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I’d be safe with them if they knew I’d been crying, but for the sake of my happiness, I’ve sworn to myself to leave all the Cordone business at the end of the driveway and let my life with Shane and The Hole Story and Al be just that—life.
That might seem like a cold perspective to an outsider, but I know what I’ve been through. I know the effects the life my father chose have had on me, on Nico, on my mom.
And I know I don’t deserve to live in the shadows of it.
I deserve to be out in the sunlight with Shane. I deserve to be happy.
“Hi, hi,” I greet in a frantic rush, careening like a bat out of hell since I know Al’s dinner and game night was due to start an hour ago.
I’m expecting a huge audience upon my arrival, the smells of food or a game set up or Pip’s quick, excited barks at the very least. Instead, the house is dark and quiet.
“Hello?” I call out, wondering where the guys are and how they’ve managed to make me look fashionably early. “Where are you guys?”
When no one answers, I take out my phone and dial Shane’s number, but it goes straight to voicemail.
What the hell?
I’m half ready to call the National Guard when I hear the creak of the back door opening and Al’s voice from outside. “Back here, Teeny.”
“Oh.” I move through the dark house with care until I make it to a set of switches where I can flip on some lights, mumbling to myself. “You’d think they’d have left the lights on or, at the very least, answered the phone when I called if they were going to be—”
Words escape me as I shove through the back door to a yard absolutely littered with what must be thousands of flickering candles. Al steps up from the side, places a kiss on my cheek, and then whispers in my ear, “I’ll leave the two of you alone. Love you, Teeny Girl.”
Shuffling me out of the way, he steps back through the door and closes it behind himself, leaving me to the twinkling yard and Shane—my handsome Shane—as he steps out of the shadows and into the green yard.
Flower petals litter the distance between us, and I cover my mouth to stifle a surprised sob.
Shane
7:45 p.m.
Wide-eyed Valentina takes in the hundreds of candles surrounding the pool and the trail of flower petals from the back steps to the yard.
I stand ready and waiting, a nervous hand clutching the ring box in my pocket for dear life and the biggest smile I’ve ever pulled painted all across my face.
When Teeny doesn’t take the natural course of actually coming to me, I chance a blow to my pride and a very disappointing declaration of it being too soon to get married and summon her anyway. “Baby? You wanna come down here so I can ask you something?”
“Shane?”
“Valentina. Come here. Please.” The mix of stern and soft gets her attention.
All at once she bustles into motion, taking the stairs down into the yard at a reckless pace, jogging right past the romance and the petals and the candles and running straight into my arms. She hits me with a force so strong I go back on a foot, and she simultaneously slams the pride right back into me.
“I love you, Shane.”
“I love you too,” I say back, the emotion in my voice breaking slightly as I smother it in her hair.
“Thank you for being so quick with assuring me I made the right choice,” she whispers into my ear, her voice shaking as she does. “For showing me forgiveness is worth it. For proving that everything between us was everything between us and the case was just on the periphery.”
“Teeny—”
“I knew you would,” she cuts me off. “I’d never fall in love with a man who wouldn’t. I waited too long. But thank you for proving it.”
Setting her back gently, I pull the ring from my pocket, crack open the box, and get down on one knee. She covers her mouth with a hand, tears springing instantly to her eyes.
“Valentina Cordone, I know without a shadow of a doubt you’re the woman I’m meant to spend the rest of my life with. Not a moment or a month or a year or a blink of time, but eternity, and because I know you’ll be curious, I’m going to tell you why.”
She giggles, and I grin so hard I feel it in my hairline.
