“Aphrodite.”
I sighed as I turned and met Big’s eyes.
“I take care of you,capisci?
“I know.” I squeezed the words around the lump that had formed in my throat. I hated to be vulnerable, because in the world I used to live in, the word meant being eaten alive. I was still getting used to Big and his “nothing is bigger than me” presence in my life. “But I’m here to take care of you too.”
“You do.” He barely touched my lip. “When the doctor wasn’t quick enough to get the bullet out, he thought you were going to knock him over to do it.” He grinned, but it faded fast. “But it’s more than that.”
I glanced forward. Even though Angelo and Umberto were still talking, I could tell Angelo wasn’t all that into the conversation anymore. I knew he was keeping one ear on me. My brother worried about me.
Big caught the quick glance. “We’ll talk later.”
I nodded, knowing I should be honest with Big about my fears, but I was trying to work through them alone. I always did. But even without me sharing, I knew he instinctively knew what I was going through. He was so in tune with me, it was almost scary.
Angelo stepped out of the car and opened my door. I thanked him as I glanced at my husband. Angelo shut the door and set his hand on my lower back, trying to be as protective as Big, and I smiled.
“Are you sticking around?” I asked.
He slid a hand through his jet-black hair and adjusted his dark shades. “I need another adjustment on my tux for the church wedding,” he said, fixing his dark designer suit, then cleared his throat. “Georgia’s here?”
He opened the door to the store for me, but I stopped just outside of it. I lifted my sunglasses and my eyebrows at him. “Why?”
I’d caught Angelo staring at Georgia quite a bit. Most men did. She had an hourglass figure, a sweet southern accent, and red hair. Phoenix had a few crushes on the girls I worked with over the years, but Angelo had never shown any interest. His sudden interest in Georgia sent up a red flag.
He shrugged. “Just asking.”
I wanted to say more, but the bridal attendant rushed toward us, ushering us in with a wide smile on her face. “Everyone is here, but we can’t start the appointment without the bride!” She had an Italian accent.
The bride.
She was talking about me.
Big and I were already married, but when he’d made plans to take me to Italy and Greece, he’d made plans for us to get married again. Big said the first wedding was for us, but the second would be for my brothers and his grandmother, who said we didn’t put on abigenough show. With Kitty, it was always about the glitz and glamour.
I really didn’t want to do it. Unlike Kitty, I didn’t think a wedding should be a show. I liked that our ceremony had been about the vows and us, but the idea got embedded in Big’s head, and when my brothers got all excited about it…
There I was.
The entire place hustled with women trying on dresses and personal attendants attempting to keep them all happy.
That was another surprise.
Big, probably feeling guilty about the gunshot wound because it had worried me, had rented out Dynamic for the entire month we’d be in Greece. Included in that was the girls Vinny employed. Everyone I worked with could attend because Big paid their salaries and arranged this day at the bridal salon—so that each girl could pick out a nice dress. He also bought their plane tickets and secured hotel accommodations for everyone, including Vinny and Sam. Vinny grumbled, but he agreed when Georgia threatened him with our resignations.
Yeah, Big wasbig-time rich. Rich like I’d never expected to experience in my life.
Most of the girls at Dynamic hadn’t had an easy life, and to see them all excited about a new dress and an all-expenses paid vacation to the Mediterranean? It almost made me turn around and rush back out to the car and show Big how much I appreciated it.
My husband might be a dangerous hard-ass to the rest of the world, but he had a soft spot for me. Almost as big as the one I had for him. That soft spot was what made me feel weak in the knees. I’d never really had anyone to depend on, besides Georgie, and I’d started to depend on him.
Thinking of Georgie… my eyes scanned the place until they landed on my best friend.—More like sister.
The dress she’d chosen not long ago was too big. and she had to get it taken in.
Georgie had been keeping a secret from me—from everyone—because she didn’t want anyone to worry. She had ovarian cancer. Big had talked to her and encouraged her to be honest, especially with me.
I’d taken it hard. One, that she didn’t want to tell me because she didn’t want to be a bother. And, two, the most important reason: the woman I considered a sister, someone who had always been in the trenches with me, had a life-threatening disease.
