Chapter 36
36
DARIO
Dario stared at his dad, trying to take in what he’d just told him. He took a step towards him, trying to block out the cacophony of sound coming from every corner of the room, as Carlo had moved on to a new musical number and now led the crowd in an enthusiastic chorus of ‘The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond’.
‘You’re going to have to say that again to me, Dad, because I need to make sure I’m hearing you right…’
The last fifteen minutes of his life had been insane. Selling his family’s company. Then finding the connection he’d always felt with Gwen was real.
But now two ropes were pulling him in different directions, and it felt like they were ripping him apart. Gwen. The crazy crush that had lasted over thirty years and now she’d told him that she’d felt the same. How did he get so lucky? And how did he get so unlucky that it fell on the same day that he committed a betrayal that his father would never forgive?
Or was he telling him something different now?
To the side of his dad, he saw Minnie Ryan nod to Gino, as if spurring him on, and Dario realised he had seen that dynamic before, when his mum would cajole his dad into something that Gino was reluctant to do. And she was always right.
‘I said, I’ve changed my mind,’ his dad repeated, and yes, Dario had heard it correctly the first time. He wouldn’t have been more surprised if Gino had punched him in the face. ‘I agree to sell the business. It’s the right thing to do.’
Dario wondered if his dad was drunk, but he sounded perfectly lucid.
‘I know that the deal expired at midnight…’ his dad was saying, ‘but if you go now and call them, maybe you can still get them to honour their offer.’
Dario needed more information to absorb this.
‘But, Dad, are you sure? Why the change of heart?’
His dad glanced over to Minnie and returned her smile. ‘Because maybe I’m a foolish old man who needs to be reminded that it’s the people we love that matter, nothing else. And life is too short to lose them before the choice is taken out of our hands. So I’m sorry, Dario. I should have listened to you. Now go make the phone call.’
Stunned, Dario didn’t know whether to confess to what he’d done, or quit while he was ahead and avoid risking upsetting Gino all over again. It was one thing being given the go-ahead now, but would his father be furious that he’d gone against his wishes?
Sod it. He had to tell him. He couldn’t bring himself to be dishonest, even by omission.
Through clenched teeth, he winced as he admitted, ‘Dad, I already made the call. I sold the business.’
Gino froze, stared at him, and Dario saw a thousand emotions run through the eyes of a face as still as stone. This was Gino’s dream. His heart and soul. And Dario had taken that away without his consent. He braced himself, waiting for the retribution, the wrath…
But it didn’t come. Instead, Gino’s words were slow and deliberate. ‘Then you did the right thing. I was wise to give you the business, Dario, because you did what we needed to do even when I refused. That takes courage.’
Dario’s feet were glued to the floor, every sense blocked by both shock and gratitude.
That was when Minnie stepped forward and hugged him. ‘Well done, Dario. Your mum would be so proud of you.’
‘Thank you,’ he croaked, overcome with affection for the friend his mother had adored. He wasn’t sure he would hold it together long enough to say any more than that, so he was grateful when a diversion took Minnie’s focus off him and on to something else. Or, rather, someone else.
‘Emmy! Are you all right, my darling?’
Ailish and Emmy had rejoined them and now Minnie was speaking to her granddaughter, clearly full of concern.
‘I am, Gran. I just need to sort something and… Cormac!’
Everyone in their group now stopped their conversations and turned all eyes to Emmy and then to the guy who was standing at the bar with Carlo’s fiancée, Yvie. The same man who had just turned and was now walking towards them. He stopped a few feet in front of Emmy and didn’t shrivel at all under the gaze of the now-silent audience in this corner of the room. Instead, he remained silent, waiting for Emmy to speak. Dario felt Gwen’s hand slipping into his as they watched Emmy step forward.
‘Please ask me again.’
Silence.
‘Please. Ask me again,’ she repeated. ‘I made a mistake. You said you wanted to ask me in front of the people I love, and here we are,’ she said with a nod to the crowd. ‘So if you truly do love me enough to spend the rest of your life with me, please ask me again.’
She didn’t need to say it a fourth time.
Cormac pulled a box out of his pocket, and then opened it and took out a beautiful diamond ring. He took one more step towards her and held it out to her.
‘Emmy Ryan, will you please, please put this ring on and say that you’ll marry me?’
‘Cormac Sweeney…’ Emmy replied, with the widest smile in the room. ‘I most definitely will.’
The celebration that erupted in that corner rivalled the one they’d had at midnight, as Cormac lifted her up, swung her around and then kissed her in front of a standing ovation. They all swarmed around them, giving congratulations, good wishes, kisses, and promises of an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Ibiza. That came from Rhonda. And only on the condition that they could all go with them.
Dario dashed to the bar, where Nicky and Scott were now chatting to Yvie, Brodie and Sonya, and in two minutes, all of them were on the way back with bottles of champagne and trays of glasses. When the drinks had been poured, the toasts had been given, and the love had been shared, he reached again for Gwen’s hand and realised that it wasn’t there.
Casting around, he spotted her leaving through the front door and wondered if this had all just been too much for her. Handing his glass over to Ailish, he kept his smile on his face as he excused himself and went after her.
Outside, he found her leaning against the wall of the restaurant, head back, eyes closed.
‘Gwen? Are you okay? Are you sick? Do you need a?—’
Her eyes opened as she shook her head slowly. ‘I don’t need anything. Maybe just you.’
Heart melting, he went to her, slid his arms around her waist. ‘I’m right here. Although I still can’t quite believe that you’re here with me.’
He wondered if he’d got this wrong, because for him, this was the happiest of moments, yet she was staring at him with such sorrow.
‘Is this a thing, Dario?’ she asked quietly, searching his face for answers. ‘I mean, a real thing?’
‘I think so.’ Shit, he had got it wrong. She was obviously doubtful. Unsure.
‘I think so too. But if it is, then you need to know something first.’
Fear now overruled everything else. He’d waited thirty years for this woman and now there was something that could stop them exploring what they could be.
‘Tell me.’
‘I lied this morning. I told everyone that my scans were clear, because I wanted this day. I couldn’t bear to let it go by in case I never got another chance to see you, to be with you at midnight. The truth is, I have no idea what my results will say, but you need to know what could be ahead, because you can walk away now. I would understand, I promise.’
He put his fingers up to her lips and stopped her. ‘I’m not walking.’
‘But it could be?—’
This time, it was his lips that hushed her as he kissed her. There were so many possibilities, so much potential for heartache, so many things that could go wrong. But right now he wasn’t going to think about any of them, because if he’d learned anything today, it was that the past didn’t matter. Neither did what lay ahead. So, from now on, all he was going to worry about was today.
‘It will be what it is,’ he told her softly. ‘And we’ll find out together.’