Epilogue
ITALY- THE ISLAND OF ORTIGIA
NINE MONTHS LATER…
Kara held her breath as Shana finished lacing up the back of the ivory corseted bodice of her wedding gown.
“I think you’re ready.” Shana moved to stand in front of her. She eyed Kara’s appearance critically, and then after a moment smiled. “Perfect.”
“Oh!” A chorus of feminine squeals from behind her had Kara turning. Veronica held her daughter Lyra by the hand and Felicity stood in the doorway of the small bridal room that was located near the back of the church.
“Do you think the dress is too much?” Kara turned back to the mirror. If it was, it was too late now. The wedding was about to start.
She had chosen a gown that held a hint of historic Romanticism with a slightly elongated corset made of silk Mikado fabric.
The ivory skirt below it draped down in flattering silhouette.
Delicate off the shoulder straps gracefully skimmed her skin and contrasted with the extravagant volume of the skirts that were gathered up in a loose clutch to one side on her hip.
A high slit slightly to one side added a touch of playful elegance to the entire ensemble.
The subtle blend of modern and classic,made her feel like she was ready to dance in a ball.
“She’s Cinderella! Just like you, mommy!” Lyra proclaimed in delight.
“Actually,” Veronica studied Kara. “I think she looks like Snow White who was woken up from an enchanted sleep in the forest by her prince.”
Kara met Veronica’s gaze. She truly understood more than anyone else what being prevented from living the life one was meant to felt like.
In the months since Christmas, she and Veronica had talked often of how it was still unbelievable at times that this was her life now.
The big boisterous Vertucci clan who’d taken her instantly, the friends she’d come to love in Angelo’s world that now was her own too.
She was no longer lying cold in a coffin, trapped by the spell of her past. As silly as it sounded, she did feel like Snow White just then.
She’d made a place for herself in the world now, and she could leave the last of her sorrows behind.
Kara blew a kiss to the darling little girl who had just turned five years old, and Lyra giggled.
“Don’t forget these.” Felicity held out a bouquet of white calla lilies bound together with a silk wrap and a string of pearls that belonged to Francesca.
It was her something borrowed. And as Angelo had pointed out, she already had blue…
the blue of her Irish eyes. She wore his grandmother’s ring for something old.
The garter resting around her thigh was something new and made her blush.
When Kara moved toward the door, Shana rushed to stop her.
“Your veil!” She carefully lifted the front part of the sheer veil that was trimmed with lace and let it drop over Kara’s face. The veil was attached to a mother of pearl hair comb nestled in the elegant knot of Kara’s red hair.
“Now you’re ready,” Shana declared. Then she turned and hustled everyone out of the room ahead of her.
Matteo Vertucci was just outside the room, and as he spotted Kara his eyes widened.
“Oh…” His face softened. “Oh, Kara,” he opened his arms and Kara rushed toward him, hugging him.
The last nine months with Angelo and his family had been just what she’d always dreamed. When Matteo had asked if he could walk down the aisle, she immediately agreed and they both cried. Just like she was about to do now.
“Oh now, none of that,” Matteo hushed her. “No tears until it’s done. Francesca would kill me if we messed up your makeup.”
Laughing and wiping her eyes, Kara tucked her arm in Matteo’s.
“It’s almost our turn.” His voice was gruff as he too was fighting off a wave of emotions.
They walked down the corridor to the entrance of the Cathedral of Syracuse.
The doors ahead of them were open, and she saw a hundred guests filling the pews on both sides of the aisle.
Beyond them stood Angelo. He wore a dashing dark blue suit.
His brothers were beside him as well as Thad, Rourke and Jared.
Felicity, Shana, Veronica and Alessia along with Angelo’s three brothers and their wives finished out the large wedding party.
Kara took it all in, wanting to write every moment deep into the story of her soul. This would be her favorite one, one that would never leave her. The story of a little, lost, Irish girl who found a home… a family… a charming prince to call her own.
The organ music changed to her favorite song Canon in D, and Matteo held her hand. “Ready?”
She nodded and they began to walk down the aisle.
Everyone in the pews stood and turned to face her.
