Epilogue
LUCY
Ilaugh with delight when I see Enzo’s handwriting on the whiteboard sign outside of Love at First Sip. Daily Special: Iced Frenemy Cappuccino! Half off!
It’s a Saturday in September, cool and breezy, and he asked me to meet him here after Charlie and I took a walk at the Locke Reserve.
“Weren’t those cappuccinos incredibly gross?” Charlie asks.
“Incredibly,” I say with my heart in my throat, because it’s obvious from the whiteboard Enzo has something planned. Enzo always has something planned, and I’m the lucky recipient of all of his grand gestures. “He must want to celebrate CareWise.”
We just launched our app—ours, because ultimately he’s had as much of a hand in it as I have—and the interest it’s generating has stunned me. Humbled me.
Nonna Francesca has already used it to pick out a home helper named Tess, who starts in two weeks.
The Cafieros have had a range of different reactions to this news.
Aria, still working in Greece, thinks it’s a godsend.
Enzo and Nico are relieved. And Giovanni, who’s so easygoing about everything, is surprisingly displeased.
He insists they don’t need anyone else to help them take care of her, although that’s increasingly untrue.
I’ve met Tess, and she’s brisk and no-nonsense, exactly the sort of person most likely to survive as Nonna’s helper.
“Because you’re a bad bitch businesswoman,” Charlie quips, nudging my shoulder, but I see something in her eyes—she knows what this is all about.
I pause before opening the door, even though I see Enzo waiting in front of the counter, Eileen behind it. “What did he do?”
“I’ve been sworn to silence on pain of death.”
Laughing, I open the door.
“Are you here for a Frenemy?” Enzo says, his eyes dancing with mischief.
“I’ve been told I enjoy a good argument,” I say, grinning at him. “You look like an idiot.”
It’s very untrue, but he does have a red marker mustache with curly ends on his face.
Someone laughs, and I glance over and am surprised to see Giovanni, Nico, Lars, and Nonna Francesca are sitting at the tables. Wayne, too, of course.
Giovanni lifts his hand. “I can’t draw like you, Luce, but I did my best.”
I peer at Enzo, my lips parting. “Is this some kind of party?”
“I hope so,” he says, taking a to-go cup from Eileen, who’s beaming.
My heart starts to beat faster as I take the cup from him. I glance inside of it, and see the shape of a diamond ring drawn into the top layer of the foam.
I set the drink down.
“You won’t taste it?” he asks, even as he pulls a marker out of his pocket.
My heart beating fast, I say, “Isn’t that my move?”
“It’s my turn.”
It is. We’ve taken to playing with our markers. Last week, I drew a blemish on his face with a red one after he made a dirty play in Strip Monopoly.
He takes my hand and writes onto the back of it: Will you marry me, Lucia?
Then he gets down on one knee and pulls out a little red box.
Tears press at my eyes as I open it and find an absurdly gorgeous diamond ring—a large central diamond surrounded by tiny red stones.
“Of course I’ll marry you,” I say, pulling him up, laughing even as the first tears fall. “You had to bring witnesses?”
He kisses the side of my face, my lips. “I thought you’d want to share this moment with our family.”
This man knows me down to my bones, and he loves me, just as I am—the same way I love him.
“You are a smart man, and I don’t care if it blows your ego to the stratosphere for me to say so.”
“You agreeing to marry me has already done that,” he says with a grin.
“Good,” Nonna says with a stomp of her foot. “Now, we eat. Nico, where is the food? Giovanni, take more pictures. Someone has to take pictures for Aria.”
Chaos breaks out, and it’s good. Everything is exactly as it should be.
My gaze lifts and finds Eileen’s, and I see she’s watching Giovanni with a speculative glint in her eyes.
I laugh, and she gives a decisive nod. He’s next.
Ready for more holiday fun in Hideaway Harbor? Next up…
The Holiday Fakers by Evie Alexander
One fake boyfriend. One bed.
One very complicated Christmas …