Mateo shrugs unapologetically. “It works. My Ken is more effective than yours. Your lame Ken is just going to walk away, kicking rocks and not getting the girl. Mine is going to get the girl.”
“Yours is going to get thrown in jail,” I inform him.
“No,” he answers, shaking his head confidently. “I should have prefaced this scenario with the explanation that my Ken is the head of a criminal organization; he has a solid staff and he pays off cops, so he can do pretty much whatever the hell he wants.”
“That’s not the point. I’m going to teach him about the ethical response, not just… what he can get away with.”
“This sounds boring,” Mateo states. He gives Roman his finger to gnaw on to distract him from the lack of milk in his intended target. “Just nod and smile when she tries to feed you all this garbage; I’ll teach you what you need to know in life.”
I shake my head, grabbing Roman’s toy from the bed beside me. “Here, play with your elephant and ignore Daddy’s bad advice.”
We snuggle, play, and joke about all the terrible life lessons Mateo is going to impart on our young son for a little bit longer before there’s a knock at the door.
I dread the knock. It’s a firm, hard knock, so it’s not Rosalie. That means it must be Adrian, and if Adrian is coming to the bedroom, he’s here to talk to Mateo about Meg.
We’ve managed to avoid talking about Meg since we left her in the guest room to get some sleep. As exciting as it is that Roman is here now, everyone knows I’m anxious about what it means for Meg. Tonight she just wants to sleep, and after weeks in the dungeon, Mateo’s one act of mercy is letting her sleep in a bed tonight.
Tomorrow is another story. No one knows what tomorrow might bring.
Well, I guess Mateo does, but I don’t.
“Come in,” Mateo calls, too comfortable to bother getting up.
The door opens. I’m wrapped up in Roman, but when I casually glance over to say hi to Adrian, it isn’t Adrian at all—it’s Rafe. And Rosalie? I frown, thoroughly confused as Rosalie reaches up and grabs Rafe’s hand, dragging him into the room behind her.
Oh, come on.
“I wanna see my new brother,” Rosalie announces. “I know he’s in here.”
I narrow my eyes at Rafe accusingly. It’s just like him to barge in at the behest of our three-year-old. He knows men with babies and little kids are adorable! “Why are you with my daughter?”
His eyebrows rise, somewhat defensively. “I was kidnapped—again!”
Mateo was ready to stay on the bed and relax when we both assumed Adrian was coming inside, but seeing it’s Rafe, he climbs off. Rosalie is now waiting to be lifted up anyway, so he gives her a boost and she climbs across the bed to come inspect the baby.
“He’s small. Does he even know how to play?” she asks, grabbing the elephant from me and shaking it in Roman’s face.
“You were just as small once,” I inform her. “What were you and Rafe doing?”
“Playing.”
She immediately tries to ruffle Roman’s hair, but I catch her hand and guide it away from his head. “We can’t touch his head. He has a soft spot up here.”
Rosalie sits on her butt and sighs. “Nobody wants to play today.” Looking back at Rafe, she tells him, “After I play babies, we can play more.”
“I don’t think so,” Mateo says. “It’s just about your bed time. Playtime is over for today. You’ll have to kidnap Rafe again tomorrow.”
“What were you guys playing?” I ask.
“I taked him to Paris.”
“By force,” Rafe adds. Then, glancing at Mateo, he says, “You’ve let a rogue strain into your blood line; I hope you realize that.”
Mateo shakes his head, unsympathetic. “If you let yourself get kidnapped by a woman, that’s on you. I would never let that happen to me.”
“I would never try to kidnap either one of you,” I add, helpfully.
Rafe points at me like I’ve proven his point. “Exactly. She’s a keeper.”
Rosalie dangles the elephant in front of Roman’s face again. He tries hard to focus his attention on it, but she’s moving it too fast.
“Did you kidnap Rafe?” I ask her.
“No,” she assures me, shaking her little head. “He wanted to go. He just didn’t know he wanted to go.”
Mateo’s arms are crossed, but at Rosalie’s pronouncement, he shrugs and regards Rafe. “That sounds like a solid explanation to me.”
Rosalie scoots down on her tummy, so I put Roman on the bed and let her get a better look. “Hi baby,” she says. “I’m your sister. You wanna play with me?”
I nod my agreement, addressing Rafe with mild disbelief. “Look at this little angel. She couldn’t possibly kidnap anyone, let alone a big, strong man like yourself.”