“Well, let’s start with us. What’s going to happen with us now? Are we going to tell my dad since he’s coming back?”
Matteo takes his tumbler and sits back, situating himself sideways, so he can face me. “Yes.”
I give him my best come-on-you-can-do-better-than-this look I’ve been perfecting since I met him, and he chuckles into his drink.
“Yes, they are flying back tomorrow evening, so I’ll meet with your dad and uncle a day later to clear things up.”
I almost choke on my drink. “What do you meanyouwill meet with my dad and uncle? I’m coming too.”
Matteo sighs. “I think it might be better if you weren’t around.”
“I don’t care. I want to be there. They’re my family. Plus, we don’t need anyone getting shot.”
“Fair enough.”
“That means Ally will come back too, right?”
He nods. “Nikolai will let her go after I talk to your uncle and cancel the engagement, yes. I’ll meet with him tomorrow, and will make sure he upholds his side of the bargain too.”
This time, I do choke on my drink and spill some of it in the process. Matteo puts my flute on the table and reaches for a napkin to help me clean up the mess. By some luck, nothing got on my dress.
“You’re going to meet with him tomorrow?”
He nods.
“When were you going to tell me?” I throw my hands in the air.
He’s quiet for a moment. Too quiet.
“Matteo. Were you going to tell me at all?”
“To be honest, I hadn’t really thought much about it. I’m not used to having to share my plans with anyone, unless I’m working with my team, so this is all new to me. My dad knows I’m doing my job and that I come to him if I need him for something. It’s been like this my entire life.”
My chest expands with my next inhale, a weight settling on my chest. “Okay, this is new to both of us and something we both need to get used to. Obviously, it’s the opposite for me, and I’m the one who’s usually kept in the dark, and I’ve always hated it. It makes me feel . . . I don’t know, like I’m not important enough to share anything with, I guess.”
He reaches out and puts a hand on my knee. “I don’t want you to feel like that anymore. You know you’re important to me. You’re my life now.”
Hope pushes some of the heaviness off my chest, and I whisper, “You’re mine too.”
“Come here.” He grabs me underneath my legs and behind my back and slides me onto his lap. He presses a lingering kiss on my forehead before leaning his against mine. “I’ll try to remember to tell you what’s going on, okay? I just don’t want to drag you into things that you don’t want to be dragged into either. Or shouldn’t be for that matter. I don’t want to taint your light with the dark parts of my life.”
“What if I welcome the darkness? What if that’s what will allow my light to shine even brighter?”
“Then I promise I’ll try my hardest.”
“Thank you.” This position isn’t the best for having a serious conversation, but I enjoy the closeness and snuggle against his chest. Nothing has gone according to plan since the day he first came into my life, the day my whole life changed.
Even if he had no direct hand in what happened to Luigi, or even with Ally and Nikolai, he was still some form of catalyst for me, and I’ll never forget that. I’ll always be full of gratitude toward him for that. Maybe even more than that. No, I know it’s more than that. He drives me crazy, but in the best possible way, I enjoy his company, and I can’t stop thinking about him. Have I . . . have I developed feelings for my husband?
“Do you remember when I told you that this whole thing with Nikolai was about business?”
My mind comes to a screeching halt as I try to focus back on our conversation and his question. It takes me a minute to sift through what we were just talking about to remember our past conversations. “Mmm, some business beef, right? That’s why you set up the whole engagement to Ally, to lure Nikolai out, or something like that.”
“Well, it was never really about business. Not in the traditional sense. One of his guys killed one of my cousins, and I wanted Nikolai to hand him over. The second I found out about him and Ally, I knew I could use that info to my advantage. I didn’t expect him to storm the bar, guns blazing, or that anyone would get hurt in the process, but in the end, it all worked out.”
I try to pull back as much as I can to look up at him. “So he handed over the guy who killed your cousin?”
“Well . . . not exactly.”