Page 28 of Grumpy Mafia Boss and the Cleaner
Chapter Eight
Harper still did every one of her duties. She continued to clean Enzo’s home. His kids’ room was still off limits, and she refused to cross that boundary. She could tell he’d been to hell and back.
She cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with the occasional snack and cake. She loved to prepare food for him. They had set up a nice, cozy setting between the two. He did have to go out to business, and when he returned, they often ended up naked.
He’d taken her uniforms away from her, so she tended to clean in her old clothes. The packages had continued to arrive, and Enzo refused to have her in any other bedroom. She stayed with him in the master bedroom. Her clothes were already in a closet.
Pulling the latest batch of laundry out of the dryer, Harper was folding them, putting them in a basket to take upstairs and put away. Other clothes were placed near the ironing station. She had a casserole in the oven with Enzo expected to arrive home within the hour.
She tried to make food that could keep past the cooking time and stayed warm. She’d get the food to just cooked, put it on the warm setting, and they were good to go.
Harper finished folding the laundry and made her way to the ironing board to get started on pressing his shirts. She knew, to many, this was just her job, but it was more than that. She enjoyed taking care of him.
It had been a couple of weeks since Halloween, and they hadn’t really discussed what happened that night. They were going to have a baby? She wasn’t sure.
She would love to have his baby, even though they had agreed to never fall in love. This made no sense, because Enzo had also said she wasn’t allowed to be with any other man. As far as she was concerned, that was more than okay with her. She wasn’t looking for anyone else, because she had fallen in love with him.
It was all so confusing, but they were working so well, and she didn’t want to question it, which would spoil what they had.
She moved the iron slowly across his shirt, getting all the creases out. Harper was so lost in her thoughts and confusion, she didn’t even hear Enzo enter the room, and was only aware of him as he put his hands around her waist. This made her scream, but the moment he put his lips to her ear and told her who it was, she was able to settle down.
Her heart raced. “You scared me.”
“I did call out that I was home.” He kissed her cheek. “You’re ironing.”
“I have to iron. There is no way you’re going to work with creases.”
“You do realize that from time to time, I torture people?” he asked.
This made her pause. She was aware of his work, and she was no fool to it. This was the first time he’d actually spoken about it.
“Well, you can look good while you’re doing your job.”
Also, it made her nervous, because she was just a cleaner, and well, he was a Capo. They were not supposed to mesh. Not in their world. It was crazy. She had a constant horrible feeling that something bad was going to happen.
“I’ve got something for you,” he said, kissing her cheek.
She put the iron away and quickly turned it off. She was always safer than sorry.
Enzo took hold of her hand, pulled her out of the laundry room, through to the kitchen, and then made their way toward the dining room. He surprised her by letting go of her hand, but he clearly wasn’t done with her yet, as he covered her eyes.
“What is all this?” she asked.
He sat her down in a chair and told her to keep her eyes closed, which she did. Something was placed in her hand, and Enzo told her to open her eyes.
She had no choice but to blink a few times, and the moment she did, she looked down at the book he’d placed in her hand. It was not just any book. It was a booklet of courses that could be taken at a college.
She opened the book and flicked across each section, taking it all in. She was shocked. “What is this?”
“I’ve spoken to the campus principal. You can choose a course or a couple, whatever takes your fancy, and the learning is remote. There might be times you need to go in to study, but that would be up to you. I can arrange for one-on-one tutors if you need it. You wanted to go to college, and I can’t offer you the full-time experience of living on campus, but I can offer you this.”
She couldn’t believe it. “You’re willing to let me learn?”
“An educated woman does not scare me. Your dad is a fucking asshole. You want to learn, and this place does not take you all freaking day to clean. You must be looking for work. Now, instead of making notes in those notebooks from my library, you can put all of that to good work and start studying.”
She couldn’t believe it. She was willing to learn while living with her dad—remotely, to bring down the expense—but also to study in her own time, so it didn’t affect her ability to work. He wouldn’t have any of it, turned down all of her ideas.
“You’re quiet,” Enzo said. “Do you not want to do this?”
