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After what felt like three days of flying, we finally land in Florence. The travel agent that Joey hired to plan the trip — I knew he couldn’t handle all of this on his own — arranged to have a car pick us up at the airport and take us to the hotel we’d be staying in the night before and the night of the wedding.
“So, where are we staying?” I ask Joey as he and I, along with Savannah and Frankie, pile into the giant SUV.
“You said you wanted to be surprised, Angel. So wait and see.” He kisses my hand gently before boring his big brown eyes into mine. “I promise, you’ll love it.”
“You two are sickeningly adorable.” Savannah rolls her eyes next to me.
Frankie scoffs from the front seat. “You’ve got the sickening part right. But all I can say is it’s about fucking time.”
Savannah and Frankie’s statements make me wonder how everyone around us saw the mutual attraction and feelings we had for each other, yet we were so blind to it all those years. Over the past few months, Joey and I have accepted that we can’t change the past and take back the time we could have been together. We’d established such a strong bond through our friendship that it made us that much better as lovers.
I must have fallen asleep on Joey’s shoulder on the drive over, because I’m gently shaken awake when the car stops at our hotel. Except, when Joey helps me out of the car, I realize that we’re not at a hotel.
“You rented a fucking castle?!” My hand flies over my mouth in shock, and mild embarrassment for cursing in front of our driver.
“I told you, Angel. I wanted this wedding and honeymoon to be beyond magical for you. Come on.” He takes my hand and leads us through the entrance of the castle. I take one look around the glamorous room surrounding us and gasp loudly.
“How can we afford this?!” I shout, not giving a damn about making a scene right now. “Seriously, Joey, this must have cost a fortune!”
“Okay, first, let’s take a breath. In…” he inhales, guiding me to follow. “Out…” he lets the breath go with me. “Second, I may have had a good chunk of the settlement money left over after I put new equipment in the shop.”
I don’t know whether I should feel vindicated or disgusted that lawsuit money from my sociopath ex-boyfriend is paying for the wedding of my dreams. Luckily, I don’t think Joey expects anything other than shock from me at the moment.
“Who knew this man was so romantic?” Savannah barrels into me from the side. “Joey, you don’t by any chance have any brothers, do you?”
“The closest thing I’ve got to a brother is the man standing behind you,” Joey smirks and points at Frankie, who may or may not have been staring at my sister’s ass.
Savannah glances back at Frankie, almost like she’s never really looked at him before. I see her cheeks flush pink as she turns back to Joey and me. Oh, this will be something worth discussing when I’m not completely jetlagged.
“Alright, so tomorrow is the ceremony at sunset. During the day, the castle is comping you both a complete spa day — massages, facials, the works.” He looks between me and Savannah.
My eyes widen to the size of saucers as Joey goes on about all of the pampering we’re going to get tomorrow. In addition to the in-house spa, the castle is having someone come out to do our hair and makeup for the wedding.
I’m about to respond to everything he’s just said when the driver comes up to Joey.
“Ecco le sue valigie, signore,” the man says something in Italian while motioning to our suitcases near the entrance.
“Grazie.” Joey thanks him and hands him a €20 note.
“How do you know how to speak Italian?” I raise my eyebrows at him. This man continues to surprise me more and more every day.
“My Nonna was full-blooded Italian — she insisted I know how to speak Italian as well as I did English.” He lightly brushes his knuckles along the sides of my face. “Sei la luce della vita mia.”
Him speaking any foreign language makes my insides melt like lava, even though I have no idea what he just said. “What does that mean?”
“You’re the light of my life.” He kisses me gently. “I’ll miss you tonight, but I’ll more than make up for it tomorrow night — I promise.”
My brows furrow in confusion. “Wait, why are you going to miss me tonight?”
“Oh come on, Angel. You know it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding,” he smirks.
“You don’t actually believe in all that crap, do you?” My nose scrunches up in disbelief.
“Again, I grew up with an Italian grandmother, Kelsey. She was as superstitious as they came, and passed it on to the rest of us. And given that it took us this long to get together, I don’t want to start our marriage with any kind of bad luck.”
This man is off-the-charts adorable. If you didn’t know Joey like I do, you’d think he’s a big tough guy who doesn’t ever show his feelings. And maybe to people he doesn’t really care about, he’s exactly that. But to me, he is the kindest, most generous man I’ve ever known.
Chapter 60
