I chuckled and said, "I think I get to take the drama award for today considering I was screaming like a banshee when I thought you’d left me."
His expression grew serious and he shook his head. "Never. I could never leave you. You're stuck with me now."
"Happily stuck," I said.
He nodded and then we were climbing to our feet. "I need to tell you something," he said. "I hope I did the right thing."
"Tell me," I insisted softly. At that point, nothing he told me would change anything. "We’re stuck with each other, remember?" I asked with a smile.
He chuckled. "I talked to Marilyn this morning. I asked her if she might consider staying in Seattle and raising Violet here. She would still be her primary caretaker, but I thought that we could be the extended family Violet needs. I know there are things that you're not ready for, but we could take it day by day and see how it goes. Vaughn is staying here with Aleks and Gio won't be ready to return to New York anytime soon, and you have family here—"
"What did she say?" I asked, barely able to contain myself. He was right about me not being ready to take on the full responsibility of parenting Violet, but the idea of getting to be in her life was something I'd been afraid to consider.
"She agreed," Luca said. "She thinks Violet needs all of us and that we need each other."
"She's right," I said. "And you were absolutely right to ask her. Thank you, Luca. I love that little girl so much, but it's such a big responsibility that I wasn't ready for by myself. But with you by my side, I know I can learn. Maybe someday, if it's something you want—"
"It is," Luca whispered. "It absolutely is."
When he pulled me into his arms again, I happily went. There was still so much to figure out, but the hardest part was behind us. We would start a life together. We would have a family that included Gio and Violet and Marilyn and all of Luca's crazy brothers as well as the huge family that I'd only just accepted that I had on my side. I’d continue to fight all the battles thrown my way, but I would no longer have to do it alone. Not only did I have Luca, but I had Aleks and Ronan and all the other men and women who cared about me. And I’d figure out how to help Luca give Gio what he needed so we could bring the young man home with us. He might never have a normal life, but like me, he’d figure out how to move forward and he'd find love and success and family.
And he’d do it with the thing Luca had given me so long ago the day we’d first met.
Hope.
The slamming of car doors and loud voices outside drew our attention and we reluctantly parted. But Luca didn’t let me get far because he grabbed my hand.
“I don’t know who has the crazier family, you or me,” he murmured as the front door opened to reveal Con and King doing what they did best.
Arguing.
Luca began to lead me down the stairs. I was both nervous and excited to see everyone, especially Violet and Marilyn.
“I don’t know my family as well yet, but apparently when they argue, they place bets instead of threatening to beat the crap out of each other,” I said. “That reminds me, did you pay my rent?”
Luca was decidedly quiet.
“Luca?” I prodded.
“Huh?”
“Did you pay my rent?” I asked again.
He started to pat his shirt pocket and then seemed to remember he’d quit smoking. “No,” he finally said.
“Luca, Ronan told me about him and Dom betting about who’d pay my rent first. He said you trumped both of them.”
“I can honestly say I did not pay your rent,” Luca responded over his shoulder. His refusal to make eye contact had me tugging him to a stop. I ignored the fact that his brothers were still arguing downstairs and that Vaughn had gotten into the melee. Violet was happily chattering about something in the background, but I avoided looking her way so I wouldn’t lose my train of thought. I gave Luca what I could only classify as my best version of the evil eye.
“I didn’t,” he insisted.
“Fine, what did you do?”
He leaned in and gave me a quick peck on the nose. “I love you,” he said cheekily.
“What did you do?” I repeated, though I was quickly losing interest in ever finding out. At the moment, all I wanted to do was grab my gorgeous man and get him in a room somewhere so I could finally find out about the stuff couples did when they made up after fighting. I’d even heard Aleks and Vaughn passing jokes back and forth about the virtues of make-up sex. I might not be ready for all the sex stuff, but I would certainly be okay with a repeat of what had happened in the back seat of Luca’s car on our first date.