Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 812 : It’ll Probably Be Chocolate

*Elio*

“So, what are we doing this early in the morning?” I asked, blinking blearily at Cat as she rushed around the house.

I held a dressed and passed-out Emilia in my arms, her conked-out little head drooling on my shoulder. She seemed to be just as tired as I was this morning.

It was almost six in the morning and even I was still exhausted, especially after the intense lovemaking in the car last night.

“I told you! They set up the tasting for the cakes this morning, and then we need to finalize the menu for the caterer!” Cat sent me an irritated glare, shouldering two bags of baby supplies.

I sighed, reluctantly getting to my feet as I resigned myself to the boring and very long day we had ahead of us.

“You know you’re just going to choose chocolate, right?” I told her, feeling like this was all kind of pointless.

“You don’t know that! What if I want carrot cake?” Cat argued back, crossing her arms over her chest.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “You hate carrot cake.”

“So?” Cat wasn’t giving up, raising her chin stubbornly.

I knew there would be no winning this fight.

“Mark my words. She’s just going to choose chocolate,” I mumbled to Emilia, patting her back as she stirred slightly at her mommy’s loud words.

The closer it got to the wedding date, the more Cat panicked about having everything ready. So I didn’t argue, just held my daughter as we headed out to the bakery for our cake. Cat had insisted on the local one, which I didn’t mind either.

It was a surprisingly quick ride and Emilia woke up a few times, grumpy out of her mind before falling back asleep once the car started moving again. We arrived at the bakery at the ungodly hour and I took over the care of Emilia, holding her as she took a nap.

“Hello, welcome to our bakery!” A sweet woman greeted us as soon as we arrived and the smell of the baked goods hit our noses with a rush. I had to admit, it smelled delicious. “Are you here for the tasting?”

“That’s right.” Cat took control this time with me completely out of my element.

The woman named Clara took us to one of the separate front rooms they had, and I took a seat with Emilia in my arms at one of the small armchairs. It was a little small for me, my legs pressed up further than I liked, but I didn’t mind too much.

“So what kind of cake were we thinking of having?” Clara asked with a beaming smile, addressing Cat now as she was clearly the one in charge right now.

I smiled as Emilia woke up, yawning as she looked around curiously.

I only half-listened to Cat’s conversation, mainly focused on now entertaining my daughter as she tried to wiggle out of my arms to crawl on the floor at first. When she realized I wouldn’t let her, she pouted, lip wobbling as she threatened to cry.

Luckily, one of Clara’s workers came in with a few plates of tasting cakes, and her attention was captured by the colorful and sweet-smelling bakery items. I chuckled, scooting the chair up so she could have a perfect vision of the cakes, her little eyes were wide, locked onto those cakes like they were hers and only hers.

“This first platter is our more subtle flavors. Classic vanilla, lemon, and white chocolate,” Clara explained helpfully. “The little ramekins next to them have a dollop of our suggested frosting flavors. Take your time and mix and match them to see if any are what you’d like.”

Cat was all too eager, and Clara even provided a small baby spoon for us to give tiny bites to Emilia, much to her happiness. The vanilla was delicious, with a very toned-down flavor compared to the rest. I could see Cat wasn’t much of a fan of the lemon. Her lips pursed at the sour taste.

The white chocolate was good but neither of us liked it too much. The buttercream had to be my favorite part, and little Emilia’s too as she grabbed one of the ramekins greedily, sticking it into her face so she could lick up the frosting like a dog.

I had to use my iron grip to get the thing away from her and then soothe her when she started to cry about it.

“Ah, ah, look who’s on his way to cheer you up! It’s foxy!” I let out a mock gasp of surprise, pulling her fox plush out of the bag and her tears stopped immediately as she laughed, reaching out her frosting-covered hands around the plush.

Cat giggled beside me, watching us with a loving expression, but I only shrugged helplessly as she covered Foxy the fox in the frosting. We could always wash him later.

The cake tasting seemed to last hours, and just when I thought we’d gone through every cake flavor in existence, Clara brought out another platter. Chocolate and cookies and cream, red velvet or carrot or spice–it was like a never-ending list.

Eventually, though, she chose chocolate, pointedly ignoring the smug look I sent her in response. Then came the frostings, though, and Cat chose a simple vanilla buttercream and then decided easily on a raspberry mascarpone filling.

Seeing as raspberry mascarpone was my favorite cake filling, I had no objections to the choice. After the cake was decided, we headed over to the caterer and filled out the menu options. They were more than happy to be catering along with the other team that Alessandro had sent over from Italy, and the chef rambled on about how they’d already started sharing recipes with the other team over email.

