Epilogue
DAN
Sunlight filters through the branches of the Italian stone pines, the warmth of the sun’s rays stroking my skin.
I lean back against the tree, watching Dom dribble the ball across the grass, Angelos darting after him with a grin stretched across his face. He’s still a little pale, thinner than he should be after the past six weeks of hell, but he’s happy.
Rose lies on the blanket, her head resting on my thigh as she gazes up at me.
She’s bundled in a pink cardigan over her dress, her skin still carrying a yellow hue from recovery, but colour is returning to her cheeks.
Every so often, she closes her eyes and tilts her face to the sun, soaking it in as if she’s tasting freedom for the first time.
I could watch her do that forever.
Dom launches the ball again and pretends to miss Angelos' return kick on purpose, sprawling dramatically on the grass. He’s been back and forth between here and the UK, tracking Magnus, along with Riccardo and even Elio. Who’d have thought Magnus would be the one to bring our two families together?
“Uncle Dom plays like an old man!” Angelos shouts, hands on his hips.
Dom props himself up on his elbows and shouts back, “Old man, eh? Watch your mouth or I’ll trip you up with one of my geriatric moves.”
“You’re not fast enough!” Angelos fires back.
I chuckle under my breath, warmth filling my chest.
“Dom’s letting him win,” Rose says quietly on my lap.
“Yeah. He thinks he’s being subtle.” My fingers play with her hair; more brunette’s grown through now, reminding me of the woman I fell in love with all those years ago. I curl a lock around my finger. The blonde from the woman I fell in love with all over again.
She smiles at me, and for the first time in what feels like forever, there’s no fear in her eyes. It’s just her. My fiore mio.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it, playing with Rose’s hair.
“You not getting that?” she asks with a furrowed brow. “It could be important.”
“It’s not.” My fingers trace the lines on her brow. “There’s nothing more important than this moment with you and my family. And nothing is going to interrupt our day.”
She reaches a hand to my face and I kiss her palm. “You know, at some point, you’re going to have to tell me what you actually do for a living.”
I chuckle to myself, my chest shaking. “Don’t act innocent. I know you went snooping for my ID.”
Her lips press together in a thin line as if suppressing a smile. “That ID didn’t make any sense.” A small crease forms between her eyebrows and I kiss her there.
Angelos kicks the ball too hard, and it bounces onto the picnic blanket.
I catch it and grin. “Isn’t it obvious? I work in intelligence.”
Dom snorts, snatching the ball from me. “Yeah, the undercover kind—'cause no one’s ever actually seen your intelligence.”
Rose's mouth twitches like she's trying to be polite, but she bursts out laughing anyway. She tilts her head at me. “So what, you’re like James Bond?”
Dom chuckles. “More like Bullshit Bond.”
Rose laughs more. “I can agree with that.”
I shoot Dom a warning glare that only makes him smirk wider. “Agent Inferno, if you please.” I give Rose my best come-fuck-me eyes. “Licence to smoulder.”
Dom dribbles the ball. “He’s good at keeping secrets, though. Like how he still can't beat me at FIFA.”
“Nor me,” Angelos shouts.
Rose smiles, her fingers caressing mine. “Well, Agent Inferno, don’t you have to get back to saving the world at some point?”
I lean in, brushing my nose against hers. “That’s what I’ve been doing. You and Angelos are my world.”
Her lips part as she sucks in a breath.
I press my mouth to hers and suck it right back out. “The rest of the world can burn for all I care, but I do have to get back to work soon. I have a wedding to pay for.”
Dom shouts, “You paying for my wedding? Thanks, bro. Appreciate it.”
I can’t stop smiling as I gaze down at Rose. “You can pay for your own wedding, brother. Riccardo already offered you the villa at Lake Como for your honeymoon. I’ll buy you an ice cream instead.” I jerk my thumb towards the gelato stand nearby. “Fancy a gelato?”
“Do you even need to ask?” she says, a mock in her voice. “What are you having, pistachio?”
A grin tugs at my lips. “You know me so well.”
“Predictable,” she teases.
I help Rose to a sitting position, her abdomen still giving her slight discomfort. Her strength not yet fully returned, but she’s here and I’ll never take anything for granted again.
I rise from the ground and tap Angelos on the shoulder as I pass. “Ice cream?”
He lights up. “Yes, please!”
“Dom?”
“Double chocolate,” Dom calls, flopping onto the blanket beside Rose, already looking beat from the run around. “I’ve earned it.”
I leave them behind and queue at the stand with Angelos, my hand resting on his shoulder as he studies the menu. “What’ll it be, son?” I’ll never get bored of saying that word. Son. My fucking amazing son who’s been a champion these last few weeks helping his mother.
