Page 140 of Effortless

“Right now, yeah. So, what finally did it for you, Camilla? What made you switch sides?”

Camilla grinned. “What do you think—who do you think?”

“Ah.”

“Yep, you.” She tapped a finger to his lips. “But it’s our secret, and if you ever tell anyone, you will die a slow and painful death.”

Tommaso returned her grin. “Deal, babe.”

“I will hold you to it.”

“You better. We could make some time to go around and look at the campuses while you’re up here,” Tommaso suggested.

Camilla smiled against his chest. “Yeah?”

“Anything, babe.”

“Even if that means we’ll spend all of our time together visiting family or driving around?”

“Worth the effort,” Tommaso told her. “We’re worth the effort, Cam.”

With him, it definitely was.

It always would be.

EPILOGUE

TOM TUGGED on the sleeves of his suit jacket, and shifted on the chair for the fifth time. This whole meeting shouldn’t be a big deal—he had been waiting for what seemed like forever and a day for this moment.

He was beyond ready.

Yet, he fidgeted.

“Stop bouncing around like that,” his father said to him, adding a severe look to make his point. It only worked for a second, and then he was back to fidgeting all over again. “Why are you so nervous, Tommaso?”

“Don’t really know,” he admitted.

“Give him a break,” Damian said from the other side of the table while he looked at the screen of his phone. “I think it’s normal, all things considered. Joe damn near paced a hole in the floor when he had to talk to Lucian. Didn’t seem to matter how many times I told him Lucian actually liked his dumb ass. There he was, pacing back and forth for a good hour or more.”

“Yeah, cut him some slack,” Theo agreed. “It’s not like any of us understands how this feels for him. We never had to ask for this kind of thing way back when. I imagine it’s enough to make him want to puke.”

“All right,” Tom said, “if we’re going to start talking about our feelings and walking down memory fucking lane, I am out.”

The other men at the table ignored him completely. Not that he was surprised when they continued on with their conversation like he hadn’t even said anything at all.

“We only didn’t have to ask because they were all dead,” his father said.

“Lucky you, Tommas,” Damian replied. “Mine was arranged, so my choice was do it, or die.”

“You say that like you don’t love my sister to death,” Theo said, smirking.

“No, I love Lily. We were the lucky ones in that way.”

“No, Alessa and I were the lucky ones back then.” Adriano flashed a smile from the far end of the table. Tom was convinced his uncle’s only reason for coming to the meeting was to watch him squirm. “And you know what, now that I think of it, Theo kind of asked. Not my dad, I mean. He was dead. Me, though. He asked me.”

“Did I?” Theo asked.

“More told than asked, but I respected it just the same.”