Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 181

Ivan stays...late. Way too late.

I see my dad's expression when he comes home with the groceries, as he spies me out here with my sort-of-ex-boyfriend, and then glances at my husband, who is sitting on the couch with his boyfriend. I can't hear him, but I see him groan in confusion. Ivan laughs a little. "Should I go in and say hi?"

"Nope," I say, wrapping my arms around my knees, starting to get a little cold as night falls. "I think that nobody in that house is very happy to see you here. Except maybe Janeen. But she just thinks you're hot." "Really," Ivan says, perking up and looking around for her.

"Don't," I say, laughing and swatting his arm. "She'll just rope you into being one of her regulars at the club. She'll drain your bank account and leave you sobbing."

"Yeah," Ivan says, turning back to me and raising his eyebrows provocatively. "But don't you already know, Fay? Complicated, hard-to-get girls are kind of my type."

I roll my eyes at him, but I can't help laughing anyway. "Why do you even like me, Ivan?" I ask, shaking my head and genuinely wanting to know. "I mean, is it just the hard-to-get thing? Do you just like a challenge?" "Are you a challenge?" he asks, turning his head and looking me up and down.

"Well, I am married," I point out, laying out the facts like they're obvious. "And I hate you, and you've already got a bruise on your face from the guy who got me pregnant, so," I shrug, "yeah, I think that qualifies as challenging."

"Yeah," Ivan says slowly, nodding a little and considering my points. "But your marriage is a sham to make your baby legitimate, and your baby daddy is locked up forever, and, above all," he takes a moment to really look into my face now, making me hear him, "you don't hate me, Fay. Not really. Not in your heart."

"Don't I?" I ask, letting my eyes fall to his mouth.

"Maybe for now," he murmurs. "But...you have a heart. You know what's right. And I did what I did because it was right."

"Right for you," I sigh, closing my eyes and letting my head hang back a little.

"And for you," he replies, but I almost feel him lean back in his chair, giving me my space. Because if this is real for him - like actually real? Then he knows that he's playing the long game. And he's not going to be getting much more from me tonight.

I open my eyes when I hear the door slide open. My brow furrows when I see Janeen coming out with two beers in hand, shutting the door behind her. "Hey," she says, plopping down in the chair next to Ivan and setting the beer in front of him. "I thought I'd bring you your last drink before Mafia Jr. in there rips you to shreds."

"Who, Danny boy?" Ivan asks, grinning and peering into the house where Daniel is still glaring at us, his arms crossed. Jerome, still casual, continues to read contentedly beside him. My dad sits on Daniel's other side, watching a game on the TV. Ivan laughs a little. "I can take him."

"I don't know," Janeen murmurs, smirking and likewise looking in at Daniel. "He's got a couple inches on you."

"Yeah, but I'm scrappy," Ivan says, over-confident and optimistic in his usual charming way.

"Don't underestimate Daniel," I sigh, leaning back. "He boxes. And I'm pretty sure his dad taught him how to hit." I let my eyes drift to the green spot on Ivan's jaw and he turns to me, laughing, as Janeen sees the direction of my gaze.

"No way!" she says, laughing and hitting Ivan on the arm. "You told me you fell at work!"

"I did fall at work," he murmurs, rubbing his jaw again and laughing at himself. "I just didn't tell you whose fist I ran into that made me fall at work."

"Ran into,' my ass," I murmur, shaking my head and making them both laugh harder.

Janeen and I quietly watch lan drive away down our street a little bit later.

"Did you ever get the story behind the car?" she asks, curious.

"Nope," I say, shaking my head. "You should get him to come to the strip club sometime. See if you can get him to give it to you as a tip."

"Tempting," she says, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. Then she gives me a bright, happy grin. "You know, Fay, if I'm being honest, I like that one. He's my favorite of your three weird boyfriends."

"That's not fair," I say, frowning at her. "You don't know Kent very well -"

She laughs at me, shaking her head. "Seriously? Your first instinct is to defend Kent, when I live with Daniel?"

"Well, I was getting to that!"

"Seriously though," she says, dropping her voice now. "Ivan is a nice guy, and he cares about you."

"So does my husband, Janeen," I say, frowning at her. "And Kent."

"I know," she says, nodding to me, fully serious now. "But your husband...he's eventually going to leave you for that stone-cold cutie up there," she says, nodding up the stairs to where Jerome is. "That's inevitable. And this guy..." she looks down the street after Ivan's car. "He likes you, Fay. And he's not incarcerated. And he's funny."

"He is funny, isn't he," I murmur, cocking my head to the side.

"Yah," she says, nodding. "And hot."

"Janeen," I sigh, ducking out from under her arm. "If you're trying to convince me to date Ivan, it does not help to hear that you think he is hot. Maybe you should date him -"

"Fay!" Janeen objects, walking after me through the front door to the house. "It's not that I think he's hot - he's just objectively hot!"

"Talking about me?" Daniel asks, making us both jump when we realize that he's sitting on the stairs, waiting for us.

"Of course, gorgeous," Janeen says smoothly, coming forward and leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Who else would we have been talking about?"

"Oh, you know," Daniel says, looking directly at me now. "Just the guy who, you know, ruined our lives."

"Not my life!" Janeen says, stepping past Daniel and working her way up the stairs. "Mine just keeps getting better and better! Got my sister back, got hotties dropping by on the daily - I like this new post-Kent world!"

I sigh, crossing my arms and waiting until she disappears onto the second floor. Then I look back at Daniel. "Well?" I ask.

"Well, what?" he says, leaning back against the stair behind him.

"Well, you obviously came down here to wait for me once I came in." I point out. "Did you want to say something?"

"Yeah, Fay," Daniel snaps, starting to release the anger he's clearly holding back. "I wanted to say that you're being really fucking dumb by letting him into our house -"

"Oh shut up," I growl, pushing past him and starting up the stairs myself.

"You are!" he insists, quickly standing up and pounding up the stairs after me. "I can't believe you even talked to him, after what he did! That you even -"

"One," I snap, spinning at the landing of the second floor and lifting a finger right into his face, "don't you ever call me stupid, Daniel. I won't let you condescend to me, not now, not ever. If you have a critique to make, fine. But don't you dare pretend that I did something because I'm dumb."

Daniel's angry face twists but he purses his lips, listening to me. I hold my finger steady, staring up at him until he nods once and looks away. "Fine," he says in a rush. "You're right. I won't do that again, and I didn't mean it. But Fay, you've always had a soft spot for him, and he manipulates you."

He looks back at me now, shaking his head and putting his hands on my shoulders as I drop my finger. "You chose a life, Fay. Didn't you? A life with my dad, and with me? Ivan destroyed that life that you picked. I...I don't want you to forget that. He's charming, but he's bitter, and he's jealous." Daniel shakes his head slowly.

And I resent it every damn second of it.

Because Daniel? He's doubting me.

And above all I cannot have my team doubting me.

But as I consider how much I actually laughed with Ivan this afternoon...

I don't know. Does Daniel have a point?