is a great taste tester…” I add with a big smile, one which he returns. I grip his hand tighter to show him that I am here to support him. Why would anyone want to harm this little boy? There is so much that I don’t know, and I am beginning to feel out of my depth a little. But, Leo has one of my hands in a vice grip and Dante has the other now enclosed in his, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t think that the three of us made a good team.

Dante lowers his head to my ears. “I can think of something else I would like to eat with my favorite dessert…” My skin prickles as his breath skims across my cheek, where he plants a kiss, and lets go of my hand before moving it to my ass and giving my cheek a squeeze. My breath quickens, but before I can reply, he steps back and scoops Leo up into his arms and flings him into the air.

“C’mon, buddy, Little Red is going to make me another tiramisu—that you can’t eat on me—while we go outside and kick the soccer ball around before I need to go out to work,” he says, tickling Leo at the same time. Leo squirms in his arms but has a big smile on his face, and I watch the two of them walk down the hall. Turning at the last moment, Dante looks back at me, gives me a wink, then steps out of sight.

The door closes and the house is quiet, and I sit on the kitchen stool that Leo just vacated to take a moment. Angelina. From the conversation I overheard just now, she isn’t allowed anywhere near Leo, and I wonder why.

Sitting here in my jumbled thoughts is not going to achieve anything, so I release the breath I was holding and look around the kitchen. I need to start baking.