Page 115 of The Hunter’s Affection

Epilogue

“Tavolo per due?”

Due. Two. Charlotte was going out on a limb.

“Sì, grazie,” she responded, pleased with herself when the petite hostess ushered her to a table not far from where they stood. The restaurant was literally carved into the cliffside, with a to-die-for view of the sea to her right.

Capri, Italy, was her new favorite place in the world.

Charlotte pulled the menu toward her as she waited for Torr.

Sea bass with stuffed zucchini flowers. Done. The food on the Amalfi Coast was delicious—each meal a revelation—and she’d never had an easier time ordering food.

When the waiter approached and began speaking in Italian, she had to give up the pretense that she could speak it. The few words she’d learned so far weren’t going to cut it.

“Non parlo Italiano,” she admitted. “Mi dispiace.”

“It’s no problem, signorina—”

“Signora,” Torr corrected him, sitting down across from her.

“Mie scuse—”

“Nessuna scusa necessaria . . .”

And now she was lost. Charlotte was pretty sure the waiter apologized when Torr corrected her title, but once they began a conversation in truth, she let him take over.

Of course he spoke Italian, among other languages.

There was still much to learn about her husband.

“I ordered a bottle of red—”

“Torr!”

“Trust me on this. Just once. If you don’t like it, Pinot Grigio it is.”

“Why do all you red wine drinkers feel the need to convert us?”

“Why do these Italian men keep staring at my wife?” he asked, giving the two guys sitting next to them the stink eye.

She made a face.

“My wife,” he repeated.

Charlotte laughed. Since they had decided, very spontaneously, to get married the week before while in Positano, they’d both been using the new titles obnoxiously often.

But she didn’t care.

“My husband.” Charlotte would say it a million more times before she tired of it.

“They’re going to kill us,” she said, not for the first time. By “they” she meant their family and friends collectively. No one even knew yet.

Since they were heading back to Stone Haven after Italy, she and Torr had agreed to surprise everyone in person.

“So what did your sister want?” she asked, Torr’s phone call the reason she’d gotten the table alone. As they’d pulled up to the dock, she looked up, saw this restaurant jutting out from the cliffside, and knew immediately she’d wanted to come here after wandering around the streets of Capri for a bit.

They had only planned on staying the day before returning back to the mainland later that evening, but Charlotte aimed to change that. Who needed a change of clothes when they had a view like this? It truly felt like paradise.