Sweet Temptation by Cora Reilly

“It doesn’t explain why he’s so obsessed with that dog.”
And then it clicked. “For Gaia it reminded her of Andrea, but for Daniele, it
only reminds him of his mother, and that’s natural. If he finds comfort in Loulou,
that’s good.”
Cassio sighed. “Maybe. I need to return to work now.”
“All right. Will you still be home for dinner?”
“I promised, so yes.”
“Thank you. I enjoy having dinner with you.” I quickly hung up, not wanting
to get too mushy.
Cassio asked me to put Daniele to bed that night. He looked exhausted and as if
he couldn’t bear his son’s rejection one more time.
After tucking Daniele in, I picked up one of the picture books I’d ordered
and began to read it to him, but his focus was on Loulou who’d curled up in
front of the bed. I patted the mattress. “Come on, Loulou.”
Her ears perked, and she jumped up onto the comforter between Daniele and
me. His tiny fingers found her fur, and he kept stroking her as I read the book to
him. “Do you want Loulou to stay with you?”
Daniele nodded.
“But if you walk around the house, you’ll wake her. Can you stay in your
own bed?”
He considered that, his head tilted to the side, then he gave a decisive nod. I
smiled before pressing a kiss to his forehead. Turning on his dim nightlight, I
walked to the door and extinguished the lamp.
“Goodnight, Daniele.” I began to close the door when a soft voice rang out.
“G’night.”
I froze. Slowly, I turned around, but Daniele hid under his covers. I
swallowed and left. As if in trance, I headed downstairs, finding Cassio in the
cigar lounge, setting up the pool table for our game. One look at my face and he
came toward me. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Daniele said good night.”
Cassio took a step back. “He talked to you?” Surprise mixed with
disappointment in his voice. First Loulou, now me.
“He only said good night, but it’s a start, right?”
He nodded slowly, but I could tell it hit him hard that Daniele spoke to me
first. I wrapped my arms around his middle. “You’re gone a lot, so Loulou,
Simona, and I are the people he relates to. You should make time to take a walk
in the dog park with us or have lunch. When you see him, he’s always tired and
not in the right mindset to bond with you.”