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Dante chuckles. “Well, you saw me before. When I was conflicted, just like you. It’s easy now because this is the way it was supposed to be.”
“You really think that? You believe in soulmates?”
“I got shot saving Mia, and then she came back into my life and she’s going to give me a beautiful baby girl. How could we not be soulmates?”
I think about it, how I feel when I see Aurora, how it’s different from Dante and Mia. Aurora was always in my life, for a long time. She’s been Francesca’s best friend since they were kids. But the way it all happened, Marco shooting Bruno, her seeing it, me being the only one who could protect her – Is it fate? Is that what soulmates are?
I shake my head to clear it, sucking down my second drink and pouring myself another. I don’t think I can have this conversation sober.
“I don’t have to change if I don’t want to,” I argue stubbornly. “I can still be a good father if I’m not with Aurora.”
“You can,” Dante agrees. “But do you want to?”
I tilt my head. “What do you mean?”
“I saw Mia so much differently when she got pregnant,” Dante says. “I saw her as mine, you know?”
Jesus. I do know. I see Aurora as mine, and I have even before she got pregnant, but I don’t say that. Not to Dante.
“I don’t know if I feel that way.”
Dante clears his throat. “So, you’ll be fine when she finds someone else?”
I freeze, my blood running cold. “What do you mean?”
“Pretty young thing like Aurora, she won’t stay single long,” he drawls, and my skin heats up with anger.
“Don’t talk about her like that,” I snap.
“Interesting,” Dante mumbles.
“Oh, fuck you,” I grumble, and shoot down my third drink. “I wouldn’t care if she found someone else,” I lie. IknowI’m lying. Iknowthat I would go crazy if another man so much as touched Aurora.
“You don’t mind anyone else touching her? Kissing her? Making—”
“Don’t,” I say, holding out my hand to stop him.
Dante laughs. “You’re in trouble, Nico, and not because you’re going after Barone.”
“Shut up,” I grumble, and Dante laughs again, and I hate him.
I hate him because he’s right, and now all I can think about is some possible future in which Aurora has my baby and has another man at her side. God, what if she gets married to someone else? What am I supposed to do? Stand there at the wedding with our child and grit my teeth and bear it?
Why do I even feel this way? I’ve always been a little territorial, but nothing like this. Is this what Dante’s talking about with Mia? Is it fate? Soulmates?
I’ve never believed in any of that. I can’t start believing it now.
Can I?
27
AURORA
I’m full and tired by the time dinner is over, and I go to lie down for a few minutes. It’s still early, but I fall asleep nevertheless.
I wake up late at night. Looking at my phone I notice that it’s two in the morning. Someone is banging on the door and I squint at the doorway.
“Come in,” I call, and Nico all but falls into the room, stumbling toward the bed.