She still wasn’t used to people looking at her, but she lifted her head and found Angelo waiting for her.
Kara suddenly had the urge to run… to run right into his arms so that they could spend the rest of their lives together.
It turned out Angelo had been right. Love was easy.
It was patient, it was kind. But it was also fierce and loyal.
Love encompassed a thousand beautiful things, and Kara had to remind herself to breathe as she walked toward the man who taught her to discover who she was, and be brave enough to love herself and fight for her happiness.
She paused by Francesca in the front row. Angelo’s mother was frantically wiping away happy tears.
“I love you,” Kara whispered to her mother-in-law who nodded and whispered back one word.
“Daughter.”
Shana stepped forward and took Kara’s bouquet. Kara lifted her gown up with one hand while Matteo brought her to Angelo who held out his own hand for her.
“Daughter.” Matteo echoed his wife’s single word, and he kissed Kara’s veil covered cheek before he returned to his place beside Francesca who immediately clutched his arm and leaned against him.
Little Millie who’d performed her duty as the flower girl and young Nicholas who’d been the ring bearer stood close beside their grandmother, eyes wide but their faces full of joy.
“Principessa,” Angelo greeted as he looked into her eyes.
A blush stained her cheeks as she gazed back up at him.
Then they faced the priest, spoke their vows in Italian, which Kara had worked hard to learn because she wanted to do the ceremony the way Angelo’s grandparents had in the very same Cathedral where his grandparents had married so many decades ago.
When she and Angelo were pronounced husband and wife, Angelo turned to her and slowly lifted the sheer veil over her head, letting it fall back to drape behind her from the comb nestled in her hair.
“Our love defies gravity and logic.
Amidst the celestial backdrop, we find solace.
Embracing in a realm of infinite possibility
Stunning hues mirror the intensity of our hearts
As we float, forever more
On the sweetest rising tide of us.”
It was a quote from Harrison Maslow’s poem “And We Float,” one of her favorites.
When Angelo leaned down, his lips meeting hers as the sun’s rays boldly came into the stained glass windows of the nave, pouring colored light over everyone.
The sweetly burning fire of Angelo’s kiss would be forever imprinted upon her lips.
The sunlight warmed her skin, and she moved closer to her husband.
And in that moment she felt the strangest sense of being infinite…
as though this single kiss had forever cast her and Angelo’s souls into the stars.
Memories played across her mind as she closed her eyes and chased those stars.
In that moment she found herself flying backward through time…
She stood in the soup kitchen, her body cold from the snowy night.
The door opened, letting in a tall, dark stranger, snowflakes whirling around him as though he were a night star with a thousand glimmering worlds in his orbit.
His face turned her way and the moment froze them time.
Their eyes locked, their destinies colliding in a flash of light.
Somehow… somehow, Kara had known then in that moment that she’d found her charming prince… her hero… her best friend… the man who would show her how to stop running and recognize that she had a life to live in this bright, beautiful world.
When their lips parted, the church filled with cheers, but Kara could only hear the wild, joyous beating of her heart as she stared into Angelo’s eyes.
Later that night, Angelo carried Kara over the threshold into the villa they had rented for the next two weeks for their honeymoon.
“Put me down!” She laughed but clutched his shoulders tighter.
“Only when I found our bed.” Angelo chuckled as he walked them back toward the biggest bedroom at the back of the villa.
He placed Kara down on the soft mattress, and she lay back for a moment, staring up at the ceiling with a little giggle.
“What?” he asked as he bent to remove his shoes and socks. Then he knelt in front of her voluminous skirts as she sat up on the edge of the bed.
“It just feels too wonderful.” She admitted this as she let him part the slit of her skirts further to expose her legs.
He curled his hands around one of her calves and trailed his fingertips gently down her ankle which made her giggle again.
Then he carefully slipped the ivory high heels she wore off one foot, then the other.
He placed her shoes beside his own on the floor and then straightened.
“I think you are long overdue for a little wonderful,” he said as he shrugged out of his suit coat and tossed it over nearby chair.
