“‘Years ago, I slipped each of you a copy of that newspaper article. The one about the man who ordered your family wiped out in that fire. We never spoke of it aloud, but I wanted you to know he had been arrested. That knowledge was meant to steady you, even though we had to remain vigilant in the shadows. He stayed alive in prison for many years, which is why you were never allowed to risk digging into your past, or his crimes, or his trial. Research, questions, even whispers could have drawn the wrong eyes, and there was no way to know if he had loyal men on the outside hunting for you.
“‘That man is gone now. He died in prison. His men scattered around, working for others who do not have you in their crosshairs. The threat that hung over you is finally at an end.
“‘I am sure you have wondered why Gi Gi’s Crossing. The truth is, I bought the naming rights and all its available properties to celebrate the death of the evil that stole so much from you. At first, I meant to tell you right away to let you feel the relief of being free. But then came my diagnosis. I knew I would not be here to guide you. My death would leave you a ship without an anchor. It broke my heart to know I could not teach you how to belong to a place, how to lean on a community. And we all know, none of you would ever go looking for that on your own. So my mission changed. In short, I decided that I had to set up a situation that shoved you into Gi Gi’s Crossing long enough to fall in love withit. Thus your to-dos. This town is a living, breathing safety net waiting to catch you.
“‘I was meddling, yes. Not even a little sorry. My job when you were dropped off at my doorstep was to teach you how to vanish to survive. When that ended, my new mission was to teach you how to come out of the shadows and to live in the light. Nothing gets that job done quicker than a small-town community.
“‘So take the locks off your doors. Take your names back. Stop surviving and start living. Love is now your inheritance. Not fear.
“‘My deepest joy will be if at least one of you, if not all of you, choose Gi Gi’s Crossing as your forever home. You may not think you want that now, but trust me, you do.
“‘It’s time to fall in love loudly. To be seen. To choose recklessly, messily, bravely.
“‘You were never meant to disappear forever.
“‘With all my heart, Gi Gi. Now shining the light on you from heaven.’”
Silence held the room in place. No one moved. No one breathed.
Then Marcus stood, walked to the mini-fridge, and crouched. The chill hit his face with clarity. He pulled out five bottles, handing them out one by one, and then opened his own.
Marcus broke the silence. “To freedom.”
Luca raised his bottle. “To stepping out of the damn shadows.”
Lorenzo lifted his. “To Gi Gi.”
Giovanni added, “To being seen.”
Marcus swallowed past the ache in his throat. “To small-town living,” he said at last.
The words tasted strange.
They clinked glasses.
“Did we really just toast to small-town living?” Luca asked.
“Maybe we should toast to undoing that toast,” Marcus said.
They laughed. Not too loud. But it felt good.
Marcus looked around at the only people who’d ever known him without translation.
His chest ached.
Fulfilling Gi Gi’s dying wish wasn’t just about love. It was about letting go of the last part of himself still hiding in the wreckage of what they had survived and choosing something other than survival.
He’d do it in a town full of nosy, loud, meddling strangers who’d adopted him as one of their own. Just like Gi Gi had.
“Shall we take bets on whether Marcus can get the girl back now?” Luca asked.
“Odds are, he can’t,” Giovanni said.
“Fuck off, all of you,” Marcus said, grinning while his brain spun with ideas. Tonight, he’d plot. Tomorrow, he’d chase the girl.
Chapter 47
Marcus stepped out of the elevator and onto the rooftop with a professionally wrapped gift tucked under one arm and the weight of unfinished business pressing hard against his chest.
