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“What did you do back there?” she asked, turning to face me.
Her voice echoed off the chipped and wrecked marble floor.
“I left the family,” I said
“How? Why? What?”
“I told you that once this was over, we’d go to Chicago.”
“Luca,” she said, shaking her head. “I never thought… you couldn’t have…”
I reached out and pulled her to me. She stumbled, fell against my chest, stared up into my eyes.
I held her hips and kissed her.
I didn’t know how else to explain what I felt. I kissed her, deep and slow. When I pulled back, she chewed on her cheek.
“I meant it,” I said. “I want you, Clair. I want a life with you, beyond all this. I want that pizza place, or maybe a grocery store, or whatever the fuck you want. I don’t care what we do. I just want to do it with you.”
“You really left for me?” she asked, her voice a whisper.
“I love you,” I said. “Always have. Always will.”
“I love you, too.”
I pulled her tight and kissed her again, my heart beating fast, my head almost dizzy.
I thought I saw the chandelier sway, glinting naked light along the broken and shattered wealth all around us.
“Come on,” I said, pulling back. “Let’s go pack.”
“Forget packing,” she said. “Let’s get in a car and drive. It’s, what, twelve hours?”
“Probably longer.” I laughed and held her hand tight as we left through the front door, stepped out into the cool Philadelphia afternoon. “But who cares? Let’s get going.”
“We have to stop and say bye to my mom,” she said.
“Sure,” I said. “But then you’re all mine.”
She grinned up at me. “Then I’m all yours.”
We walked down the sidewalk, holding hands, and I didn’t look back at the ruin of the mafia house behind me.27ClairTwo Years LaterSweat dripped off my forehead, down into my eyes. I blinked it away. “Order twenty-two!” I shouted.
“Order twenty-two,” Luca echoed, found the two medium pizza boxes on top of the oven, brought them over.
“That’ll be… $32.40,” I said to the pretty young mom with a toddler clinging to her hip.
She handed me a card, I ran it through, gave it back.
“Receipt?” I asked.
“No, thanks,” she said, grabbing the boxes. “Have a nice night.”
“You too.”
She walked out the door, the little bell ringing behind her.
“You ever think about one of those?” Luca asked, coming up to me from behind.
I laughed as he hugged me, kissed my neck. “What, two medium pizzas?”
“No,” he said. “Not the pizzas.”
“The yoga pants?” I asked. “She had nice yoga pants. Looked cool. Nice pattern.”
He grinned, bit my lip. “Come on, don’t play.”
I shrugged a little, kissed him. “I guess I can think about it.”
“We could start right here, right now.”
I glanced at the table of teenagers eating cheesesteaks and playing paper football. “I don’t think so,” I said.
“Ah, they won’t mind,” Luca teased. “They’d probably love the show.”
I turned and hit him in the chest. He laughed, kissed me again.
“Oh, gross,” Kelsey said, coming out from the back. She smelled like cigarettes, had thin blonde hair, but smiled a lot and customers loved her. “How long are you two going to be like this? I swear, it’s been two years, and you’re still hugging and kissing like teenagers.”
“Can’t help myself,” Luca said. “She does it for me.”
“He’s a pig,” I said. “But I love him anyway.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes and took over at the register. I went into the kitchen area with Luca, checked in on Ryan and Mike as they worked on orders, then ducked into the office to balance receipts.
Luca joined me, perched on the edge of the desk.
I looked up at him and frowned. “Can I help you?”
“I was serious,” he said. “About the baby.”
I leaned back in my old cloth chair and it squeaked horribly. The office was tight, cramped, books and papers everywhere, a little security monitor perched on a side table.
Everything in the restaurant was new, everything except my desk and my chair. I cut costs where I could, since it wasn’t easy running a pizza shop in a major city, but we made it work, and besides, we didn’t need the money.
I was rich as all hell, after all.
“You really think it’s a good time?” I asked. “We’re just starting to make Clair’s work, and—”
“It’ll never be a good time,” he said. “A baby’s going to fuck our life up.”
I laughed a little. “You’re really selling me on it.”
He reached down, took my hand, kissed my fingers. “It’ll fuck our life up, but it’ll also make it better. Come on, I want a kid, and I know you do, too. You keep looking at all these young moms like you want to jump over the counter and steal their life away.”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Yes, you do.”
I looked at him, chewed my lip. He was right, of course. I’d been thinking about a baby for over a year now. Once the restaurant was open and we settled into a routine, I kept thinking about expanding our little family.