I had no clue the other catering team was such a big shot in the culinary world, but by the stars in the chef’s eyes, as they personally came out to thank us, I figured it out pretty quick. After all the menus were decided, it was past noon, and we decided to stop at our favorite lunch spot for a bite to eat.

Ray’s wasn’t too packed and the waitress gasped as soon as she saw Emilia, cooing at her adorableness, which immediately sent Cat’s mood straight up.

We switched over roles as we settled down into the booth I took on ordering the food and Cat got out the formula we’d packed for Emilia, quickly feeding her. Of course, once our food came out, Emilia was more interested in that than her boring old milk, reaching her little hands on everything she could touch.

I brushed her hand away from sneaking a bite of my triple-X hot spicy chicken sandwich, though I had to admit I was a bit tempted to let her taste just a bit of the breading. She’d probably never try to steal food from me again.

But I couldn’t be that mean to my own daughter. She was just too precious.

“All the invites were sent out and about half we’d received the RSVP’s for. Apparently, you have more cousins than I thought because about thirty of them signed their names as ‘Cousin Capone.’” She sent me a stink eye over her own chicken sandwich, hers filled with gooey mac and cheese.

I nearly choked on my sandwich as I heard the name, struggling not to laugh as Cat gave me an accusatory glare.

“Just a joke,” I tried to reassure her, playing on my poker face to keep from bursting into laughter. “Cousin Capone is what a few of our more paranoid relatives use to keep their name from being written down, even on a wedding invite.”

I didn’t know if my explanation was convincing enough or not, but Cat let it go as she switched topics to the venue. The decorator Cat had hired took her job very seriously, and she often sent updates whenever there was a little bit of progress.

“That all sounds wonderful,” I smiled at her, though I didn’t care much either way. As long as she was happy, I was too. “Al’s coming early to help us deal with the Junior situation, so I’ll have his help to decipher which Cousin Capone is which. We can usually figure it out by the doodle they leave in invisible ink on the back.”

“Invisible ink?” Cat said incredulously.

“My family is extra cautious. What did you expect?” I shrugged.

“Is Mia coming with Alessandro and is it just him?” Cat asked, trying to be discreet as she fed a bite of her mac and cheese to Emilia, who chewed on it happily. Despite trying to hide it, she still had a furrow between her eyebrows that I knew very well.

She was not happy about Alessandro coming.

“I don’t know but I’ll try to find out,” I told her with a sigh. “I’m sorry. You know how Al is–”

“I know,” Cat admitted, giving me a helpless smile. “I understand. It’s frustrating but I understand.”

“I’ll talk to Al about all of it when he comes. He’ll have time to digest it and hopefully, I can get a few others on your side too. Mom said Dad is on your side, so there’s that. I don’t know how Tallon’s going to feel about it though. Vinny was his best friend, so he might side with you just because you’re his daughter.”

“I’ll take it,” Cat grinned. “Even if it’s a little insulting that he can only compare me to my dead dad whenever he sees me, a win is still a win.”

I winced at the reminder. Tallon had taken Vinny’s death the hardest after Cat and Matilde, probably because he died in his literal arms, but that was a long time ago at this point.

“You know none of them have met Emilia yet, so that’ll probably be where everyone’s attention goes,” I reminded her, hoping to change the subject away.

It worked as Cat beamed, leaning over to fix one of Emilia’s little pigtails as she chewed on her cheese sauce-covered fingers.

She blinked her wide green eyes, confused and curious but none the wiser of what was happening. Her innocence always made me smile, and this time was no different.

“Of course, they will, because she will be the cutest most adorable flower girl in existence,” Cat cooed, laying a kiss on her daughter’s cheek.

Still, despite my attempted distraction, Cat ran her fingers through Emilia’s little pigtails, gentle in her motions as her smile fell into a worried one.

“Truthfully, I’m really nervous about it all,” Cat admitted, looking over at me for reassurance and I gently grabbed her hand, smiling confidently at the love of my life.

“Don’t be. I’ll be there for you every step of the way. Everything will be perfect, just like we want. We’re getting married, Cat. I can’t wait until I can officially call you my wife,” I pulled her hand to my lips, leaving a kiss there that I hoped imbued her with a little more confidence.

It seemed to do the trick as she beamed, melting with love shining brightly in her eyes.

I hoped she couldn’t see the web of lies I was spinning behind her back.