Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
“You know… I see it,” Dante said.
Angelo, who hadn’t been paying attention to his younger brother, glanced away from Dante’s two children who were in the middle of a skating rink with Kara, Alessia, and Angelo’s parents.
“What?” He shot a glance at his brother before looking back at Kara ice skating.
“You and Kara. After I saw her place and you told me she was running from her past, I didn’t want to like her, trust her, not with you.
But I do now.” Dante admitted this with a furrowed brow, his arms crossed as he looked between Angelo and Kara.
“Whatever she’s been through, she’s a great woman, Angelo.
I get what you see in her now.” Dante was still watching Kara who was ushering Nicholas around the ice, skating skillfully backwards as she guided Dante’s son.
Angelo hadn’t known she knew how to skate. There was still so much he had to learn about her. And he looked forward to each precious discovery.
“She’s not out of danger yet,” Angelo replied, his tone quiet. He and Dante were standing at the edge of the rink, thankfully out of earshot of anyone else.
“I know,” Dante sighed. “I guess that means we’re going to do whatever we can to keep her safe?”
“Yes. But I want you to keep away from everything. Keep our family away from it. That’s your job.” Of all of his brothers, Dante was the one Angelo felt closest to, the one he could trust with Kara’s secrets.
“You want me to stay out of the fight?” Dante’s frown deepened.
He never did like to be kept out of a fight.
Angelo remembered more than one fight when they’d been kids with neighborhood bullies, and Dante had been right there with him, tossing punches.
But they weren’t kids anymore. Dante had everything to lose and Angelo as the oldest would never let his little brother stand between him and danger.
“You can call it that, but I prefer to think of you as a giant wall keeping our family safe. If something happens, I just need to know you’ll stay away. Someone has to protect the family.”
“It’s really that serious?” Dante leaned in closer to Angelo.
Angelo nodded. “Kara’s father was in the Irish mob in Dublin. His second-in-command needs Kara to legitimize his claim to her father’s empire.”
“Shit…” Dante muttered. “The actual Irish mob?”
“Yeah. Hence my worries,” Angelo replied. “I called the Cabrinis. They’re going to help if necessary.”
“You called the Italian mob?” His brother met his gaze. “I thought you planned to stay clear of them?”
“I do. But they understand the kind of threat Kara is facing better than anyone else. I need their help. We can’t go to the police.” He’d only told Dante the broad strokes of what was going on, but that was enough. He shared a look with Dante and in that moment he knew what he truly wanted.
“When this is all over? What will you do?” Dante asked.
“Marry Kara, if she wants me.,” Angelo replied without hesitation. “Because I’m in love with her.”
Dante chuckled. “And you’ll both live happily ever after?”
Angelo smiled. “Yes. We will.” He’d spend the rest of his life making Kara happy, giving her the life she’d been denied all those years. It would be one hell of an adventure.
If… if she loved him back and if she said yes.
“Come on, let’s get on the ice.” Dante slapped Angelo’s shoulder and they joined his family on the rink. Angelo wasn’t a great skater, but he was good enough to keep up with Kara as they moved around the rink in wide circles.
“I had no idea you could skate,” he said as he caught her gloved hand in his.
He was fascinated by the way her red hair blew gently back from her face as she skated beside him.
Angelo narrowly missed crashing into another person because he was so caught up in watching Kara smiling as she moved on the ice.
“It’s been over a decade since I have, but my mother taught me.
When we had a chance to go skating we did.
I hadn’t realized how much I missed this.
” She beamed up at him, and he was relieved to see the shadows gone from her eyes.
Last night had left them both feeling raw and vulnerable, but coming to the skating rink with his family had been a great distraction.
“I think Nicholas and Millie are convinced you hang the moon,” he told her.
“They are the sweetest kids.” She smiled as she watched them.
Angelo felt strangely nervous as he took a moment to collect himself, then spoke.
“Would you want kids? Someday?” Angelo asked her.
She took a long moment answer. “Yes… if I knew that my father’s men would leave me alone, if I had a stable job…
if I was safe and with a man who would be an equal partner raising them.
I’ve seen the toll of being a single parent.
