Page 162 of Ruthless Vow
His arm tightens around me.
“Tesoro.Thank me by making it something they’d both be proud of.”
Lucia and Salvatore. The mother-in-law I’ll never meet but whose presence I feel every time I sit at her table, love her son.
“I will,” I promise. “I will.”
We drive home through the dark streets, my hand in his.
He glances over. “You’re quiet.”
“I’m working.”
“We haven’t left the parking lot.”
“The five-year model has a gap in year three. The projected patient volume doesn’t account for the second location’s ramp-up period. And the grant applications need to be restructured. You’re leaving federal matching funds on the table.”
Silence.
I look at him.
He’s smiling. Not the sharp, dangerous smile he gives the rest of the world. The real one. The one that’s just for me.
I turn back to the window, but I’m not seeing the shotgun houses or the neon glow of the Quarter in the distance. I’m seeing columns. Revenue streams. A budget I’m going to tear apart and rebuild from the ground up.
My fingers tap against my thigh, keeping time with the numbers already running.
EPILOGUE
DANTE
ONE YEAR LATER
The expansion plans are spread across the grass beside her.
She hasn’t noticed me yet. Reading glasses on. The ones she pretends she doesn’t need. Shoes somewhere behind her. Bare feet in the garden. Red wine stain on the hem of her dress from Gia’s birthday dinner three nights ago because she refused to change out of it.
I built walls for years. Kept everyone at arm’s length. Told myself it was strategy.
Don’t deserve it. Still don’t.
She looks up.
Smiles.
My pulse kicks hard against my ribs. A full year. That smile still hits like a fist under my sternum.
“You’re staring.”
“I’m allowed.” I lower myself to the grass beside her. “You’re my wife.”
“For a whole year now.”
“For the rest of our lives,tesoro.”
She sets the papers aside. Leans into me. Her ring catches the afternoon light when she threads her fingers through mine.
I designed it myself. Cognac diamond. White ones around it. The dark gold of her eyes when she’s thinking. When she’s wanting. When she looks at me like I’m worth what she gives me.