“Can I have the green one, please?” He licks his lips as if he can already taste it.
I pull my brows together. “Mint?”
“No, that one.” He points to the sign. “Pistachio.”
“You like pistachio?”
“Yeah, it’s my favourite.”
A laugh bursts from my lips.
“What’s funny?”
“Because that’s my favourite too.”
As I pass Angelos his gelato, he looks at me with a smile. “Thanks, Dad.”
The word never fails to hit me right in the gut. He calls me Dad so easily now, like it’s the most natural thing in the world. And maybe it finally is.
Before I can say anything, he’s running back to Rose and Dom.
Dom waves, letting me know he has eyes on him, and I pay for the gelato. Even with Magnus gone, I can’t relax where my family’s concerned. Rose says that’s just being a parent. Maybe it is and I wonder if it’ll get easier as he gets older.
Walking back to the picnic blanket, I smile as I think about still looking out for the kid when he’s forty. I hand everyone their cones, a smile still playing on my lips. “You never said our son was a pistachio guy.”
Rose raises an eyebrow at my pistachio. “What can I say? He’s like his father.” She licks at her strawberry cream. “Nutty.”
Angelos looks between us, completely unimpressed. “Grown-ups are weird.”
“Correction,” Dom says, tucking into his double chocolate. “They’re weird. I’m cool.”
“Bruh, nobody says cool anymore,” Angelos shoots back.
Rose laughs softly, and the sound is a balm to every wound I’ve ever had.
As she savours her scoop, I lean closer to her ear. “What kind of ice cream guy do you think Dom is, then?”
She pretends to ponder, tapping her chin dramatically. “Hmm. Hazelnut. Smooth. A little nutty, but dependable.”
Dom splutters on his cone. “I’ll take smooth.”
I nudge her knee with mine. “And me? Pistachio still?”
Her gaze softens, her thumb brushing along my wrist where it rests on my knee.
“No,” she says, quiet and sure. “You’re more than that now.”
I raise a brow. “Yeah?”
She leans in, her lips ghosting the shell of my ear.
“You’re the whole flippin’ sundae.”
My breath catches in my chest. I press a kiss to her cheek. I want to bottle this moment. I want to anchor us here and never move. This is what freedom tastes like. Sweet as gelato, warm as the sun on my face.
She sighs against me, so soft I almost miss it. "You know… I don't need to fly anymore. I only ever loved it because it made me feel free."
I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, my voice low. "And now?"
She smiles up at me, eyes shimmering. "I feel free with you."
My chest cracks wide open as I smile down at Rose, like a bird who’s found her wings. My little bird, my flower. “You don’t need to work anymore. I’ll support you, but whatever happened to your dream of teaching?”
She traces idle circles on my wrist. "I never got my degree, with everything that happened.”
I hook my finger under her chin, lifting her gaze to mine. "If you want to go back to school, I’ll support you. Whatever you need."
Her smile wobbles, a little broken, a lot beautiful. "I just need you."
I kiss her, slow and deep, a vow in every breath.
Dom and Angelos start arguing over football stats again, Dom trying to educate him about United, but I don’t care. I have everything I need right here.
I’ve come to accept there’ll be many more City games in my future. With a silent chuckle, I let them work it out, my son giving Dom all the stats while I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out the book I bought for Rose. “I got you something.”
“Let me guess. A rose?”
“Not today. I got you a new book.”
Her face lights up as I hand it to her.
“No more Romeo and Juliet. That’s not our story anymore, fiore mio.”
She peels the brown wrapping, running her fingers over the cover. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
She tilts her head, eyes bright with curiosity. “What’s this?”
“A new story for us,” I say simply. “Less tragedy. More magic.”
Her smile could start a war and end one all at once. “I like the sound of that.”
The sun dips lower in the sky, casting the park in amber light. Angelos jumps up and runs across the grass now he’s finished his ice cream.
Dom crunches the last of his cone. “Doesn’t this kid ever let up?” He rises to his feet, ready to tackle him for the ball.
I wrap my arm around Rose’s shoulders and pull her close, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“Will you read some of it to me?”
“Always.” I flip open the book and clear my throat. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
Rose smiles, a sleepy, content smile. “Blind indeed,” she murmurs.
I kiss her hair, keeping my voice low and steady. “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
“But we made it,” she says, her voice full of quiet certainty. “You made our happy ever after happen, Dan, just like you promised you would.”
Love blooms in my chest where hope once flickered. We do have our happy ever after, even if it was a long road forged in blood and fire, we made it. We fucking made it, and no secrets, no man, no bullet, nothing will ever come between us again. Because this love was never meant for tragedy.
We were never Romeo and Juliet.
We were always the dream.
And this is where our story truly begins.