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“Jimmy was a really good guy,” she said. “He was funny.”
“He had his moments.” I nodded. “When he drove me home that day, he tried to make me feel better. He tried to make me feel better about you, and I was mean to him and snapped at him, but he wasn’t mean to me. He wasn’t cold.”
She let out a sigh. “He was a good guy. He just wanted to make you happy, I think.”
“He was my brother.” I nodded. “We grew up together. We were destined to be friends for life.”
“But he called you boss,” she said.
“He did, because of the hierarchy of the famiglia, but he knew he was my brother.”
“Are you okay?” she said softly. I turned to look at her and nodded.
“Thanks for asking.”
“Are you really okay, Antonio? I know it’s been a lot.”
“I don’t know what to say. I’m ashamed of myself. I’ve got a lot of big decisions to make. I don’t know where the family goes from here. I don’t know where I go from here.” I shrugged. “It’s just a lot.”
“I get that,” she said.
“So, I hear Gia, Imogen, Elisabetta, and you are moving into a fancy apartment on the West Side.”
“Yeah.” She smiled. “We figured it would be nice to live together.”
“I wish you were moving in with me,” I said, and her face changed slightly. There was a look of contrition in her eyes, and I regretted what I’d said.
“I mean, if things would’ve been different, maybe you would’ve been my wife,” I said softly.
“Sometimes, I think about that.” She sounded like she was almost in a dream state, and I waited for her to continue. “Sometimes, I think what if I was part of your world and I’d gone to that ball in hopes of you marrying me and you’d chosen me because I was the one you wanted to be your wife, and then we’d gotten engaged and married and everything might have been different?”
“Yeah. Sometimes I think about, what if I was just a regular man and we were walking on the street and bumped into each other accidentally? And I said, ‘Do you come here often?’”
“What?” she said. “You’d asked me if I came here often if we bumped into each other on the street?”
“Hey, I don’t write romance books. I don’t have a way with words like that,” I said, chuckling. “I just thought wouldn’t it be nice if we were just two regular human beings?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “It would’ve been nice.”
“I love you, Callie. I know it doesn’t mean much coming from me, the cold, calculated wolf.”
“Stop saying that about yourself. I think you’ve said that so many times about yourself that you want to believe it was true.” She grabbed my hand. “Remember when you told me you were a mole?”
“But I don’t want to be a mole any longer,” I said. “I want to be with you.” She gave me a small smile.
“You know, I believe you.”
“I’m glad you believe me, but do you feel the same?”
“I don’t know how to answer that, Antonio. I—”
“What? You want to be with Josh again or Troy or whatever other guy you’ve met in your dorm or on campus?”
“No,” she said. “It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?” I asked her softly. She took a deep breath and held her stomach.
“I might be pregnant,” she said. My eyes widened as I stared at her.
