LIANA


    Four yearster


    OUR FIRST BOY TURNED THREE, days after I graduated fromw school. Josh was his father in miniature form-camera-shy, sweet, and introverted. He blew out the candles as my husband cradled our newborn, Vincent.


    Josh grinned toothily as the house erupted in cheers, and I scanned the table, grinning at the people who filled my heart. Michael hugged Josh, and helped him cut slices of cake as his four-year-old, Luke, clung to his legs. Carm passed out paper tes, beaming. Carm’s pixie-like sister pped her hands, radiant beside her tanned husband, Alessio. Queenie and Vitale ignored the noise as they cozied up in a corner, kissing. Myw school buddies clinked their champagne flutes with the few Vinn counted as his friends.


    Since we married, Vinn and I had left Boston to the beach home for a month-long vacation every summer. Then we started inviting Michael’s family and his inws. It was too crowded, so we built extensions to fit everyone. Eventually, it became a base for barbecues, holidays, and birthdays.


    A bottomless peace settled into my soul whenever I stepped inside this ce. I exhaled a deep sigh as Vinn slid his arm around my waist. Warmth tingled my cheeks as he kissed the shell of my ear. His thumb stroked the round, circr scar from the gunshot wound.


    The recovery had been difficult, especially with a baby on the way. A media firestorm had lit up the local news until Alessio Salvatore threw enough dors at the CEOs who pushed the articles out of the circuit. It’d been handled quietly. Vinn had kept the details from me, but the police investigation dropped shortly after Killian went ‘missing.’


    A faint line creased Vinn’s forehead, his gaze riveted to my face before it moved over my body. My heart jolted as his fingers grazed my thigh.


    “Your mom’s watching the kids tonight. Let’s sneak offter and fuck.”


    His velvety voice dipped heat in my chest.


    I drank in thefort of his closeness, the very air electrified as he nipped my skin. “You sure my brother won’t walk in on us?”


    I referenced the incident involving an unlocked door and Michael drunkenly wandering in the wrong bedroom while Vinn and I were preupied.


    Vinnughed loudly, something he’d slowly learned to do during our marriage. The best part of my life with him was Vinn blossoming into a devoted father who hosted ydates and always managed a small, tentative smile. The kids had softened his harsh edges. He was still a don, but, at least in private, he was my gentle giant.


    “Joshie, hold on,” Vinn barked, detaching to grab our son. “You need sunscreen.”


    Vinn thered the stuff on Josh’s body. Michael corralled the children and ushered them outside, where a cloudless sky mirrored the water. Vinn fitted our son with a lifejacket before he brought Josh to the water. They yed in the waves before Josh decided to build sandcastles with his cousin, Luke. Michael’s older kids raced the beach.


    Vinn’s hawk-like gaze zeroed on his son as he settled in a chair. “Where’s Vincent?”


    “Mom has him.”


    He pulled me onto hisp, and a delicious shudder heated my body. Wrapped in his arms was my favorite ce. My heart hammered as I scanned the coast.


    “I’m not seeing a lot of ces we could get away with being naked.”


    “Use your imagination, sweetheart.” He pressed his mouth into my ear, jolting my skin. “I’ve already scouted an area and left supplies.”


    “Supplies?”


    “A couple towels…and toys. We’ll have fun, provided nobody finds my stash.”


    “Oh my God, Vinny.” A wickedugh tore from my throat as I pictured two teenagers stumbling upon a bag of lube and vibrators. “You’re insane.”


    “It’s not the worst we’ve done.”


    My cheeks red as he scooped up my hand and kissed the knuckle with the wedding ring. I’d hired a jeweler to craft a rose gold band with scalloped seashells among the diamonds.All content is ? N0velDrama.Org.


    He caressed the jagged line before finding the ne. Guilt nagged at me when he locked eyes on it and sighed. I removed it and bundled it into his fist.


    I’d released the old Vinny ages ago. It took a while to admit I’d never really known him. I’d worshipped a fantasy, not a real, wed human being.


    “I give you permission to throw it in the sea.”


    He chuckled. “You have no idea how often I’ve fantasized about that.”


    “Do it.”


    He yed with it, fingers rotating the shell.


    “Nah,” he murmured after a long silence. “I only hated it because I thought you loved someone else. It reminds me of the man I was, the hope, the lightness in my chest before everything went dark. I don’t ever want to be that asshole again.”


    Slowly, he slipped the chain around my head.


    He tenderly traced my jaw, the fire spreading into my heart. “Keep it, Li. I like that you never gave up on me. But I think I have you beaten on the obsession front.”


    A ridiculous grin staggered across my face.


    He winked at me, grabbing a wallet from his pocket. He opened it, retrieving a torn, yellowed piece of paper. A wrinkle ran along its edge. He stared at it for a moment and handed it to me.


    I took it, recognizing my handwriting.


    Love,


    Liana


    “What’s this?” I flipped it, but there was nothing. “My signature? Where’d you get it?”


    His gaze dropped as he smiled. “I tore it off one of your letters.”


    The ripped up letter I’d found stuffed in his shoebox swam to my mind.


    I gasped, that long-ago mystery sliding into ce.


    “I’ve had it in there forever,” he admitted, pink in the cheeks. “I wanted your love with me everywhere I went. Cheesy, I know.”


    My feelings warred. I could’ve socked him in the shoulder for hiding such a sweet gesture from me, and sobbed for the teenage Liana who’d spent years writhing in angst over this man. Emotion thickened my throat. I couldn’t speak, but Vinn seemed to understand.


    “I love you more than you know.”


    “I love you, Vinny.”


    He wiped the tear tracking my cheek. “Take a nap. I’ll look after the boys.”


    I yawned, nodding agreement as he shifted our positions. I watched him through heavily lidded eyes as orange sunbeams sparkled on waves. Vinn kneeled beside Josh, who’d smashed his fist through Luke’s sandcastle. He redirected Josh’s attention to a sleeping Michael, whoy on a towel.


    “Let’s bury him alive,” Vinn whispered to Josh. “You start at the feet. I’ll do the hands.”


    “Okay!”


    Father and son heaped sand over my unsuspecting brother, who hadn’t yet noticed the attempt on his life. Vinn upped the ante by squirting lotion into his hand. He wrote FUCK on Michael’s back in big white letters,ughing when Carm swiped through the profanity.


    “What you doing, baby?” Michael stirred, jerking away from Vinn. “What did you do?”


    “Nothing,” Vinn said breezily. “Carm ruined an amazing practical joke.”


    “Vinn made a joke?” Michael turned on his side, upsetting the sand burying his ankles. “Am I in a parallel universe?”


    Vinn dumped a cup of ice water on Michael’s neck.


    “Vaffanculo!”


    The children shrieked withughter as Michael sprang upright. Vinn sprinted into the ocean. Michael gave chase, tackling him. Both fell with a wide ssh. Vinn was far from the dream-like perfection I’d worshipped.


    And I didn’t care.


    I loved him, ws and all.


    The end.


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