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Gavriil looks over his shoulder. “She’s here?”

“In her home,” I retort through gritted teeth. “In Queens.”

Rafe sits down in the chair next to mine, his face sober. “What happened?”

I hesitate. Then, slowly, I ease back into my chair. The root of my problem with Alessandra lies in my inability to trust. Maybe confiding in my brothers will get me nowhere.

Or maybe it will be the first step that will show Alessandra I truly want to change. To get back to those days we spent together in Santorini where I felt relaxed, free, instead of coiled tight inside a prison masking as a safety net.

“I made a mistake.” I stare down into my whiskey. “One I will regret for the rest of my life.”

“Mistakes can be rectified.”

I glare at Rafe. “And I’ve been trying to fix it.”

“How?” Gavriil asks.

“I tried stopping by her apartment to talk to her. I call every morning and every night. I send flowers.”

Rafe tilts his head to one side. “What do you say in those phone calls?”

“Maybe I should just forward you the damn voicemails,” I snap.

“That would be helpful.” Gavriil just grins when I flip him off. “Seriously, though, did you apologize?”

“Yes.”

So many times. But maybe it’s too late.

No. I will not accept defeat. If it takes the rest of my life, I will show Alessandra every way I can that I’m here. That I want to change, do better. I want to give her the support she received from her mother, the knowledge that I’m proud of her and everything she has accomplished on her own.

More than that, I want a life with her.

“Do you love her?”

I don’t even hesitate to answer Rafe’s question.

“Yes. I’ve loved her since that night in Santorini.”

Loved her and yet ran from it at every opportunity, too scared to confront that I had finally found a woman who had snuck past my defenses, who had bared herself to me, who had driven me wild not only with her passion, but with her strength and vulnerability.

“Have you told her that?” Gavriil asks.

“No.” I hold up my hand as Gavriil starts to say something smart. “I don’t want her to hear it the first time in a voicemail or through her door.”

“You need a grand gesture.”

Both Gavriil and I turn to look at Rafe, surprise etched across both our faces.

Rafe shrugs. “I’ve learned a lot.”

“We all have.” Gavriil turns back to me. “Although you have yet to share the details of your, ahem, first night with Alessandra, what made it special?”

Her. “What do you mean?”

“Something that stood out. A detail that would be important to her while showing her how you feel.”

I think back to that night, images whirling through my mind like a kaleidoscope. Alessandra sitting at the bar, the Aegean Sea and rocky ridges of the caldera a backdrop to her incredible beauty. That first smile that made the rest of the world fadeaway. Pulling her body close even as I told her I could only offer her one night…