It’s hard, and my mother was amazing. But she deserved help, rest, time away from me to be herself and to find out who she was without just being a mother.
I would need a husband who would share in everything equally so we could both still be our own persons and not just parents. ”
That was a lot of “ifs” Angelo knew, but he felt confident he could make them all happen.
“And you’d be okay with a man who’d cook you the best food every day?” he added with a grin.
“Yes,” she replied seriously. “Cooking would be a much desired skill in a man since I don’t have that much desire to cook.” She laughed at herself in a light way rather than a self-deprecating way.
“It’s a good thing, to want equal partner in life. I want the same.”
They skated around two people who were moving together awkwardly as they tried not to fall on their backsides.
“And you? Would you want kids?” Kara asked him.
“I would, whenever the time is right with the woman I love. Kids with red hair and big blue Irish eyes…”
She spun around to face him, her movements on the ice elegant as she skated to a stop and he slowed to a halt too.
“Angelo… you haven’t written a cookbook yet, have you?” Her sudden change of topic confused him.
“No, not yet. I’ve been a little intimidated to think about it. Why?”
He had done dozens of interviews for newspapers, and everyone asked him the same question. They all wanted a cookbook, but he had no idea where to start with such a project.
“Well… I was thinking… your Nonna’s recipes are incredible. What if you did a cookbook and called it Nonna’s Tastes of Ortigia. You can write stories about each recipe. People love the background behind family recipes.”
Angelo caught her waist in his gloved hands, pulling her close as he considered her idea seriously.
“I would need a ghostwriter, I can tell a story but I wouldn’t know how to make it pretty.” A sudden idea struck him. “What if you write them? We could do it together.”
She started to shake her head, and he knew she was still too cautious to consider what he was saying seriously. He needed her to see that the fantasy he was offering could be a reality. But how to do that?
“You’re a beautiful writer, Kara. I’ve read a few of your poems.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “You think so? I’ve always wanted to write but it’s just has been silly poems so far.”
“Your poems aren’t silly. I think you telling my Nonna’s stories would be perfect. Will you think about it?”
He held his breath, knowing this was such a risk, to propose a future idea when any talk of the future would scare her, but he was determined to win this war over her fear.
“You have time, Kara, just think it over.”
“Your family’s waving at us.” Kara brushed her red hair away from her face as the cold breeze tugged strands across her cheeks.
He glanced over her shoulder to see his mother and father who’d left the ring. They were waving to call him and Kara over to them. It must be time to leave.
“We’d better go.” Angelo pulled her along with him as they skated the rest of the way toward his family.
Kara stepped off the ice and the back of her neck suddenly tightened with that tingle of foreboding sense that she was being watched.
She didn’t alert Angelo or Asher who was casually leaning on the rink wall a dozen feet away.
Angelo’s family seemed completely unaware of Asher’s presence.
That was a good thing. She didn’t want Angelo’s family knowing or being afraid because Asher was there.
She swept her gaze over the crowds, looking for a familiar face, a familiar voice or even clothing she recognized.
She only saw smiling children, loving parents, besotted romantic couples.
Long ago she convinced herself to always trust herself and never doubt her instincts.
But right then… she had doubts. Was she imagining this because she was looking for an excuse to run?
It was not out of the realm of possibilities.
Things with Angelo had escalated so quickly that her mind heart was still spinning from how tightly connected she felt to him and his world.
It was logical that her subconscious might try to fake wanting to give a reason to leave.
Her left ring finger felt the weight of Angelo’s grandmother’s ring. It was hidden beneath her glove, but she touched it. It tethered her to the ground when she felt she might get blown away with panic.
“Oh Kara, what a wonderful day this has been,” Francesca hugged her and then Matteo did the same.
“It has,” she agreed as she and Alessia shared a smile.
Once she’d hugged every one of Angelo’s family goodbye.
They headed toward their car with Asher trailing them at a discreet distance.
Out of the corner of eye, she saw a man staring right at her.
He suddenly waved at her. Her heart leapt in her throat, but a second later she realized a woman walking behind her was heading toward the waving man.
I’m losing it. She wasn’t in danger here. She had to just ignore the feeling for what it was. A false alarm.