I had no idea what that might mean in the long term. What it might be like to date someone in the mafia. If his “Family” would accept me. If my nerves could handle the danger, the uncertainty.
But I did know that I wanted to try.
Because in such a short time, Venezio had managed to fill that void of loneliness I was starting to worry might never go away, might always be a part of me, putting a damper even on the things I loved the most.
Maybe I made Venezio feel like Christmas morning.
But he made me feel like those precious moments after the presents were opened, the food shoveled in, and there was nothing but a bone-deep contentment as you sat on the couch under a blanket with some silly Christmas movie on the TV but you were watching the tree lights dance instead.
He made me feel like traditions falling into place.
Though, yeah, if we ended up as a forever sort of thing, I’d be totally fine if we didn’t make running for our lives through the city a tradition of ours.
“Pizza,” Venezio said, coming back into the bedroom.
But pizza? Pizza could absolutely be one.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Venezio - 1 Day
“Come on, Grandpa,” Stephanie heckled from her seat in her wheelchair.
“This thing don’t have a seatbelt. I’m not going any faster.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted. “Go faster.”
“Gonna go right ahead and remind you that we’re late because you wanted to watch that movie this morning.”
“No, I wanted to watchyouwatch it. There’s a difference. For the record, you laughed at all the right parts. Even if some of the jokes haven’t aged well.”
I had to admit, it had been a good morning.
If you’d told me just a week before that I would say I enjoyed waking up in bed with a woman and watching some ‘90s Christmas movie with a woman that I couldn’t even fuck, I would have snorted.
But that was exactly the morning we had.
We’d gotten up, had cold pizza for breakfast, then I cleaned and redressed her wounds as she flicked through the movie selections.
Then, well, we’d gotten wrapped up in the movie.
And so we were late.
By her made-up time clock, since this wasn’t exactly a job.
“I’m a little surprised there wasn’t a test afterward,” I teased.
She took her holiday movies seriously as fuck.
It was one of the many things to like about her.
“Who says I’m not working on a SAT-level test encompassing all the movies I plan to force down your throat over the next few days?”
“Fair warning, I’m shit with tests. Made it outta high school by the skin of my teeth. And maybe only because my history teacher changed my grade after I found the assholes who stole his watch and got it back for him.”
“Did you do it because of your grade?”
“Nah. I wasn’t running some con. I just liked that teacher and hated those assholes.”
