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The woman affectionately dubbed Aunt Flo, a nickname clearly designed by a man, takes my breath away with a huge hug. "It happened. It really, really happened?" She holds me at arm’s length while I'm still trying to catch my breath and reaches for my hand. One glance at the rock on my finger and she squeals so loudly, Eden drops the lid to a pot she was carrying to the stove. She looks over her shoulder and smiles at me.
My heart sings. I'm home. Even though a part of me fears even calling it that, Adriano did. It's my home for now, anyway.
Eden, adorable in a red-and-white checked apron, takes a large wooden spoon and stirs something that smells delicious on the stove, while Flo looks at my hand. Flo’s hair is dyed an outrageous shade of red, her tube top is at least two sizes too small, and she snaps her gum so loudly she’s making me jumpy. I want to hug her again. I don’t have any aunts, so her nickname is apropos.
"These are seriously like some of the most beautiful diamonds I eva’ seen. God, he might be a jerk, and possessive, and alpha and everything; you don’t even wanna know what I would do alot offor a rock like that." She sighs.
I smile, but don't really care. It's a gorgeous ring, yes, but it's just a ring. He has a lot of money, but it's just money. Rings and money don't make people happy.
Not that I really know what does yet, but I know here at the club I get close to knowing what it’s like.
“Would you believe I thought it was a fake?”
“Shut up,” she says with eyes so wide I can see where she’s connected her fake lashes to her real ones. “Girl, Adriano doesn’t do anything fake!”
I manage to hide my wince, because…well, he married me, didn’t he?
"I bet he’s amazing in bed,” she whispers.
"Of course he’s good in bed," I say under my breath because if Eden hears me, she's going to be adorably mortified.
We arrived mid-afternoon, after my new husband—yes, I'm getting used to calling him that, it helps—decided we needed one more roll in the sack before we left. It was a shame to leave that beautiful cabana on the beach, but he told me we’ll come back. And both of us were dying to get back to Bella Notte.
"But Flo, you are seriously right about the whole obsessive thing."
Flo snaps her gum and shakes her head.
"You have no idea, honey. You shoulda seen what was goin’ on around here while you were on ya honeymoon."
I wonder if you could even call it a honeymoon when it lasts, like, twenty-four hours or a little more?
But wait. "What do you mean, what's been going on around here?"
I manage to extricate my hand from hers and walk over to where a plate of cookies sits on the counter, next to six loaves of bread, an entire platter of muffins, and a charcuterie board that looks suitable for royalty. "Eden, have you been stress cooking again?"
Some people stress eat, my bestie stress bakes and cooks. "No," she says, not meeting my gaze, which is an indication that she's probably not telling the whole truth. "I just wanted to make sure that you had lots of food when you came back."
Eden isn't one to lie but being married to the mafia boss makes her a little more discreet with what she shares.
"What's going on?" I ask her as I take a muffin and slather butter liberally on it. This morning’s romp in the sack turned into another round in the limo on the way here. Adriano has quite the appetite, but we'll see who has the bigger one. Let's just say, mine isn't quite sated yet and I’m starving.
I take a big bite of the muffin and groan out loud. Eden makes the best damn muffins I've ever put in my mouth.
"I just know it was a big change for you," she says.
"What she isn't telling ya," Flo says, as she takes a cookie in each hand, "is all the safety procedures they put in place when you were away."
"Safety procedures?" I take another bite of muffin, wondering.
On the way here, it was obvious that Adriano was carrying weapons. But I'm not new to life around these guys, so I wasn't surprised by that. I saw him scanning security footage on his phone, but that also didn't surprise me. I'm not exactly sure what his job here with Sergio is, but I know he takes safety very seriously. We stopped for lunch on the way down, and he kind of made a big deal of scanning things before we got out, checking the car when we got back in, and when we sat down to lunch he insisted that he sit in a way that he could see the door at all times. Also, not a surprise.
"They’ve installed new security cameras everywhere. We have new panic buttons installed in every private room and a safety protocol at the bar. No one's allowed to post to social media from the club anymore and they put a moratorium on any guests."
I laugh, polishing off my muffin. "And you guys think that has to do with little old me? What about this gorgeous woman over here?" I gesture toward Eden who shakes her head. "She's married to the owner, so obviously this probably has something to do with her, too."
Eden and Flo share a look that I don't quite understand.
"Have ya met Brick?" Flo says.