He unbuttoned his shirt, setting aside the cufflinks she had given him as gift on the nearby table along with his tie before he took his shirt off.
He felt Kara’s eyes on him, the hungry gaze of a woman ready to be well-loved.
Kara got to her feet and reached out a hand, tracing the now slowly fading pink scar on his abdomen.
Her lashes fluttered as she looked up at him.
Angelo knew she was thinking about the night they met.
It played so often in his own mind, but it was no longer a nightmare or a moment of fear.
It was a glowing moment in time where fate had called his name, and he had answered.
When he had chosen to trust the universe, it had given him the most precious treasure he’d ever have… the greatest love of his life.
“I would do it all over again,” he whispered to his wife. “I would stand between you and danger every time.” It wasn’t just a promise but a vow.
She pressed a kiss to his bare chest before she lifted her face up to his.
Her Irish blue eyes were a deep, calm sea.
“I wish I had the words powerful enough to tell you how much you mean to me, Angelo.”
He cupped her face in his palms, brushing away a stray tear with one thumb.
“Just say ‘I love you.’ That will be fine,” he teased.
She sniffled and smiled. “I love you. I love you. ... I ... love you.” The words rang like a bell in his heart.
He kissed her, claiming Kara’s perfect mouth while his hands found the laces at the back of her gown and gently pulled at the ties until they loosened and she was able to step free of the dress.
She was naked except for her panties and garter, and she sat back on the bed, a vision of pure loveliness with curves for him to explore the rest of their wedding night.
Angelo leaned over and lifted up one of her feet, tickling the bottom of it before he slid his palm up to remove the garter around her thigh and then he dropped it on her lap. He quirked a brow at her as she picked it up and played with it.
“Do you like it? It was my something ‘new.’”
He watched her fingers play with the lace and his blood heated while his body hardened. “Oh, yes… I like it very much.”
With a naughty wink, she stretched it slightly and slingshot it at his chest making him laugh when he tried and failed to catch the flirty little bit of lace. Giving up on retrieving it, he removed his pants and briefs. Kara shimmied out of her panties and tossed those them aside too.
With a laugh, Angelo toppled her back into bed, scattering pillows on the floor around the bed. But he didn’t care.
All the mattered was Kara. His wife. He kissed her mouth, then worked his way down her breasts, nipping and sucking at them until she was writhing beneath him.
It was between her thighs that was his real goal at the moment.
Her legs dropped open as he urged her to spread for him.
He made love to her body, kissing the sweet valleys and places that made her gasp his name and beg for more.
Only when Kara was sated beneath him, did he slide up her body, kissing her again as he entered her. Her lips parted in a gasp as he drove home swiftly, their bodies fitting, united. They moved as one, finding a rhythm in the candlelit night, their breaths mingling the air as they kissed.
In an instant of the most exquisite harmony, he saw his life play out differently this time.
Not of the past, but of the future. He cried out Kara’s name, his body surging with pleasure as he fully let go.
Then he collapsed on the bed beside her, their limbs tangling as they shared breathless contentment.
They didn’t speak for a long time. Words simply weren’t needed for a moment like this. After a while, he realized Kara had fallen asleep. Smiling affectionately, Angelo tucked his wife under the covers and turned out all the lights but one beside his side of the bed.
He propped himself up a little on the pillows and reached for the book that he left there on the nightstand when they’d first arrived at their villa two days ago.
The book was a cover that showed the golden streets of Ortigia.
The title read The Taste of Love: A Culinary journey with Award-Winning Chef Angelo Vertucci and Kara Gallagher.
Smiling, he turned to the first page where a picture of the Clifton Avenue soup kitchen covered one side and Karen’s words covered the other.
“Our story starts like any fairytale… Once upon a time a princess ran into the dark woods on a snowy night, afraid of the huntsman who had been ordered to cut out her heart. But luck was with the princess that night because she stumbled into a clearing and fell right into the arms of her Prince Charming. She didn’t know then that his love would wake her from every spell, save her from every danger…
That was how I met my husband, Angelo. On a snowy right…
I ran right into his arms… This is our story. ”
Thank you so much for reading Finding Prince Charming!