Chapter Twenty-Four
Damon
Negative.
I breathed a sigh of relief, but there was something else too. Something like…possibility. I’d never thought about having children. I wasn’t thinking about it now, but it was something that could happen for us now. A reality.
Taking Lina in my arms, I held her, looking at her. “You make things possible,” I said.
“Huh?”
“Nothing.” I kissed her. “I never thought about having babies, a family of my own, that’s all.”
She smiled. Her stomach growled. Her cheeks flushed red. “You had mentioned food earlier?”
“Let’s go. There’s a really good sandwich shop around the corner.”
We walked hand in hand to the shop and took a seat at a booth after ordering at the counter. Lina ordered an avocado BLT, and I, feeling suddenly ravenous, ordered a spicy salami and roasted vegetable sandwich with a large order of fries to share. The food came pretty quickly, and we started eating.
“Your birthday’s coming up, isn’t it?” I asked, remembering.
She nodded and gave me a big smile.
“In two weeks, I’ll be legal. For real.”
“How do you want to celebrate?”
She shrugged a shoulder, picked up a fry, and dipped it in mustard. “Depends.” She looked up at me. “I want to go home.”
“Home?”
“Italy, I guess, is home. I don’t have another one. I miss Sofia and Charlie and believe it or not, even Raphael.”
I laughed outright. “I’m pretty sure he’d get a chuckle out of that.”
“He’s a good guy. When you get to know him.”
“He is.”
“So yeah, if I can, I want to celebrate at home.”
She chewed a bite of her sandwich and studied me. I knew she had questions, and I waited for her to ask.
“What about you? What do you want?”
“I want to put this behind us and go back home too. Start over. Every time I think about it, about you, it feels right. I haven’t felt this way for so long. Maybe never. At least not since the fire.”
“Where did you get the money to pay the price Alexi was asking, anyway?”
“I have a share in the family business. Raphael made sure to split it equally between us all, Zach too, if we ever see him again.”
“Zach. I don’t know anything about him.” She read my face. “You’re worried.”
“Apart from a postcard with three words on it, I haven’t heard from him in nearly two years. His calls were already growing more and more spaced out, but this is too long.”
“Any idea where he is?”
I shook my head. “Some covert mission. At least, that’s what the military keeps telling us.”
“What were the three words?”
“What?”
“On the postcard? You said there were three words.”
“I’m all right. I guess it’s four words, technically. He signed his name. That’s all.”
“There has to be something you can do.”
“Raphael and I are both trying.”
“Do you want the last fry?” she asked.
“No, go ahead.”
“What about the money you paid Alexi? Will you get that back?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “It’s all tied up in the investigation.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m just glad it’s behind us. Let’s not talk about it anymore.”
“That’s a deal.”
“Finished?”
“Yeah. Maybe we can get a cookie on the way out?”
“Two. I’m not sharing.”
She ate ravenously, and it was good to see. Good to see her relaxed, no longer stressed. And she could stand to put on a few pounds. It would come, though. Might be better if it happened before she went back to Italy. The tattoos would be shocking enough for Sofia to see.
Lina devoured her cookie, and when I offered her half of mine, she took it. It was a mild day, and as we walked down the street, I noticed the two undercover agents who walked nearby.
“Damon, I have a question.”
“Ask it.”
She stopped and turned to me. People moved around us, but I was pretty sure she didn’t see them.
“What happened at the church the other day…on the stairs before the altar…”
I nodded for her to continue.
“Are you angry with him? God, I mean.”
“No.” I took her hand, and we continued walking. I squinted into the sun. “That day, after that night at the penthouse, Father Leonard picked me up at the hospital. I don’t remember the ride or talking to him much, not until we sat down in that pew. He asked me if I wanted to talk about it, and I did. I told him everything. Everything—including what had happened between us. It was in telling him that I knew I didn’t harbor guilt. Only anger. I knew you’d come at some point, and I’m not sure how long I sat there until you did, but I wanted to see you in the church, I guess. It doesn’t make any sense, because I’d already made my choice. Actually,” I turned to her for a moment. “It wasn’t ever a choice. This was my path all along.”
We continued to walk, but it was another few minutes before I continued.
“Maybe it was a sin to do that there, but it had to happen that way. It wasn’t a show against God or Christ or the sacredness of the church. I’ll always hold those things dear.” I stopped and faced her. “Maybe I needed you to be a part of that too. I don’t know. Mark our union, like that, there. I don’t know honestly what came over me, but damnation being decreed from Christ himself couldn’t have stopped what happened there. Couldn’t have changed it.”
She squeezed my hand, and we walked in silence for a few blocks until Lina asked her next question.
“Are we going to tell them we’re together? Sofia and Raphael, I mean?”
“I think they may have caught on,” I said with a wink. “But we’re not hiding anything anymore.” She gave me a huge, satisfied smile. “What about Chicago, Lina? School?”
“I can go to school in Florence. There’s a small private school with a teacher I met during high school. I liked her very much, and I think I can learn a lot from her. What about you? Will you work at the winery?”
“Yeah. Raphael will be thrilled.”
“Is he a pain in the ass to work with?”
“He’s a pain in the ass period.”
We both laughed at that as we slowly headed back to the apartment. For a few moments, it felt like everything had fallen into place. Like things had lined up for us. Something nagged at me, though, like this was too good to be true. And when Lina’s phone rang, we both stopped short.