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“Thank you.”
She doesn’t realize the power she wields over me, but one day, she will. There isn’t such a thing as too much when it comes to Emma. I would burn the world down if that was her greatest desire.
She pulls away slightly, a shy look in her eyes as she licks her lips. “I… I love you, Enzo.”
I can’t show her how much I love her, not when Matteo is in the same bed as us, but I try my hardest to convey the feeling with my lips. “And I love you, Emma. I’ve loved you from the first second I laid eyes on you, and I will love you long after they have buried us in the ground.”
“By the way, I want to be cremated,” she teases me.
“Then they can mix our ashes and use them as soil for a tree our great-great-grandchildren can sit under.”
Emma laughs at me, the sound loud and sudden. It startles Matteo and Emma has to turn over to rub his back to help him settle back into sleep. I wrap my arms around her and welcome the sleep that comes with the woman I love in my arms.
Chapter Forty-Eight- Emma
It shouldn't make me so happy to see that our flight attendant isn't Clarissa. Perhaps the feminist in my brain should be seething at the thought that I would deny her a job because of how she looks, but that isn't true. It isn't that she can't work for the family, I just prefer she stays on flights away from my fiancée.
Perhaps my brain is more screwed up than I give it credit for.
Today, the flight attendant is a plump woman in her fifties. She’s got a kind smile and wears compression stockings. When we stepped onto the plane, she fretted over Matteo before she even acknowledged Enzo, who is technically her boss. He didn't mind, and I appreciated her all the more for it. She also showed me photos of her grandchildren when we boarded the plane, the youngest being only a couple of months younger than Matteo.
His birthday is at the end of the week, and he’s told me he wants to have a dinosaur-themed party. He thinks his father is capable of anything, including getting him a real dinosaur. I don’t think it’s possible, but if someone were capable of doing it, it would be Enzo.
I still don’t know where we’re going. Enzo hasn’t told me yet. After the incident, I doubted Enzo would want to go anywhere, but he woke us up this morning and told me to pack a bag for a couple of days. He also promises me his mom will arrange the best dinosaur birthday party for Matteo when we get back.
Enzo hands me a couple of pamphlets. Oceana, Marine Conservation Institute, and the Ocean Foundation. “What are these?” I ask him.
“Pick one. Every time we have to use the private plane, I will donate $10,000 to the environmental charity of your choice. Offset our carbon footprint a bit.” He doesn't smile as he says it, and if it were anyone else, I would have called him dismissive. Not only had he listened to me on our last flights, but he picked out three organizations that aligned themselves with what I told him.
Enzo might be a new language for me, but I'm becoming fluent quickly.
I can’t help but smile at the man with so many layers. He doesn’t care about his carbon footprint, but he knows I do. Maybe that’s what love is about, not finding someone who shares all the same ideas as you, but finding someone who cares enough about yours that they’re willing to compromise. The overhead speaker comes on, announcing our descent. Even the pilot doesn’t say what airport we are coming into.
“Are you willing to tell me where we are yet?” I ask him as I flip through the pamphlets he's thrown at me. I'm sure that we'll be making at least a few flights a year, so I'll spread our donations out between the three organizations.
“Colorado.”
I look up at him, wondering what he's up to. Colorado is where I ran to when I hid from him, and while he'll never forgive my father, I also hope he doesn't hold any ill feelings toward my aunt. She did her best to support me during that difficult time, she doesn't deserve his ire.
“Colorado? Why?” I ask, trying to keep my voice calm. He sees right through me.
“I thought it might be nice for you to see your aunt, for one.”
It's not the entire truth, but it's enough to calm me. I might narrow my eyes and glare at him to encourage him to tell me the rest, but my shoulders also drop in relief and my chest fills with air as I take in a breath of relief.
“And I’m sick of waiting to marry you. My mom and sisters can plan their winter ceremony, but we’re getting married this week,” he admits to me.
“Isn’t Las Vegas where you go to elope?” I never thought of Colorado as being the place for elopements. There are lots of beautiful places for a wedding, but Vegas is known for its elopements.
“Colorado doesn’t require we have an officiant or any witnesses. We can have a private ceremony, just us and Matteo becoming a family,” he tells me with a casual shrug of the shoulders. It doesn't offset the fact that he just said the most romantic thing I have ever heard.
My heart thuds in my chest. I press a kiss to his lips, appreciating the romantic in him he keeps buried away from everyone else. “I’d like that.”
“Good, because it’s happening. Your aunt is expecting us. She’s going to take you to buy a dress, and she’s making us a cake to celebrate afterward. She insisted.”
Once we get through the airport, my aunt is waiting for us. Enzo opted to fly us to the smaller Colorado Springs airport and stay away from the Denver airport, something I find myself grateful for when we don't have to fight through crowds.
My aunt has a giant smile on my face and I practically launch myself into her arms.
