Chapter 15

 

Mitch didn't sleep much that night. he couldn't get Enrico out of his mind and he couldn't stop reliving what they did. He jerked off to try to get rid of the need to replay it over and over in his head, but he couldn't stop.

He thought back to the fishing picnic and how hard Lara's sister had flirted with him. She was the whole package, but she didn't make him feel much of anything.

He thoughts went to Ellie. She didn't have that kind of body, and her version of flirting was to interrogate a guy about his whole life and all his beliefs and opinions until he either had to laugh or run away. Thinking of her could still make Mitch smile, but why couldn't he feel more for her.

Back then, even while she carried his child, he couldn't will himself to feel what he didn't feel. And now, it was the other way around. Now, not matter how hard he tried, he couldn't will himself not to feel whatever it was that he felt for Enrico.

He had never been confused about Ellie like this. Mitch loved her, but he wasn't in love with her. She was such a good friend to him, so honest and brave. He missed her like crazy. He missed that she was late to every movie that she dragged him to see, and how fidgety she got if the movie was boring.

But it was a complete fluke that they ended up making Sammy together. When they were out together and she saw that some good-looking guy was checking her out, she would tell Mitch to act platonic or else. Or she would order him, "Go hit on someone so he'll know we aren't together. I don't care who. Go."

There were times when Mitch thought maybe it didn't have to be that way. It might be nice to date Ellie since they got along so well, but she didn't want that. She was even a little insulted that he would offer her something so halfhearted.

And she was right. She was incredible. She deserved better. Mitch liked her more than anyone. He cared about her, but she could never capture his heart.

Now he had to wonder, is that what Enrico had done? No. This was just something physical, some deep itch Mitch didn't know he had and didn't know how to control. Just because the mere thought of Enrico made his heart race didn't mean that he owned it.

 

At dawn, still sleepless, Mitch went to check on Sammy and the kittens. They were still asleep. Out in the hall, the silver nest egg that Enrico had given her caught his eye. He picked it up. As he turned it over to check the hinge, he noticed a faint noise, like something shifting inside. He only heard it because the house was so quiet right now.

Then the house wasn't quiet any more. He heard a thump then a chirping little laugh coming from Sammy's room. She and the kittens were all up, rolling around on her floor. Mitch smiled at the sight.

Sometimes Mitch tried to see Ellie in their daughter, but Sammy was just too much her own little person. She looked up at him from the floor while she hugged a kitten to her. "Morning, Daddy. It's cupcake day!"

"Yes, it is. Good morning, honey," he said and got down to give her a kiss on the cheek.

As he went downstairs to childproof the house against the Hayes boys, especially that younger one, Mitch was reminded that he had asked Enrico to come over and help him make cupcakes, not Lara or her sister. Even if they had plans for later, Stella would have certainly made time for him this morning. But Mitch didn't even consider it.

At the riverside, he remembered seeing Enrico and Sam with their heads together, and he would forget that Stella was there at all. When Enrico saddled him with making cupcakes for the kids, Mitch saw the perfect excuse to have him join them. Was he so fixated on Enrico he couldn't spend one day without him?

 

Since they had to do some shopping anyway, Mitch took Sammy into town for breakfast. He knew Enrico was working at the café that morning, but that wasn't his reason for going there. Seeing him behind the counter did put a smile on his face, and Sammy ran right over to say good morning to him.

Enrico leaned over the counter, to say good morning to her too. He gave Mitch one of his challenging, questioning looks. "Good morning to you too. Shouldn't you be busy baking?"

Mitch helped Sammy take a seat at the counter. "That doesn't happen until you're there to lend a hand. You're the one who got me into this," Mitch pointed out to him as he took a seat at the counter as well.

"Cupcakes are just cute, little cakes, Daddy," Sammy said. "That's what Gloria's mom told us."

"I haven't made any big cakes either," Mitch confessed. "Baking just isn't my thing."

"Not manly enough," Enrico teased him as he poured him coffee and a glass of peach and orange juice mix for Sammy.

After taking a sip of his coffee, Mitch informed him, "It has nothing to do with manly. I'm just not good at it."

"What's the plan?" Enrico asked after he put in their orders.

"First I was going to Beatty's Hardware for some supplies," Mitch told him.

Enrico looked at Sammy then back at Mitch. "You know you're making cupcakes, right? Beatty's won't have what you need."

"We're going shopping for cupcake ingredients after, but I don't even know what kind to make," Mitch said. Sammy had given him some ideas, but they all came from watching Lara. They sounded way too complicated.

"Don't overthink it. Chocolate cupcakes, peanut butter frosting. Done," Enrico said and he mimed a mic drop.

"Done? I still have to actually make them," Mitch grumbled.

"I'll be there to help. But keep in mind that I never made cupcakes before," Enrico told him with a grin.

"In other words you only know how to get me into trouble, not how to get me out of it," Mitch said and Enrico shrugged.

 

Just as Mitch and Sammy were getting ready to leave, Enrico's grandmother came into the café. They stopped at the door to talk to her, and Sammy gave her the news about their cupcake party. Hearing what they were doing, she called Enrico over and sent him off to go with them.

"You have serious work to do helping with these important cupcakes, stop wasting time here," she told him.

Once Enrico joined Mitch and Sammy, the three of them stopped on the sidewalk outside the café to confer. "We could split up and get this done faster. I'm making lunch for the kids too, so I don't want to cut it too close," Mitch said.

"Sammy can take me food shopping. You know how to drive, right, Sammy?" Enrico said to her.

"No. You know how to drive," Sammy told him.

"In that case, we'll walk." He turned to Mitch, who tried not to notice how bright and beautiful his eyes looked in the morning sun. "You be good. We'll meet up with you at the car."

Mitch looked after them as they went off together. Sammy was holding Enrico's hand and chattering at him. As long as they were in sight, Mitch kept watching them with a smile on his lips, but for some reason his chest felt so tight it hurt.