Those earnest brown eyes captured me as they had from the first time I saw him. No one had ever forced me to confront who I was behind the face I showed to the world except Torre. I should’ve hated him for making me relive all the ugly in my life, but instead I fell so hard for him I didn’t even notice I’d hit the floor and stayed there, worshiping the goddamned ground he walked on because he made me feel alive and worthy.
“You have it all—looks, brains, and a loving family. I’m not sure what I bring to the table except an unparalleled skill at deboning a whole branzino.”
My joke fell flat, and Torre shook his head at me. “We’re still doing this? I thought we talked it out and you know that the only thing I need from you…is you. I love you, Frisco. The man you are every day—sometimes irritating, often frustrating, occasionally as amusing as he thinks.” He stopped and grinned before grabbing me and planting a kiss on my lips. “But always incredibly intelligent, passionate, and sensual. You have a soft, sweet side you like to keep hidden and only show to me, and I love that you trust me with that.”
I held him tighter. “I trust you with everything. I just don’t want you to regret you tied yourself up with someone with enough baggage to go around the world forever.”
“We all have baggage. The difference is, we don’t have to carry it alone. That’s what it means to love someone unconditionally.”
A burst of laughter from the two groups of friends drew my attention. “I never thought I’d want what those men have—and yet seeing how happy they are makes me want that stability of a home. With you.” I cupped his face. “Let’s set the date and get married. I want to take you back to Italy and make love to you with your mouth tasting sweet from wine.”
Torre brushed his lips to mine. “I’d marry you tomorrow. Tonight. Just name the date.”
“One week,bello. That’s as long as I’m willing to wait.” I patted his ass. “Now let’s pay some attention to our guests. I want to check in on those two kids Jonathan brought. The girl looks like she’s about to have the baby any day.”
Hand in hand, we walked to the table I’d seated them at. Zach was there speaking with Jonathan and a wide-eyed, smiling Jessica.
“I see you two have met on your own.”
Jonathan glanced up at me. “Yes, and Zach has just informed us of the scholarship program he wants to set up. Jessica is going to be the first recipient.”
“I’m so happy and grateful. Zach said it will be there waiting for me after I give birth.” Jessica gazed at Zach like he was the answer to all her prayers. Maybe he was.
“You take all the time you need. Finding parents for your children is the most important thing.”
Her smile faded. “I just started the search for adoptive parents—and I know it’s really late. I’m already eight months, but it was so hard in the beginning with my parents kicking me out and looking for a place to live. Finding out I was having twins shocked me and I felt so helpless, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to give up so many times…but I think this is going to give me the push I need. I just hope my babies understand I gave them up so they could get the best life possible.” Tears shone in her eyes, and Zach wiped his own. I could see he had a soft heart, like Torre.
“They will, Jessica,” Zach said, speaking softly, directly to her. “If you have an open adoption, you can even keep in touch with the parents. You might want to consider that.”
“I don’t want to confuse them…I don’t know.”
“Whatever you decide, it’ll be with the babies’ best interests at heart.”
I left them to talk it out and walked through the restaurant, making sure everyone was attended to, with food and drink. I found Torre talking to Elliot Hansen and slipped my arms around his waist. Torre, in the middle of a sentence, didn’t miss a beat of his conversation. He simply let me hold him, knowing that was what I needed sometimes. Elliot’s gaze settled on me.
“One of the features I’m planning for the magazine for Valentine’s Day is finding love in unusual ways. Only because Win and I met under such strange circumstances. I thought it would make a fun article.”
“How did you two meet?” I figured nothing could top Torre and myself.
“In my bedroom.” Elliot’s eyes twinkled. “Win was my neighbor and saw someone breaking into my house. He followed the burglar up the stairs and into my bedroom. I woke up to him yelling:Freeze! Don’t move!”
I burst out laughing. “Not something you’d ever hear coming out of our bedroom—oof.” Torre’s elbow dug into my stomach. “Ow.” I tightened my hold around him. “Don’t be shy,bello.” I snickered. “That’s a good one. Torre and I were bitter enemies online. He thought I was a pretentious, obnoxious snob—”
“Imagine that,” Torre dryly interrupted, but I chose to be the bigger person and ignore him.
“I was a food critic forUltimate NYCand might’ve been a little harsh and judgmental in my criticism of some restaurants. Torre wrote on his blog about how unfair I was to the little guy. My boss at the time took it to heart and assigned me to write about the unknown restaurants of the city, and I ended up in his brother’s place, Mangia. As a reviewer, of course I used a fake name, and he introduced himself using his real name, not the pen name he blogs under.”
Elliot’s jaw dropped. “So neither of you knew who the other was when you met?”
“Nope. Not until we were together for a while.” I still remembered that day at the office when I’d discovered who Torre was, thinking he’d lied to me about everything, including how much I meant to him.
“Ouch. That could’ve gone very badly.”
“It did. For a little while. Frisco tried to shut me out, but I refused to let him.”
“He’s nothing if not persistent.” I kissed his cheek, nudging his nose with mine. “Thank God for that. Now here we are a year later, planning to get married.”
“Okay, that’s perfect. I have to include this in the article. If you don’t mind, of course.”
