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“Should I assume with all this affection you showing me that you want us to be together?”
I lifted my head. “I want us to be together. I want to date you and fall in love with you all over again. Then, when you ask me to marry the old-fashioned way, we can have the wedding and honeymoon of our dreams.”
“I can’t wait until we’re in bed together.” He winked at me. “You want to skip dinner?”
“No.” I laughed at his crestfallen expression. “I’m hungry for food, and you.”
He immediately smiled.
“You seem happy.”
“So do you.” He quipped.
“Because you make me happy. I’ve been fighting loving you. But this morning, when you broke it down to me why you didn’t want to be married to me anymore, you reminded me of what you’ve given me and what I’ve always needed. I left this morning, believing I needed to be away from you to work through my emotions. Then it hit me. Why don’t we slow it down and just date.”
Gavin’s blue eyes twinkled. “I like that. You must be feeling hopeful about our future?”
“The future is bright from what I can see. Thought we would have to burn the city down, yet here we are, together, happy.” I dragged my hand over his thick hair and the nape of his neck. “I love you, Mr. Gavin DeLuca.”
“I love you more.” His cupid bow lips spread into the most joyful smile.
I pulled his head down to kiss him. I had no idea what would happen with my brothers or the outcome of his talk with Enzo or Gavin’s pending meeting with the commission. Right now, I was at home with the man I loved to share my day with, just like normal folk.
Epilogue
Eight Months Later
Gavin
“Can you let her uncle hold her?” Xavier held his arms out while I cradled my newborn to my chest. She was the most precious baby I’d ever seen, with vanilla skin, round cheeks, blondish curly hair, and hazel eyes like her mother.
I turned my back to him playfully. “She’s mine.”
Storm laughed. “Just like a man to claim a baby after I went through fifteen hours of labor without medicines. Thank you very much.”
We were in our new Brownstone in Harlem, and Storm gave birth to our firstborn three hours ago in our home with the help of a Doula. Xavier and Petra had been in the living room anxiously waiting for the entire duration of her labor.
“Don’t worry, you’ll have your own soon enough.” Petra wrapped her arm around Xavier’s waist, and he rubbed her six-month-old bump. “Then we can keep Xander away from Gavin and Storm.”
“Oh no, no one’s keeping my big head nephew from me.” Storm protested.
Petra gasped. “My baby won’t have a big head.”
“Exhibit A.” She giggled and pointed at Xavier’s head. The scar had faded due to Petra’s insistence on applying cocoa butter to her husband’s head every day. “Bae, let them hold Gia. We get to go home with her tomorrow. They don’t.”
“Baby Girl always has my back.” Xavier gloated as he carefully held Gia’s head when I passed my daughter to him.
I then slipped into bed next to Storm and kissed her, proud of my new family. “Can’t wait until we have a son.”
Her lips curved into an exhausted half-smile. “Think we can wait at least a year.”
Xavier walked around with the baby, talking to her with pride and love in his voice. Xavier and I had grown close once he officially emerged from hiding and resumed being head of St. James Crew. Storm had become his second in command, and they’d grown over the past few months under his renewed leadership in which they ruled with more empathy and fairness. Storm continued to expand Oasis Palms and our real estate empire.
Storm never heard from Pierre again after the day at the auto shop. She’d quietly asked Sunny D to deal with Pierre on behalf of Xavier. After that, she refused to ask or inquire about what had happened. She liked to believe he was somewhere traveling the world. Her parents had been understandably devastated when the truth about Pierre’s involvement in the attempt on her life and Xavier’s was shared. They were now returning to the States to live and enjoy being grandparents. The commission had cleared Xavier and Pierre’s names in Brazino’s death. Manhattan had been divided among the four remaining families. I’d given Big Tony free rein of the territory in Manhattan, though he remained my top security.
My people probably speculated what happened to Brocco, though they never said it to my face. As far as they were concerned, he left his wife and relocated to Italy. I continued taking care of his wife, Adrianna, and she’d recently started dating again. Brocco had been an abusive and unfaithful man, so though she missed him, Adrianna soon realized she enjoyed her life without him.
I’d resume running my record label and heading the DeLuca organization in Brooklyn the day after my brother’s death. I became more benevolent and empathetic to my people, determined not to lose my soul like Brocco. I still missed the good parts of him. The parts that I’d known most of my life. Yet, I couldn’t afford to ignore that he was no longer the brother I grew up with. Jealousy and resentment ruled his heart, and he could no longer see me as the younger brother he adored. I’d become the enemy. Big Tony had to do what needed to be done, and Enzo wisely understood that my brother’s blood couldn’t be in my hands. It would’ve haunted me and interfered with my ability to run Brooklyn like my fathers before.
As for me and Storm, we were better than we were seven years ago. We shared all that had happened on the day we decided to recommit to each other. When she told me she’d already decided to be with me before the truth of Cain’s death had been revealed, I believed her. It was in her beautiful, expressive hazel eyes that could never lie to me. She loved and accepted me for me. Heart. Body. Soul.
We dated for a month before I officially asked her father and Xavier for her hand in marriage. I then bent on one knee and proposed at the beach house in Virginia, where we became a team. Four days later, we discovered we were pregnant. I’d never been happier as we quietly went to the Justice of the Peace instead of the big wedding we thought we wanted the same day.
Our marriage had been what I’d always envisioned. Loving, fun, quirky, and deliciously sexy. We agreed to parent carefully and raise our children as equally as possible. We planned to do as much as we could as parents to ensure that our children only love one another and never resent each other. We also decided that our children could make their own choices and wouldn’t be expected to join any family business. Their lives would be their own.
As I looked down at my beautiful wife, holding our daughter, I marveled that the best part of our story was that she remembered that she’d been my Juliet and I, her Romeo. Except we wouldn’t end tragically like those two star-crossed lovers did. We were on our way to happily ever after.
