All I Believe (Firsts and Forever, #10)(23)

“Sounds perfect.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Luca said. “But I’m especially looking forward to afterwards, when I get you all to myself again.”

After he showered, I watched him get dressed in an absolutely flawless charcoal suit that had obviously been custom-made, given the way it perfectly accentuated his broad shoulders and narrow waist. “You take my breath away,” I murmured when he turned to me.

He bent and kissed me, then said, “You do the same thing to me.”

Luca let me borrow an outfit before walking me to my suite. My shorts and t-shirt were rolled up under my arm. When we reached the door, he cupped my face in his hands and rested his forehead against mine as he asked, “What’s on the agenda for today?”

“I’m not sure. I skipped sight-seeing yesterday, but today I’m going to let Nana lead the way. I’m game for whatever she and Jessie cook up.”

He kissed me and said, “I wish I didn’t have to go.”

“Me, too. But I’ll see you soon.”

He kissed me twice more before finally turning and heading down the hall. He looked at me over his shoulder and called in Italian, “Addio, mio miracolo!” His miracle, that was so sweet. I called goodbye and watched him walk away. Right before he rounded the corner on his way to the elevator, he looked back at me once more and smiled.

Wow. I sat down on the carpet right there in the hallway and wrapped my arms around myself. He’d found me again, somehow, my boy by the fountain. He’d actually found me! It really did feel like a miracle. Even as grounded and analytical as I was, there was no other word for it.

Just as miraculous was the fact that he seemed to want me as much as I wanted him. Even before our moment of recognition, there had been an undeniable spark between us. I’d only experienced that once before, and it had also been with Luca when we met as teens.

It had been something different with Erik. He’d been a doctor in the E.R. where I brought patients when I worked as an EMT, so we knew each other for months before a coworker set us up on a not-quite-blind date. Over time, I’d grown to love Erik, but it had never felt like that, so passionate and urgent.

I wondered if he’d found that kind of passion with Gavin. It still hurt like hell that my best friend and my boyfriend had gone behind my back and betrayed my trust like that, but for the first time, I was able to think about the two of them together without sadness slamming into me like a tidal wave. That had to be progress.

I leaned against the wall and ran my fingertips down the placket of the shirt I was wearing. Though just a casual button-down, it was beautifully made. There had always been an imbalance when I’d been with Erik, his doctor’s salary far outpacing what I made as an EMT. But that was nothing compared to the income gap between Luca and me. That would remain true even after I finished school and found work as an attorney. I wondered if his obvious wealth was all from his job, or if he had family money as well. I guessed the latter. There were distinct differences between people with old and new money. Luca might have a fondness for nice clothes, but they were well-made rather than showy. His watch was the same, excellent quality without screaming of his success. That to me suggested someone who’d grown up wealthy and saw no need to flaunt it.

I’d grown up around wealth, so I felt like I understood the distinctions. Most of my family had always been well-off, and I could have chosen to take a slice of that pie, but it never felt right to me. The money came from less than legal sources, going back generations in Viladembursa and later in the states. Nana had married into the Dombruso family, and two of her three sons had carried on in the family business. That had cost her son Paulie his life. My dad had followed a vastly different path and had become a civil engineer.


Even among my generation, some of my cousins had been involved in organized crime until recently. I never knew how to tell people my extended family was in the mafia, so usually, I just didn’t. But it was still part of my reality, and I felt that history more than ever when I was in Viladembursa, where the Dombruso name meant something, even decades after the family emigrated to the U.S.

The name garnered respect, but it met with a different reaction as well. Locals regarded us with a kind of guarded wariness when they found out who we were. Once upon a time, the Dombruso family had ruled Viladembursa with an iron fist, and the local people remembered their history.

That point was driven home for me as a middle-aged waiter pushing a fully-loaded room service cart rounded the corner. I got to my feet, unlocked the door with my room key and said good morning to him as I held the door. He replied with a nervous, “Buon giorno, Signor Dombruso,” as he kept his gaze fixed on the floor.

It was something I’d witnessed time and time again when my family visited here. That was why I introduced myself and my family by just our first names when I was in Viladembursa, but obviously the waiter had seen the name on the bill, so there was no downplaying it.

I went into the suite and greeted Nana, Jessie and Fiona, who sat close together on the sofa, making notes on the hotel stationery. “How was your date? I don’t have to ask if you got lucky, on account of the fact that you’re just now getting in,” Nana said, looking up at me through her huge, round glasses. “You and Luca are going to see each other again, this I know without asking. There’s a lot of chemistry between you two, anybody could see that!”