Epilogue
There was no best man.
No maid of honor.
Mari wore a three-quarter-length dress in white silk, a simple bouquet of white flowers in her hands.
James’s all-white suit was missing a tie. A simple rose pinned to his lapel.
The flowers were the only distinction among those who attended their wedding.
Everyone was dressed in white.
The family members that had been at the proposal were the only ones on Dante and Chloe’s yacht, watching James and Mari say yes for the final time. Including the brand-new set of perfectly identical twin boys.
They’d kicked around the idea of taking the yacht out to sea so Dante could perform the ceremony. Only after a little research, Mari and James learned that wasn’t a thing. By the time that was figured out, everyone had gotten into the idea.
So even though Mari’s faith suggested they should marry in the church, James wasn’t a Catholic. Though he was willing.
“We’ll ask for a blessing later,” she told him once they made the decision to let Dante do the job.
“Ask for forgiveness and not permission?” he’d asked.
Oh, how she’d changed. James brought out the laughter in her. And a ton of snark. “We probably shouldn’t use the skull ring with the priest, though.”
There wasn’t a moment that wasn’t funny.
Mari did wear the ring.
Not all the time, and not at their actual wedding, but she did put it on.
There were so many questions.
Dante’s half-serious, half-hysterical ceremony was perfectly executed.
“Do you, James, promise to smile in the face of Mari’s temper, even if she starts yelling in Italian?
“And do you, Mari, promise to find humor in every horrible piece of jewelry James brings home?
“Do you both promise to dance in the rain like no one is watching and love each other so deeply that you glow when you walk into a room?”
Yes, yes, and yes . . .
When Dante announced them husband and wife, an entirely new page turned in her life.
“My God, Mama, you look ten years younger,” Chloe said after the ceremony was over.
“I feel younger.”
“That would be the sex,” Rosa said without missing a beat.
Chloe gasped and then laughed.
Mari nodded a few times. “Definitely helps.”
Chloe covered her face with her hands but laughed the whole time.
“Do I look ten years younger?” Rosa asked.
“Ahh . . .”
“Are you having . . . I mean, did you meet someone?” Mari asked.
“No. I haven’t. Someone needs to find me a fountain of youth.” Rosa lifted her champagne glass as she walked away.
“Is it me, or is she a whole different person these days?” Chloe asked.
“It’s not you. Behind all that wit is a level of hurt. Sometimes when you’re hurt, you make the wrong choices. You and Dante need to keep an eye on her. Let me know if you see something I don’t.”
“We will.”
Music played in the background as the yacht floated in the bay.
James, along with most of the men, had already removed his suit coat.
“James? Mari?”
Mari looked up to see Ryan holding a bottle of champagne and an empty glass. Ellie and Madison stood at his side with hopeful expressions on their faces.
Mari glanced at James for his approval.
“Ahh . . .”
“They leave for college in a month.”
James looked at Mari for an answer.
“You married an Italian, honey.”
“Fine,” James conceded. “But don’t overdo it.”
“I’ll make sure they drink water along with it,” Chloe said and then walked away.
Mari walked over to Emma, who was staring down at her boys, both sound asleep and curled into each other.
“How are they asleep?” she asked.
“Genetics. Giovanni slept through everything until he was ten.”
The music rotating through a curated playlist changed songs, and Mari turned to find her husband.
James heard the beat, too, and started dancing her way.
They met in the middle and wasted zero time falling into step.
All those dance classes, and not once had they had an opportunity to show off to their family.
The bride and groom’s first dance morphed into the second, and the third. Until Ellie pushed her way into her father’s arms and asked him to show her what they were doing.
Luca took James’s place, and eventually, others joined in.
The wedding and reception were everything Mari loved in life.
Family, food, wine, and laughter.
The words that were painted on the walls of the restaurant.
Mari stood in the center of the place she’d called home her entire life.
Nearly all of the furniture stayed.
And even some of the family photos.
The space itself wasn’t going to be closed off to her or James, but it was in the process of getting a fresh coat of paint and a slightly new look.
It would now be used as a larger place for Gio and Emma to stay when they didn’t want to make the drive home on those late Sunday nights. Or maybe even Mari and James if the wine had been poured a little heavy.
But it wouldn’t be called home.
At least not day and night.
The one room that was being completely emptied out and started over was the primary bedroom.
Mari felt she owed that to James.
That was where she’d shared her life with Paulo.
The pictures of only the two of them stayed behind, too.
A few photographs of the children growing up would sit in albums that she could pull out on occasion, Paulo in them. But now was the time for new images, new memories.
James and Luca were carrying the last of the boxes Mari wanted moved across town down to Luca’s SUV and James’s car.
Mari walked over to the picture of her and Paulo.
An overwhelming sense of love washed through her.
“Thank you,” she said as if he was standing right there.
“Thank you for wanting this for me. For giving us your blessing in your darkest hours. For making me promise that I’d try.
” Mari closed her eyes and slowly breathed in from her nose.
The slightest whiff of his cologne lingered just out of reach.
“And thank you for bringing James to me.”
She opened her eyes and released anything left that tied her to the sorrow of her past.
Footsteps on the stairs announced James and Luca’s return.
“Is that everything?” Luca asked.
“I think so.”
“It’s not like we can’t come back, hon,” James said.
The unmistakable sound of Franny running down the stairs announced she was coming.
In her hand was a backpack.
“I’m ready.”
Mari looked at James.
“She wanted to spend the night with the girls before they left.”
“Pop Pop said it was okay.”
There was a very deep discussion on what James’s “grandfather” name was going to be.
James couldn’t wrap his head around nonno. “The last thing I want is to be known as the no-no guy. I like yes, yes.”
Mari had tried to articulate nonno with the Italian accent. But in the end, it didn’t matter.
Pop Pop it was.
“Okay, then. Let’s go.”
James followed Franny, then came Mari and Luca.
“Pop Pop said if we got a puppy, it could stay at your house since you have a yard.”
“He did, did he?”
James looked over his shoulder.
Luca moaned.
“I love dogs,” James said.
“See?” Franny said.
They spilled out into the back alley of the restaurant.
“How is it your dog if it lives at our house?” Mari asked.
“Didn’t you warn him about the puppy question?” Luca asked.
“I didn’t think I had to.”
Franny grabbed James’s hand and smiled.
The kind of smile that said she knew exactly what she was doing.
“Pop Pop said.” She shrugged like it was already a done deal.
James smiled. “I’m the yes, yes man.”
“Don’t make me dislike you, James,” Luca said.
James started walking away. “Too late, Luca. We’re already married.”
“Cazzo!” Luca whispered under his breath.
“What kind of puppy do you want?” James asked Franny.
Mari looked at her son. “It can stay with us after the puppy phase.”
Luca cussed again.
Franny jumped into Luca’s car.
Mari buckled up in James’s.
James placed his hand on hers as they both looked up at the building.
“You ready?” he asked.
Mari released a tiny laugh. “It’s too late to ask that question, James. We’re already married.”
It was his turn to laugh.
James pulled her head to his, kissed her softly. “Let’s do this.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”