I’m hopeless.
With that, Julia stepped through the door of the plane. It was empty. She looked around and gasped. Every seat in first class was overflowing with pink roses. She walked down the aisle. Every seat in the next section was also covered with pink roses. She stood in the middle of the plane and started to cry.
“When I pictured this moment, I didn’t imagine you crying,” Gio said from behind her.
Julia spun. She wanted to run and throw herself in his arms, but she was afraid. Afraid to have her heart broken for a second time that day.
He walked to her and held out a hand, but she stood frozen in place. He let his hand drop to his side and said, “I’ve been an ass.”
Julia nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
“I’m not good at talking about how I feel.”
Still Julia silently watched and waited.
“I thought I was happy before I met you, Julia. But I wasn’t. I was comfortable with being miserable. That’s not the same thing. I didn’t want to change. I didn’t think I could.” He stepped closer to her and took one of her hands in his. “You told me that I wouldn’t let you in, and you were right. I had gotten used to closing myself off. I forgot how to let anyone in.”
Julia gave his hand a supportive squeeze and held his eyes.
“I didn’t find all the answers I was looking for in Venice, Julia, but I learned something about myself.”
“You did?” Fresh tears poured down Julia’s cheeks.
“Yes. I don’t want to repeat the mistakes my parents made. I don’t want to spend my life hiding what I feel.”
Julia laid a hand on Gio’s cheek and smiled up at him through her tears. “And how is that?”
“I love you, Julia. I can’t promise that life with me will be easy, or that you won’t need to walk me through some of this, but I can promise you that no one will ever love you more than I do.” He kissed her with all the love he’d been holding back, and the last of Julia’s fears fell away.
When their kiss broke off, she said, “I love you, too, Gio.”
“I should have told you what happened on the island. I was angry and I’m used to burying those feelings.”
“What happened?”
He hugged her to him, tucked her beneath his chin, and said, “Alessandro told me that my mother had returned the deed for the island to him. She’d told him we didn’t want the island. All this time I hated him for thinking I wasn’t one of them enough to give it to me, when it was my mother who didn’t want me to have it.”
Julia hugged him tightly. “Why would she do that?”
Gio shook his head sadly. “I don’t know. She never liked my father’s family. That’s actually putting it mildly. She couldn’t tolerate being around them at all. Apparently her hatred of them took priority over the feelings of her sons.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“I’m not.” He kissed her forehead. “I needed to know the truth. I was trapped in all the lies. Suffocating beneath them. My brother was right—I needed that smack with a lamp. I needed to wake up.”
“What will you do now?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I know that we can figure it out together.”
“We . . . I like that. It still doesn’t feel real. Are you really here?”
“I sure hope so, or I paid all of the passengers from this plane a lot of money to find alternate flights for nothing.”
She pulled back in surprise and asked, “You paid everyone to take another flight?”
He pulled her against him again. “You’re marrying a very rich man. I get what I want.”
Julia’s stomach did a somersault at his words. Did he just say? Did he just ask? “Was that a proposal?”
He raised one eyebrow—at first neither confirming nor denying. “You know I don’t ask when the outcome isn’t in question.”
“And what makes you think—”
He cut off her question with a kiss that left them both breathless. “I don’t think. I know. You’re marrying me, Julia. I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”
She raised her hand and touched his cheek softly. “Well, I suppose if I have no choice.”
“Absolutely none.”
“What am I going to do with you?”
A lusty smile spread across his face. “I have plenty of ideas.”
She shook her head and laughed. “Here on this plane?”
He took her by the hand again. “My plane is refueling now.”
“Where to this time?”
“Anywhere you want to go.”
“It’s a shame we missed the wedding.”
“We didn’t miss anything. They postponed it until tomorrow.”
“For you?”
“For us.”
“We should go back.”
He nuzzled her neck. “Tomorrow. Tonight, come away with me, Julia, one more time. We’ll find a quiet place. Just you and me.”
She hopped with excitement beside him, then stopped as a thought suddenly came to her. “Hey, I finally sold some of my jewelry pieces. Can you believe it?”
He pulled her close and hugged her. “With you, Julia, I believe in everything again.”
Epilogue
Maddy D’Argenson watched Nicole Corisi spin in her Marchesa wedding gown before a floor-length mirror in her bedroom suite. The amazing white gown was long-sleeved with a high neckline and lace bodice, the skirt layered in silk organza with tulle petals. Her long black hair was confined to a tight chignon on the crown of her head that would soon sport a long veil.
Nicole was radiant, smiling, and beautiful in a way only a bride can be.
Maddy sat on the edge of a chaise lounge, happy Nicole had allowed each attendant to choose her own style of bridesmaid gown. She’d chosen a figure-forgiving empire-waist chiffon one. She wasn’t sure she would have fit into something with less give, considering how her stomach had seemed to double in size in a way it hadn’t for her first pregnancy. “My father and Uncle Victor are already arguing over names for your first child. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Looking over her shoulder at Maddy, Nicole smiled. “I love your family.”
“Our family,” Maddy said seriously. “It’s about time that you’re officially part of it, too. Stephan should have married you the first time around. Uncle Victor should have never gotten involved.”
“He meant well,” Nicole defended her future father-in-law.
“He was wrong to try to break you up. At least he finally apologized.” Maddy placed a hand on her stomach as her baby kicked. “If you ask him, he still says he did it because he cares about you and thought his son needed time to grow up. I hope I don’t ever meddle in my children’s lives like that.”
“You? Meddle? Never,” Nicole said, tongue in cheek. In a more serious tone, she continued, “It was easy to forgive Victor. He did it out of love. You have no idea how lucky you are that you have a family who cares so much about each other.”
Maddy made a sympathetic face. “You have your brother, Dominic, and his wife. They both love you. You’ve mended your relationship with your mother. You have family who loves you—today all you’re doing is doubling the number of them.”
Nicole cocked her head to one side.