Chapter 11 #3
Now he felt like he understood the fairy godmother in Cinderella.
He wanted to give Kara a normal, happy life, but he knew that at some point her past would catch up with her and everything he had worked to give her up to that point would vanish and he’d be left standing there amidst the remains of her pumpkin coach and holding onto the memory of her like the prince had with Cinderella’s glass slipper.
“They just moved to the evening gown section,” Asher mused curiously. “Do you have anything fancy coming up?”
“I don’t think so—” he halted as a vision of a fancy invitation hanging on his fridge flashed across his mind. “Actually I do. There’s a fundraiser gala in two days. I’d forgotten all about it. My restaurant is catering it.”
“Well,” Asher chuckled. “You were busy fighting off assholes in dark alleys and getting hospitalized.”
True. His mind had been anywhere but on his social calendar.
“Do you still want to go?” Asher asked him.
Did he? He had a sudden vision of dancing with Kara.
He would be wearing a black tuxedo and she’d be wearing in a beautiful dress in the golden glow of a decorated ballroom.
She was smiling, happy, enjoying herself.
He wanted that happiness for Kara to come true so deeply that he found himself nodding.
“Just give me the details, and I’ll prep the team here in town to handle your and Kara’s security during the gala.”
“Yes, of course.” Angelo texted Thad to send Asher everything on the literacy event.
He wondered if taking Kara to an event like that would be too much for her, but he really wanted her to have fun and a night of magic and romance. The choice would be hers of course. If she truly didn’t want to go, he would not force her.
Asher lingered beside Angelo, his eyes tracing the movement of not just Kara, but all four of the women. Angelo smiled softly as Kara was pulled into a dressing room and given a stack of clothes from Felicity. A few minutes later, Veronica exited the dressing rooms and walked over to Angelo.
“You’re going to take her to literacy gala right?
” Veronica was quieter than Shana and Felicity.
She had lost her husband when she was young and raised her daughter on her own, she gone through a lot of life’s roughest moments.
She, better than most, would understand what Kara had been going through.
“I hope so,” he replied. “The choice will be hers.”
Veronica glanced at the dressing rooms again before she looked at Angelo once more.
“She has a lot of trauma, Angelo, and I think a lot of PTSD. She won’t be easy. There will be things in life that will always affect her.”
“I know.” Angelo’s throat tightened.
Teaching Kara to trust him wasn’t going to be easy, but she was worth fighting for. He had been gifted with a heart that gave and gave. It would come in handy when loving and caring for a woman who’d never been given anything.
Veronica’s eyes were gentle and filled with an ancient sense of wisdom.
“I think if anyone could give her the life she deserves, it’s you.
You’ve given everyone in your life so much.
” She smiled. “When Thad and I first met, I had a terrible flu. I passed out in my coffee shop before one of our dates. He took me home and met Lyra. He didn’t even know I had a daughter until that night.
The first thing he did was care for me and my child.
He brought me soup from your restaurant.
He said you made the best chicken noodle soup and he was right.
” The look she gave Angelo then said the soup had meant so much more to Veronica and Thad than just being an easy dinner for someone who was ill.
His food had brought Thad and Veronica together, bonding them.
He cleared his throat, suddenly so touched by Veronica sharing something so intimate.
“I remember when he dropped by and asked for some. He said it was for a friend who was ill and needed comfort.” Angelo remembered that day among so many others where Thad came to pick up food from his restaurant.
Perhaps because Thad had looked so worried…
and yet there had been something else in his eyes, something Angelo had later realized was love.
“You know what I love about that memory most?” Veronica asked him.
Angelo shook his head.
“It wasn’t that he brought me soup or that he was taking care of me and my child.
” She swallowed and her eyes were over bright.
“It was because I learned the man I was falling in love with had a good friend. He had you. You were held up so highly in his eyes that he came to you when he needed to help me. He trusted you when I don’t think he would’ve trusted anyone else to heal me the way your soup did.
” She paused, her face glowing as she smiled.
“You deserve to have someone be your chicken noodle soup, your comfort. I believe with time and love, Kara could be your comfort. You both deserve happiness and a relationship built on mutual trust and love.”
Angelo didn’t know what to say, his lips parted, but he simply couldn’t speak.
Veronica had perhaps said the single most wonderful thing about him and he had no way to respond, no way to thank her for it.
She smiled wider as if in on some secret.
“You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know. ”
She turned and headed back into the dressing rooms.
“Good to know Roarke was right about you. That you’re a person worth protecting.
A good man. And it sounds like Kara might be a good woman.
” Asher replied. He’d clearly been listening in, yet Angelo had forgotten the bodyguard was even there.
Asher clapped a hand on Angelo’s shoulder for a brief moment.
Angelo didn’t believe he deserved anything in life, but he did desire some things… and the most important of those was love. To have the chance to give it, to receive it in return. It was the only thing that truly mattered to him, and so far the only thing he’d never been able to reach.
“You are a giver…” His Nonna’s words replayed in his head.
In that moment he knew he wanted to give his heart to Kara… if she trusted him enough to take it.