Ivan’s in a particularly good mood that night when he comes by tonight, but I don’t find out why until just before he leaves. “Oh, by the way,” he says, glancing over at Daniel and Jerome with a friendly smile as he flattens out the empty boxes of the pizza that he brought all the way from the cit
I say nothing, but when Ivan looks back at my face he grins a little, shaking his head. “See?” he says, reaching out to put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m onto something there. Don’t trust him, Fay.” But I frown and pull my shoulder out from beneath Ivan’s hand. “You should go.” I say, hard. Because
Jerome, Daniel, and I are all pretty much exhausted as we pull up to the bar the next day around noon, when it opens. Jerome and I stayed up pretty late explaining the details of the plan to Daniel, and then telling him what we need him to do next… …and then a couple more hours patting his back wh
But then I scowl when she laughs at me, because I should have guessed that she would know immediately. I mean, she for sure knows that it wasn’t Daniel. “Oh, come on, Fay,” she says, laughing again. “I saw how he looked at you the minute you came into that house. I wasn’t even jealous! I couldn’t
“You weren’t a shit spy,” I say, shaking my head. “You worked for years doing that, and Kent never suspected for a single second. My dad just convinced you that you were bad at it because he doesn’t feel like he needs to respect you.” “What are you doing, Fay,” Fiona snaps, staring hard at me. “Yo
“What?” I ask again, baffled. But my head snaps back to Fiona as I hear her answer the phone. “A caller from the prison? Sure, I’ll accept.” And then she gives me one of her trademark winks and holds out the phone to me. “It’s for you.” “W…what?” I say again, obviously at a loss for words as I s
“You don’t have to swear to me, F-…” I can hear him press his lips shut as he avoids saying my name. And I take a sharp, deep breath, knowing we’re on shaky ground. “I have no doubts,” he finishes. “Good,” I murmur, and again I laugh just a little bit, because the word is pathetically inept in ter
When I take a deep breath and look over at my family, I burst into laughter because they’re all watching me with wide, anxious eyes. So, I hang up the phone and walk over to them, shaking my head and wiping at the slight dampness beneath my eyes. “Well, that looked suitably intense,” Daniel murm
My dad greets him with such genuine joy and excitement that it makes my heart swell with joy. They talk for a few minutes about Dominic’s day before dad gives him a little nudge back towards the gate where Kent and I are waiting. Dominic gives dad a kiss before running ahead again. My dad waves to
“Papa!” Dominic shouts, startling me out of my reverie as he drops my hand and darts down the road. I look up, a huge smile breaking out on my face again as I see Kent on the sidewalk just ahead. His back is to us as he speaks companionably with the butcher, a heavy bag of his purchases already hung
As I walk down the street towards the little Italian kindergarten, the whispers start around me, as they always do. I listen to all of them, a big German Shepherd padding quietly at my heels. “Is that her?” “Yes, that’s the one – I heard she was her husband’s mistress before he married her – tha
Both Kent and I laugh, but Don Bianci – across the baptismal font from us – snaps his eyes up, perhaps not liking the joke as much as we do. But I just ignore it, because dad’s right, frankly – and it’s too happy a day to care. After the final blessing everyone applauds Dominic – he likes that, bl
“Well, it didn’t seem to affect your first very badly,” Ivan says with a shrug, peering around Kent to where Daniel is laughing with an arm around Jerome’s shoulders. “So…maybe keep it up.” I smirk, squeezing Ivan’s hand once more before standing and moving to Kent’s side, tucking myself against h
“Hey, gorgeous,” Ivan says, his mouth turned up in a smirk as I cross the churchyard, beaming at him. “Look who’s talking,” I say, laughing and reaching for him when I come close enough. Ivan wraps me in a hug, dropping a kiss to my cheek as I hold Dominic a bit to the side so he doesn’t get squis
He laughs, smiling at me genuinely. “Do I make you nervous?” he asks, blunt. I laugh, unable to help it. “Has no one bothered to tell you, in all these years, that you’re a little terrifying, Don Bianci?” He grins and shakes his head at me. “Well, considering what you accomplished, young lady, I
Two months later, we’re all gathered together again. And it is only with frustration that I see Gio and Janeen standing so close together that their arms nearly brush, even though they’re still not together. I roll my eyes, dismissing the problem for a moment as I move my eyes down to Dominic and
It's an incredible night. Kent didn’t lie, not at all, about the food either. I’m shocked by the mountains of dishes that continue to follow each other, one after another, long into the night. After a few hours of it I just mournfully watch the waiters go by because I couldn’t eat another bite if I