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“It confirmed what I already knew. It made me yours.”
Yours.With quite possibly the worse kiss in the history of seduction, she had somehow won this man. And here she thought he was the one rescuing her. Truth was they were saving each other and there was no one else she could imagine sharing her life with.
Make hers a bad boy.
She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him like there was no tomorrow—or like all her tomorrows would be with him. A blast of consuming, possessive heat to let him know just how crazy she was about him.Crazy.How had she ever hated that perfect word? When they finally parted, he looked as stunned as she felt.
“Oh, crap, we’re really doing this, aren’t we?” she husked out.
Tad’s smile was as wicked as they come. “Yes,mia bella. We are.”
Swinging big. Going all in. Living balls-out.
“I’ve got something else for you.” He extracted another piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her.
With shaky hands, she unfolded it. The logo for Green City Market topped the page followed by her name. The rest blurred through her tears.
“Is this what I think it is?”
He grinned. So, so sexy. “If you think it’s an approval to get your own stand at Green City Market, then yes, it is what you think it is. You’re going to sell all those amazing bruschettas and salsas and dips. We’ll also offer them for sale at Vivi’s and see about getting them into gourmet stores throughout the city. I have a few contacts in the food business, you know.”
Her mind flailed at how much faith this man had in her abilities. From the beginning, that had never wavered. The faith in them had taken longer, but it was worth the wait.
“About time,” Lili said, bounding in.
Following, Cara swiped at her eyes. Cara DeLuca Doyle was crying. Now Jules knew the apocalypse was truly upon them.
“Yeah, we were getting really tired of hooking you up with losers when the answer was staring you both right in the face,” Cara said.
“The smug marrieds always know best,” Tad said, shaking his head.
“Yes, we do,” Cara confirmed. “And we also know that it’s time to get this party underway or risk the wrath of DeLucas far and wide.”
“We should leave you to it,” Jules said, kissing her man.Her man.The words and the man tasted so right. Her chest felt full to exploding, like the gooey cheesey center of the perfectarancini. She didn’t want to leave, not when they had just found each other but she had to let him get on with it.
She pulled away but he held her close. Hmm, that was nice. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I thought the chefs would like to get to work.”
“Yes, they would. Maybe you should show her what she’ll be wearing,” Tad said to some point over her shoulder, a devilish smile shading his lips.
She turned to find Jack and Shane standing behind her.
“We got you something.” Jack held up a chef’s jacket covered in plastic. Above the breast, her name was embroidered in tight black stitching. More tears leaked down her face. This was too, too much.
Jack put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. “There’s no crying in cooking, baby girl.”
“Nicely done, Jules,” Shane said with a wink.
“I told him the jacket doesn’t make the chef,mia bella,but I know you Brits,” Tad said. “You’re all about the pomp and circumstance.” His gorgeous mouth curled up at the corner. “You ready to cook with us?”
Oh, yes.
Forty
By the time one a.m. rolled around, relatives and friends had been sent packing and only core revelers remained at DeLuca’s Ristorante. The food—all recipes from Vivi’s repertoire—had been a rousing success and now Tad was moonlighting in his other, but no less important job: holding a sleeping Evan in his arms. Every muscle was stiff as a board but he wouldn’t swap that numbness for anything.
His eyes locked with Jules’s again. All night they had been staring at each other in wide-eyed wonder, not only because they had finally found each other but also because they could now gawk without restraint. No more hiding; love in the open.
