“It’s such a legacy property. Those houses don’t come up, like, ever.”
His eyes flicked back and forth between mine. “I won’t sell it if you don’t want me to.”
“No, it’s your place. You should decide—”
“Our place.Come on, you’ve been my wife since the moment we met. A piece of paper doesn’t make that more true. Just true for lawyers.”
Sweetest, hottest man alive. “You’re right. We probably won’t use it. But I guess ... what if our child ever wants it? What if they want to move to Rome when they become an adult and start a life there?”
He gave a quiet breath like he was in pain. “They aren’t even born yet, and I can’t stand the thought—especially if it’s a girl. I never really understood my mother’s perspective about the three of us until I realizedI would be a parent myself. Everything hits different now. She was supportive of me when I decided to move to Palermo, and now I realize how hard that actually was for her. I know she still goes to the cemetery every day to visit my brother, and when I imagine going through something like that myself ... I can’t breathe.”
I moved my hand to his arm and squeezed it.
His eyes drifted off somewhere else, his thoughts clouded by his sorrow. “We’ll keep it. I’ll tell Rocco I’m happy to share it with him. It’s such a big place, so someone should live there. And now he needs something of that caliber for protection.”
“He gets to live there for free, so that’s nice.”
“Fuck no, he doesn’t,” he said with a slight chuckle. “He’s gotta cover the utilities and the staff.”
“That’s fair.”
He lay there for a while, the silence trickling by. His eyes stayed on me all the while. “I know we can’t go too far for our honeymoon, so I thought we could stay at that hotel where we met.”
“Ooh, that’s a perfect idea.”
“Yeah?” he asked with a smile.
“Room service whenever we want, sex all day, right there at the ocean ...”
“Good. I like it too.”
“What about Medusa? Can she come with us?”
“I’m not taking her on our honeymoon,” he said with a chuckle. “She can stay with my mom.”
“I’ll miss her.”
He pulled me a little closer to him, my belly against his rock-hard stomach. “Trust me, you’ll be too busy to miss her.”
The wedding was in just a few days.
Everything had been planned and scheduled. I had my wedding dress in the closet. His mother knew everyone in Taormina, so she had no problem booking everything at the last minute. The ceremony would be at the Duomo di Taormina, the church right in the heart of the village, where Constantine and I met up before he took me on a private tour. He said it was the only request he had because his mother would never forgive him for getting married anywhere else but within the walls of a church.
I didn’t care where we got married anyway. As long as Constantine was there, we could get married in a coal mine or a zoo. If it was important to his mother, then she could have whatever she wanted. I was just grateful that she would be my mother too.
The reception would be on an outdoor terrace at one of the hotels, right on the cliff’s edge over the sea, an enormous space that could accommodate five hundred guests ... because that was how many people were coming.
Because, again, they knew literally everyone.
It was my last day at the restaurant. Constantine and I had both decided that we needed to focus on our own restaurant, our honeymoon, and preparing for the baby. I was sad to leave Rosticceria Da Cristina, because it was the place where I became closer to his cousin Antonio and his sister Beatrice. I got to spend time with cousins and family friends. But the bigger I got, the more painful it became to stand all day, and I was grateful that Constantine was able to take care of me so I didn’t have to work if I didn’t want to.
I finished prepping for the day, so I was supposed to wait tables through the lunch rush. My shirt was a little tight on my stomach and really put my belly on display, so there was no doubt I was pregnant, and everyone congratulated me every day.
Beatrice ripped off her gloves and came to my side. “Can’t believe it’s your last day. Gonna miss having you around here.”
“Me too. I’ve learned so much and have gotten to know you all so well.”
Antonio came from one of the other kitchens. “You can always come back, you know?”
