Page 69 of Naz & Roz

She gave her mother a look in the mirror, but Katya was too busy clasping a necklace around Roz’s throat. A chunky piece that made a statement, and glittered under the lights. All things she loved about jewelry, really.

“You’re saying that you aren’t even a little bit nervous about today?”

Roz pressed her lips together to keep from grinning. Maybe her mother knew her a little too well for her own good. “And if I was?”

“Maybe talking about it will help.”

“It’s not even my wedding.”

“No, but it is an important wedding for people like us. And you know what I mean about that. Men like your father, and Naz’s father. Nazio, too, I imagine. It’s always a big day when a principessa marries. Everyone and anyone shows up for it. This guest list is what, four-hundred people deep, and that was before we get into the plus ones.”

Oh, God.

Roz couldn’t even hide the way her heart raced at that statement.

“Mmhmm,” her mother said as though she could read her daughter’s mind. “Talk to me, Roz.”

“A lot of people, I guess.”

“You are going to play a piece at the reception, too, aren’t you?”

“That doesn’t bother me.”

“No, being with him like this does, yes?”

Yeah.

Katya knew her far too well.

“It’s not like the important people don’t already know about me and Naz,” Roz said. “I guess I just never really took in to account what it would mean when the rest of the world knew, too.”

Because that was what today would mean. She was stepping out on the arm of Nazio Donati. Genius. Son of a Cosa Nostra boss. Grandson of two bosses. A mother and grandmother who were as dangerous as they were pretty. His legacy and name ran far deeper than hers ever could.

Roz was not stupid.

She was not innocent.

She didn’t talk about the life because it never mattered to her. But she wasn’t stuck with her head in the sand. She knew exactly where Naz came from, and what it meant for their kind of people to step out together like they were going to do today.

Expectations came with it.

People talked.

Roz hadn’t really thought about any of that until today. It’d never really occurred to her that, in a way, she was going to be in a spotlight she’d never faced before. Even if this wasn’t her fucking wedding.

That was a little overwhelming.

“There’s going to be reporters,” her mother murmured, fixing a stray strand of Roz’s hair. “And you will be in socialite magazines tomorrow. They will speculate, and say things. None of it will matter. You will meet face after face that you may never meet again in your lifetime tonight, but simply smile and be gracious as you are. It’s just as much about showing you off as it is making a statement.”

Roz blinked. “Is it?”

“What?”

“Making a statement and showing me off.”

Her mother laughed, and leaned in to kiss her daughter’s cheek as her hands squeezed Roz’s shoulders supportively. “I’m quite sure he’s going to enjoy doing it, too. Why wouldn’t he?”

“Roz!”

Her brother’s shout echoed from somewhere downstairs.

“What, Luca?”

“Naz is here. Car’s warm. Stop playing in the mirror. You look fine.”

Roz smiled.

Apparently, she wasn’t going to have to wait to see Naz at all. He’d made time. It made her feel better in a way. About a lot of different things.

She was going to need him to keep making time.

Beyond today …

She needed him.