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I’d much rather have her all to myself on the day she turns twenty-nine, but I know how important family is to her.
“I’m here to help.” I push to stand. “Tell Bella and Lia they can count on me.”
He looks me over. “I will. I noticed you pushed back your morning meetings until this afternoon. Everything all right, Daniel?”
Everything is exactly as it should be.
When my wife wasn’t sitting on my face, she was riding my cock. That’s a hell of a lot better than catching up with my New York clientele.
“Couldn’t be better,” I say, bypassing the intimate details of how I spent my morning.
“You’re enjoying your time back here,” he assumes, based, I think, on the broad smile that rarely leaves my face.
“I love New York.”
And your sister.I don’t share that because I have no fucking idea how he’d react if he knew I was married to Gina and that we are sharing a bed.
On the day I realized McCabe was the guy Gina was involved with, I drowned my sorrows in a few glasses of whiskey at Tin Anchor. Gage poured me drink after drink as I told him, a virtual stranger at the time, that I was falling for Gina.
The following morning, I pushed all the feelings aside as a byproduct of too much alcohol and lingering grief over my dad’s death.
Gina has been part of the foundation of my life in this city for years. Her family has always been a soft place for me to fall.
I convinced myself that whatever I felt for her at the time was based on that connection, but I was wrong. I was dead wrong. I’ve been slowly falling in love with her for years.
“Stay, Daniel.”
I know he’s not referring to my office. He wants me back in Manhattan for good.
“I’m considering it,” I lie, since I’ve already mapped out in mind how I’ll make the transition back to living in New York full-time.
“Good.” He glances at the window behind me. “We’ve all missed you. Your clients have, too.”
I drop my gaze to the top of my desk. “When I make a final decision, I’ll let you know.”
“I’ll be the first to know,” he says, believing his words.
He’ll be the second. My wife will be the first person I tell that I’m staying in this city and fighting to make my marriage work.
It may not have started out as anuntil-death-do-us-partgig, but I’m all in for that, and I hope to hell she is, too.
* * *
The leaves are startingto turn color. The late afternoon sun is hitting the sidewalk in just the right way to turn shadows into temporary works of art, and I’m headed into Calvetti’s to pick up dinner for Gina and me.
I don’t make it more than a foot inside before I spot Arietta and a woman with long dark hair.
It’s not the woman I’ve been thinking about all day, though.
This one has bright blue eyes, and the smallest baby bump is noticeable under the snug red sweater she’s wearing.
I catch Arietta’s eye before I take another step. She waves me over to where they’re standing near the kitchen, so I head straight there.
“Daniel!” Arietta calls out as I get closer. “How are you?”
She’s family, so I take her in for a hug. She’s all in, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
“I’m good,” I say, stepping back from the embrace, before I turn my focus to the woman standing next to us. “I’m Daniel Lawton.”
