April waggles a finger in his face and points at the stairs. The three of them exit without further protest.
Uncertain, Charlie follows the crowd.
“Not you,” Dario says. “Please stay. If you want to. I want to finish our conversation from last night.”
Charlie turns back. Dario’s still soaking wet, and now he’s shaking, partly from the cold and probably partly from the emotions running through him.
Despite the scene, Charlie wraps him in a towel he grabs from the lounger outside. “You good?” Charlie asks.
“Better now,” Dario says, stepping in for a hug that confuses Charlie. Isn’t this the part where Dario lets him down easy? Tells him he has no room in his life for gold-diggers?
“You didn’t tell me your family was here,” Charlie says, holding Dario, wondering if this might be one of the last times he does so.
“Between finding you and my panic attack, I am surprised I told you anything. It is all a big blur,” Dario says into the meat of his chest.
“All of it?” Charlie asks.
Dario nuzzles his head, and Charlie’s heart frustratingly flutters. “The part where I told you that I like you is still there, I promise.”
Charlie waits for the inevitablebut…
When it doesn’t come, Charlie says, “I leave tomorrow, as per the contest rules,” stating the obvious.
“I don’t care about the contest anymore,” Dario says. “I care about you, and I want you to stay.”
Wrapped in the oversize towel, Dario looks small. He sounds small, too. As if his vulnerability has shrunken him down. Charlie could practically pick him up and stick him in his pocket, carry him around and protect him forever.
“I care about you, too, but I need to get back to my family soon,” Charlie says. “We have…stuff to figure out.”
Charlie can’t name it again. Can’t bring himself to think about the house on Cemetery Street, and how selfish he was for using Dario as his salvation.
“I think we have stuff to figure out, too,” Dario says, pulling back and looking Charlie in the eyes. “Like where I can deliver the check to save your house and what kind of engagement ring you might like.”
Charlie widens his eyes. “Wait, what? You can’t do that. It’s too much.”
“It’s not too much. It’s never too much when you have more than enough like I do,” Dario explains. “I thought about what you said last night, and I appreciate you being honest with me. But let’s face it, whoever I marry was always going to need something from me.”
“But isn’t that wrong?” Charlie asks. “To take like that?”
“I’m taking, too. A marriage means I get Amorina. It was always going to be an exchange. Marriage is an exchange. It’s business. Love is the part that’s personal,” he says with a thrilling intensity in his expression. “I see that now.”
Charlie remains speechless for a moment. His brain is one long-loopingdaaaaaaamn. He didn’t know what to expect upon meeting Dario Cotogna, but the man’s maturity andperceptiveness are beyond anything he could’ve prepared for. Somebody better find a crash mat and quick, because Charlie Moore is certain he’s falling even harder for the chocolate maker.
“I guess I hadn’t considered that,” Charlie finally says.
“Stay another week,” Dario says, eyes crystalline, voice a sparkler of faith. “Let me show you what this life can be like, just the two of us without the intrusions or the dramatics.”
“You’re not just saying this because I’m the last one left?” Charlie asks, feeling unsteady on his feet. He woke up resolved to be brave in the face of heartbreak. Now he doesn’t know what to do with his fiddling hands and somersaulting heart.
“I would be saying this if there were a million people in this room, because you’re the only one I have eyes for,” Dario says, sincere as can be.
Charlie is a chocolate bar in heat. “You’re sweet. If it was only me to think of, it would be a yes, but my family needs me. It was a hassle to lose me for one week, let alone more.”
“They did not approve of you coming here?” Dario asks.
“It’s not that,” Charlie says, a little cagily. “They need me around more than they’d ever admit. For all intents and purposes, I’m my grandparents’ primary caretaker.”
“I meant to ask, do they pay you for that?”
