Friends & Forever by J.M. Darhower Read Free Book Online Page A

worried about having a kid,
but even more worried about having a daughter . Daughters terrified him.
Boys broke hearts indiscriminately. They didn't care whose daughter it
was. Carmine knew, because he'd been one of them. And it terrified him, the
thought of karma catching up to him and his child being on the receiving end.
He'd spent a lot of his life paying for his father's countless sins. He didn't
want his daughter to have to pay for his.
    But
her? Maura Miranda
DeMarco?
    He wasn't worried at all.
    If anything, the boys would need to
watch out for her .
    "Oh, me!" she squealed,
jumping up and down, her bare feet dirty from running around in the grass.
"Me! Me! Throw it to me, Daddy!"
    Carmine gripped the ball with both
hands as he regarded her before tossing the ball to Vinnie instead. "You
wanna play, Maura? Go put on some shoes."
    "But—"
    "You heard me, piccola .
Shoes."
    She turned with a loud huff and ran
inside, returning just a moment later with a pair of pink Nike's on her feet,
the laces untied. Carmine shook his head, catching the ball when Vinnie threw
it at him, before he turned to his daughter. The back door stood wide open
behind her, the rest of the family starting to filter out.
    Maura held both arms out and he
tossed the ball underhanded toward her. She caught it, and he smiled with
pride, his expression slipping when she took off running straight at him, full
speed. His eyes widened at the fierce determination on her face and had just
enough time to take a step back when she rammed right into him.
    "Tackle!" she screeched,
nearly knocking him down. Carmine laughed, stumbling, and grabbed ahold of her.
She was just a little thing, two-and-a-half feet tall and barely twenty-five
pounds soaking wet. He picked her up, swinging her around as she clutched onto
the ball tightly, her frantic giggles echoing through the yard when he wrapped
one arm around her and started tickling her sides with his free hand.
"Daddy! No, tickles! No! Tackle !"
    "I think you need to learn the
rules of the game, sweetheart," he said, spinning her upside down, holding
her there, her head dangling, wayward hair hanging down toward his knees.
"The man without the ball does the tackling. You're trying to sack
the quarterback when he doesn't even have the ball anymore. That's a
fifteen-yard penalty."
    "Carmine!" Haven stepped
out onto the back porch and gaped at him. "She's wearing a dress!"
    "She has pants on
underneath."
    "So? Put her down before all the
blood rushes to her head!"
    Carmine obliged, dropping Maura into
the grass as she giggled some more. He knelt down, tickling her again, before
snatching the ball from her grip. Maura jumped to her feet and ran after him,
trying to get it back, but Carmine tossed it to Vinnie before she could get her
hands on it. Maura ran into him again, wrapping her arms around his legs from
behind, determined to bring him down. Before Carmine could get her, she
head-butted the back of his legs, making his knees buckle. He hit the ground, rolling
onto his back, just as she took a flying leap on top of him, pointy elbows and
knees digging into his ribs.
    "Christ, girl," Carmine
said, yanking her into his arms as she continued to laugh. "Everything
about that was against the rules. Unnecessary roughness ."
    He got to his feet again, pulling her
with him, as Haven walked over. She bent down, tugging on Maura's dress, trying
to fix it, before she started smoothing the little girl's hair. None of it
helped, though. There was no helping that disaster.
    "Why'd you get her all
dirty?" Haven asked, looking up at Carmine. "I spent all day getting
her ready."
    Carmine held up his hands
defensively. "Hey, I had nothing to do with it. That was all her."
    Rolling her eyes, Haven stood back
up. "I have a hard time believing you're innocent."
    "I am." Carmine reached
over, grabbing ahold of Haven. She yelped as Carmine picked her up. He couldn't
toss her around like he did Maura, certainly couldn't swing her upside