The stars filled the sky, so thick that she lifted her hand as if she could touch them. Then she sniffed the air.
“You smell like barbecue.” She looked at me.
We both grinned and then started laughing. I pulled her head close, and we kissed under the stars.
The same stars my mother used to wish on.
Maybe I was luckier than she was.
I’d never made a wish in my life. I’d give them to my mother, because gambles seemed more my speed, and I’d never made one I thought I could lose.
Including Leonora Kallistos Bigatti.
Everything I had to gamble with, I gambled on us.
Looking at my wife, setting my hand on her stomach, I knew without a doubt.
I was the richest motherfucker alive.
Epilogue
LEONORA
Seven Years Later
A lighttap,tap, tapwas coming from the back seat. I turned in my seat some and eyed our two daughters sitting side by side as we climbed higher and higher, on our way to visit Triora for the weekend.
Daphne was seven and Theia was five.
Theia didn’t have patience in the car. She wanted in and out. “I wanna be there,” she sang in her kiddy-sounding voice. “I wanna be there.”
Daphne, on the other side, was ignoring her, studying each dip and turn, enjoying each new piece of scenery her many blinks brought her.
When we were able to leave Vegas, we always came back to Portofino, and because of my first trip to Triora, I always wanted to go back. We’d planned three of our trips around the different festivals. This year we were going to the chestnut festival, which would mark our first October, first fall, in Italy. I couldn’t wait to see the leaves, smell the toasting chestnuts, and introduce our daughters to a part of their history. Theia might not remember this one, but maybe Daphne would. Or at least some parts of it.
Big glanced through the rearview mirror to check on them, then he lifted my hand to his mouth and breathed me in before he kissed my fingers.
It had been seven years since we were married three times.
Seven years since we’d fallen in love.
Seven years, two children, and an uncountable number of memories that I never wanted to forget.
And only a lifetime to go.
Our arrival in Triora was met by a quietyesfrom Daphne and a squeal from Theia as Big opened Theia’s door and scooped her up. I took Daphne’s hand, and we checked into our place for the weekend. Then we spent the entire weekend trying all the local dishes, enjoying the people and the culture, and teaching our girls that even if the world calls you a witch, it doesn’t matter, because you’re the only one who controls your magic.
I loved seeing Big in his greatest role—the father of our daughters. He was excellent at it. He let them do his hair, and whenever they needed a prince, he was their man.
On our last night, the girls went to bed earlier than usual, and I was staring out the open window, watching as the clouds moved over the moon. Witchy weather, indeed.
A glass of red wine appeared at my shoulder. “Grazie,” I said, taking it from Big and kissing his hand. He pulled me closer, and we both stared out.
“And to think…when you first met me, I wouldn’t have shared my board if we were ever on a ship that went down.”
He laughed quietly, wrapping his arm around my neck, kissing my cheek. Then my mouth. It was a deep kiss that was a short prelude to the promise of later. “You’d share with me now, Aphrodite?”
“I’d give you the entire thing,” I whispered.
