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“Only you, Melanie.” He kissed my neck. We made out for a few minutes, then I laid my head on his shoulder with a sigh.
“You tired?” he asked, running his fingers through my hair.
“I was just thinking.”
“I was thinking too. You were naked in my thoughts. Same for you?”
“No, I don’t often fantasize about my naked body.”
“That’s disappointing.”
I pinched him. “Knock it off. I was thinking about how much our circle has grown. It’s really special, Dom, what you guys have built. It’s not just about a restaurant or two.”
“Or three,” he said. “I was talking to Gio tonight about scouting out places in Scottsdale. Not this coming year, but maybe the year after.”
“Espo 3?”
He shrugged and laughed. “Why not? Right now it’s just talk.”
“Donna would have loved this,” I said, thinking not just of the restaurant but the way the family had come together again, even after all the heartache and long years of painful silence.
“She would have,” Dominic agreed, and he swiveled his neck to stare up at a picture on the wall.
Dominic had found that photo among Donna’s things following her death. We’d had the image blown up so it could hang on the wall of Espo 2. It was a picture of Dominic’s grandparents. They were young, maybe in their late twenties. They stood in front of the old Esposito’s with their arms around each other, beaming proudly. It seemed only fitting that they would be here on the wall, watching over the legacy they’d created.
“Are we still taking our honeymoon in New York?” I asked.
“Baby, I already told you I’ll take you anywhere.” He slid his hand under the hem of my dress.
I batted my eyelashes. “What about your promise to never touch me again at work?”
He snorted. “Broken a thousand times by now. You want me to stop?”
I kissed him. “Don’t you dare.”
His hand traveled higher, and his breathing grew heavier. “I can’t wait to marry you.”
“Good.” I smiled. “Because I’m never taking this ring off. By the way, I was thinking about the menu for the reception. I don’t want any of that fancy caviar garbage the wedding planner keeps trying to talk us into. We need to serve pizza. Pizza and tamales.”
He took his hand out from under my dress, gave me a funny look, then laughed out loud. “Pizza and tamales? I guess we ought to pass out heartburn meds for dessert.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I’m serious.”
“No,” he said softly. “You’re beautiful is what you are. Pizza and tamales it is.”
I raised my wineglass to the photo on the wall. “To family,” I said as I toasted Donna and Leo Esposito.
Dominic took the wineglass out of my hand and kissed me tenderly.
“To us,” he whispered. “To forever.”
