“It looks like you’re going to feed an army.” I laughed. “And I’m happy, too,” I assured them all. “Did anyone call Wyatt?”
“I did, and he’s on his way,” Vinni chimed in from the other room.
Mama immediately put herself to work doing what she loved. She began to prepare a meal. We offered to help, but she brushed us off, insisting we’d make a mess of things. We all gathered around and began to talk. We needed to try to figure out how to move forward from here. Papa did a recap on everything they were able to find out.
Rosa Coppola had disappeared. No one had seen her or Salvo after the shooting of the uncles at the church. The Coppola syndicate was now under Rosa’s reign, and Lord knew what that meant. Mariano was still in the wind as well. Lots of scenarios were discussed, but eventually we all agreed to wait for our contacts to come up with something.
“Was Ugo able to get any of the files on the companies they worked with?” Papa asked.
“Ugo was going to, but I haven’t asked him yet this morning, and I felt we should let him have the night off since I was a little preoccupied myself.”
“He’ll be over in a little bit,” Vinni chimed in again. Apparently, he had everything under control. “He just needed to check in with Oscar.”
“Well, let’s hope he did. If we can get ahead of it before everything snowballs, we’ll be in great shape.” Papa looked over my shoulder and smiled widely. “There’s our girl!” He rushed by me and scooped Sienna up in a huge hug. My heart warmed, and all my problems evaporated in that moment as everyone took their turn with her. Hugs and loving words had her face flushed and happy.
We all sat down and enjoyed Mama’s breakfast feast.
“Piero,” Sienna leaned to the side and removed something from her dress pocket, “I’m not sure how much was loaded to the account, but there’s at least fifty percent from Rosa’s computer. I used the transfer link Ugo had shown me so all that could be removed should be there.” She handed him a small paper. “It’s the login and password.”
I thought Papa was going to lose it he was so excited.
“You’re really something special.” He leaned over and kissed her head.
“I just hope there’s something on there that’s worth reading.”
“There will be. I can feel it.”
I was beyond impressed with her. Just when I thought she couldn’t impress me more, she did that. She really had grown into something amazing.
“That’s so strange to see.” Niccola pointed to Sienna’s ring next to mine as we held hands.
“I know.” She admired our hands.
“Interesting that you, Sienna, wear yours on your right hand.”
Oh, yeah, she did have it on her left before.
“More jam?” Mama handed me the jar, but I declined, knowing it was now or never.
I stood and offered a hand to Sienna.
“Take a walk with me.”
“Now?”
“Yes.” She excused herself and took my hand. I walked her away from the guest house, down into the sprawling field. A squirrel ran by with his tail held high. He had a nut in his mouth, and I had to laugh as he sped by us. “He has something he wants to keep, too.” I squeezed her hand.
When we were near the creek, I led her under the weeping trees I knew she loved then stopped and turned her to face me.
“We’ve been through a lifetime of ups and downs, you and I, and we’ve still managed to come out the other end together.”
“We have.” She gave me a sexy smile, the same one she’d worn when we finally made it to the bedroom last night.
I laughed. “Hold that thought. We’ve proven that the boomerang effect is real. We’ve been bent, stretched to our limit, but we always end up right back here.” I covered her heart with one hand and slipped the other in my pocket. “Sienna, we were made for each other, so let’s give the stars what they’ve been asking for.” I pulled out the ring and let the five-carat cushion-cut diamond sparkle under the Tuscan sunshine.
“Elio—” She started to speak, but I held up my finger for her to let me finish, because for once in my life, I was scared as hell of her answer.
“Sienna, will you marry—”