Page 103 of Above ’N’ Beyond

Honestly not knowing how to contradict her words, he nodded.

“You went to jail to save someone you love.” She looked into the kitchen where his father stood. “You put your life in jeopardy and almost died for him. Everything you’ve done since I’ve known you were sacrifices you made for love. Those are not the acts of a bad person. Are they?”

No, he had to admit. Why he wasn’t capable of seeing that for himself remained a mystery.

“I can only wish that I had a family to love that much. If I did, I’d do anything for them. Anything. All I’m asking for is a chance to experience that kind of love. With you. Will you give me that chance? Please?”

Right now, he’d give her anything she wanted. Today. Tomorrow. Any day for the rest of his life. He was still a work in progress, but with her strength, her kindness, her love in his life…

Jamie must have nodded because the next thing he knew, her lips were on his, kissing him, and he was kissing her back, both of them laughing as she landed kiss after kiss on his lips.

From eyes blurry with tears, he looked over her shoulder. His sister was, literally, jumping up and down for joy. His mother clapped her hands to her cheeks, her eyes visibly wet, too. His father stood there smiling and nodding, contentment and the knowledge of the entire world shining in his tired expression.

For seventeen long years, Jamie had been apart from his father, but somehow his dad had known exactly what he’d needed to make him whole.

Bella.

Epilogue

Bella cracked open one of the kitchen’s swinging doors, savoring the moment, trying to imprint every last detail in her memory so she would never forget it.

The dining room of her new restaurant—Bella’s—was packed, not with paying customers, but packed nonetheless.

Jamie tended the brand-new bar, pouring beer and mixing drinks for his friends, father, and his Port Authority colleagues who’d been invited to a special preopening event. In all, she counted nearly a dozen large, hunky, handsome men leaning against the shiny oak bar, clinking glasses and slapping each other on the back. It had taken a while for her to memorize all their names. Now that she had, they’d become an extended part of her newfound family. Along with their dogs, of course.

Allowing dogs in a public restaurant would never pass a health inspector’s scrutiny, but since this was a preopening event and the restaurant wasn’t technically open yet, what the heck?

CIA Sergeant Matt Connors had driven up from Virginia with his petite, green-eyed wife, Trista, their little boy Joey, baby girl Angeline, and Matt’s Belgian Malinois, Sheba.

State Trooper Nick Houston toasted beer glasses with Jamie. Nick had come down from Springfield, Massachusetts with his wife, Andi, and their little girl. Bella had felt an instant connection with Andi, who also owned a restaurant—the Dog Park Café. Saxon, Nick’s enormous black German shepherd, trotted after Sheba. Saxon had his work cut out for him. The moment Gnocchi had laid eyes on the beautiful Malinois, he’d fallen in love and was also currently trailing after Sheba as if she hung the moon.

ATF Special Agent Eric Miller was deep in conversation with Dayne Andrews, an FBI agent who lived in a castle with beautiful billionairess Katrina Vandenburg. Dayne’s German shepherd, Remy, dutifully watched the bassinette on the table, in which Dayne and Katrina’s newborn baby boy, Dayne, Jr., slept quietly. Eric’s Dutch shepherd, Tiger, stood guard over a very pregnant Tess Miller, refusing to leave the woman’s side.

Cassidy York, Secret Service Officer Markus York’s new wife, was four months pregnant with their first child. Cassidy’s hand rested on the head of a ghostly white German shepherd appropriately named Ghost.

Laia Velez, soon to be Laia Sampson, once she married DHS Sergeant Kade Sampson, talked with Jamie’s mother and his sister, Ari. Kade’s K-9, a large, pure black Belgian sheepdog named Smoke, busied himself with Kade and Laia’s young daughter, Rosa, doing what looked uncannily like that talk-to-the-hand thing from the old TV show The Nanny.

Unlike his K-9 counterparts, Jax still followed Jamie everywhere, including behind the bar. She hadn’t realized how much his six-month internment in prison had affected Jax.

“’Scuse me, Bella.” Sierra pushed past her through the swinging door, balancing two more trays laden with appetizers.

“And me.” Rebecca carried bowls of family-style salad.

“And me.” Lori followed up with baskets of fresh garlic bread.

More happiness flooded her system. Every one of her staff from Bianco’s Bistro had followed her. To Bella’s.

Thinking it was egotistical, at first she’d resisted naming the new bistro after herself, but Jamie had insisted. This place was about her, no one else, as he liked to remind her. Official opening day was still three days off, and the reservation book was completely filled for the next two months.

Behind her, Lou banged away in the kitchen, happy to be cooking his heart out. Smells of traditional Italian recipes she’d kept, such as fried calamari with marinara, wafted to her nose, as did the scents of the many new ones she and Lou had created to better exemplify the new bistro. One without the mystique—or stigma, depending on how one looked at it—of Paola Mancuso.

From her hiding spot, Bella watched Jamie. With every passing day, she fell more deeply in love with him. Dressed simply in black slacks and a white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows, he could still make her heart squeeze and her belly quiver in anticipation of how things were between them when they were alone. Watching TV. Talking. Holding hands. Or, her personal favorite, stripping the clothes of his muscled body, then making love with him until they both fell into a glorious, blissful sleep.

Since their fateful conversation at “the shack,” which she’d since learned was the Pataglios’ Jersey Shore getaway, Jamie and Jax hadn’t officially moved into her Nyack house with her and Gnocchi, but they’d spent nearly every night there for the last three months.

Sierra went to the bar, saying something Bella couldn’t hear and pointing to Big Mama. Jamie pulled a cup and saucer from beneath the bar and began packing espresso into the filter.

Unable to stop herself, Bella strode to the bar, stood on her tiptoes, and pulled Jamie down for a deep kiss right there in front of everyone. Hoots and whistles met her ears. Every other one of her senses was completely oblivious to anything but the feel of the man pressed against her, the scent of him in her lungs, the taste of him on her tongue.