The Mafia Boss

Ch. 32: Why do you have Mummy's name tattooed on your heart?

Mummy! Daddy! It's my birthday!"

I awaken to the sound of my daughter's excited yells and the sight of bedroom walls that I'm pretty sure aren't mine.

"I'm five!"

Her tiny body leaps onto the bed, the force in which she does so startling the body lying next to me.

Fuck!

My five minutes clearly turned into five-fucking-hours and now our daughter has caught us in bed together.

Nice one, Imogen!

Torin groans as he is subject to Maeve's insistant bouncing and high pitched yelps.

"Maeve—baby—your birthday is tomorrow," I explain.

She immediately drops to her knees.

"How long is tomorrow?"

Torin laughs.

"One more sleep," I tell her, quickly stealing Torin's shirt and shoving it on.

"Can't we just have it today?" she asks, cuddling her stuffed unicorn for added cuteness.

I swear this kid knows exactly what she's doing.

"No," smiles Torin, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Why not?" she asks, turning her cuteness up a notch.

"Because—Maeve monster—that's not how it works," he replies, tackling her waist and forcing her into a huge hug.

Her giggles are infectious as Torin tickles her stomach; stuffed unicorn long forgotten. I watch them both for a moment, truly in awe of their relationship. In such a short amount of time, they've both come a long way. I've never seen my daughter more in love. She dotes on Torin like nothing else and seeing her like this with him does amazing things to my heart.

"Daddy, what's that?" she questions once the tickling has stopped.

She's pointing to the tattoo of a tree on his arm.

"It's my tree. Do you like it?"

She nods, poking it with her small finger. "You have lots of skin pictures."

I laugh, quickly kissing her head. "They're called tattoos, baby."

"Tattoos?"

I nod.

"What does that one say?" she questions, running her thumb over the ink on his left pec.

Torin smiles before answering. "It says Imogen."

"That's Mummy's name!" she delights, wide eyes turning to me.

"Wow!" I respond, joining her in extreme excitement.

Torin and I share a brief smile.

"Where's my name?" she asks, searching the entirety of his chest for any indication.

"I don't have your name on me, baby," he informs, sounding sad.

"Oh." Maeve struggles to hide her disappointment. "Why not?"

"Well—I only just found out about you, remember?"

"When you came back from heaven?" she wonders.

Torin looks at me before nodding. "Yeah, exactly. I promise to get your name tattooed on me soon."

"WHERE?" she asks, soon forgetting her disappointment.

"Wherever you want."

She thinks for a moment before pointing to where my name is. "Can I go next to Mummy?"