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My mouth is so dry I can’t swallow.
“You’re always welcome. But has something happened? Is something wrong?”
“Momma,” another child, a little boy with thick brown curls, aged about five or six, rushes out of the door now. “You said we could have ice-cream.”
Instinctively, without even looking at him, she reaches for him, curling her fingers in his thick hair as she pulls him to her hip. “We will, D. Just give me a minute.” Then she ushers him back inside the house.
D? As in Dante? Dante Junior? A bead of sweat trickles down my brow. I try to pull my hand from his, but he holds it tightly. “Nothing’s wrong. But I got married.” He holds up our joined hands and his wedding ring glints in the sun.
Her face breaks into a huge grin. “You? No way,” she laughs as she starts to walk down the steps of the porch. Then she looks at me. “How the hell did you manage to tame this one, girl?”
I rub a hand over my bump and look down. “Um. With this,” I say with a shrug.
“I wanted her to meet you. I want her to know everything,” Dante says. “No secrets.”
She looks at me again, her brow furrowed into a frown.
“This is my wife, Kat. You can trust her. I promise,” he says, and her face softens. “Tell her who you are.”
She lets out a long breath. “Hey, Kat. I’m Nicci. Although I guess most people back home would know me as Nicole.”
It takes me a few seconds to register what she just said. “Nicole Santangelo?”
“The one and only.”
I look between her and Dante. “But you… you let me believe…”
“That he killed me?” Nicci laughs. “Yeah. That was kind of the secret.”
My head is spinning with so many questions I don’t know which one to ask first. Except I do. “Are the children…?” I look to Dante, unable to finish the question, but he knows anyway.
“No,” he says with a chuckle.
“Hell no,” Nicci adds. Then she turns and heads back toward the house. “Are you two going to come in for some ice cream then?” she asks as she reaches her front door. Then she shouts, “Hey, Sabine. You’ll never guess who’s here and who got married.”
* * *
Two hours later,we’ve eaten plenty of dinner and ice cream. Now, Nicci and I are sitting on the porch swing with a glass of iced tea while Dante and Sabine tidy up the dinner dishes. Nicci’s wife is amazing. She’s a lawyer who specializes in working with women who are fleeing abusive situations. She’s smart and funny and has the most beautiful auburn hair I have ever seen. Their kids are adorable too. Deacon, not Dante, is five and Aurora is two.
“I guess you have a million questions?” Nicci asks with a soft laugh as we sip our iced tea. Hers is a Long Island variety.
“Yes, way too many,” I agree with a sigh. With the kids around, we didn’t get a chance to talk about anything too deep and meaningful.
“He saved my life,” she says, her voice suddenly full of emotion. “He didn’t have to. I mean I was nobody to him, but he saved me. People think he’s heartless and cruel, but actually, underneath all of that armor, he’s probably the best man I’ve ever known.”
“I see that side of him too.”
She smiles at me. “Well, of course you do. Because he is so in love with you.” She places her warm hand over mine. “A love like that will burn for eternity.”
That makes tears spring to my eyes. “Are your father and brothers still alive too?” I ask.
“God, no.”
“Oh.”
“They weren’t good men. They were the worst kind,” she says, and the tone of her voice makes my heart break. She says that as though she has had first-hand experience of their worst.
“You don’t have to tell me anything,” I offer.
