Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Dante’s speech had been quick, sharp, and had erased any lingering tension in the room.
Honesty was not surprised. She’d seen him in action at the event when they’d reconnected. The man led with confidence, and finished with charm. He was currently surrounded by family while the cake was cut and served.
Octavius instructed the staff to crank up the music, currently set on what Jaylyn referred to as “yacht rock.” She and Simone were dancing in the middle of the room.
Dante excused himself from Brody and Reagan. Then he wove around his mom and sister, and cut a path straight for Honesty. When he arrived, she was holding her champagne flute in both hands and doing her damnedest to keep a genial smile on her face.
Anything to disguise the ripple of panic racing through her bloodstream.
“Would you like to dance?”
“Okay.” She set her flute on the bar and accepted his hand.
“That was some speech,” she said as he pressed his hand to her lower back and pulled her close. “Need me to drive tonight so that you can drink with your fam?”
“I’ll call a driver. Just remember your overnight bag is in my car.”
“Right. That is important.” She’d decided to go with him to the hotel tonight. It was closer to the venue, and he’d just stayed at her place. She was already looking forward to luxuriating in a steamy shower this evening.
He bent his head to kiss her—soft, then not so soft, like he wanted more and wasn’t bothering to hide it.
When he pulled away, she glanced around to see if anyone was watching. But everyone seemed to be having their own moments and paying Honesty and Dante no attention.
“This is quite the change of mood from earlier,” she told him.
“There are a lot of reasons to celebrate. Brody and Reagan are only two of them.” He folded one of her arms so that it rested on his chest and then curled his hand around her smaller one.
She could feel his heartbeat through his shirt, and wondered if he was about to tell her the news he’d warned her about.
Then, he looked into her eyes.
Her own heart ricocheted around her chest, pinging off her ribcage and colliding with her throat.
On the balcony with the ladies, she had gone on and on about how she would be fine with whatever Dante decided for the future.
Then she’d doubled down and had said there wasn’t anything for him to stick around for.
To be fair, she hadn’t yet come to terms with her truth.
She was in love with him. There would be no going back.
As she’d listened to Dante’s speech, she’d understood that everything she’d said on that balcony had been a lie. She wouldn’t be fine if he left for LA. She wanted to be part of his future. And there was something between them. Anyone could see it—Chloe already had.
She couldn’t wait another second to hear what he had to say. Already the minutes had dragged on since they’d stepped onto the dance floor.
“Before you refill our glasses,” she said, “can you tell me what you wanted to talk to me about?”
He stopped swaying, his expression serious. “Okay.”
“It’s not bad,” she reminded him.
“It’s not.” His smile returned as he looked around. “How about the balcony? It’s more private.”
“Okay, but I changed my mind. I’m going to need that drink.”
The wind kicked at her hair as they stepped onto the same balcony where Dante and his father had argued earlier. It seemed like a lifetime instead of an hour and a half ago. This part of the balcony was intimate, with a two-chair seating area.
“I came to Chicago as a favor to Eli. I didn’t expect to see you.” He inhaled as he took in their surroundings—glass-and-steel buildings, their windows either glowing or dark sat beneath a starry night sky. “I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again.”
“Me neither.” Dante had been a far-off memory that night. She’d been focused on her parents, on honoring Christian’s life.
“And then, after that night, I didn’t expect to see you again. These two weeks have given me an unexpected second chance I’m not sure I’ve earned.”
Oh God. He sounded like he was ramping up to make a confession.
If he said the unthinkable four-letter-word, should she say it back?
If he asked her to move with him to LA, could she say yes this time around?
She had proclaimed that she’d never leave Chicago, but now she thought she might eat every one of her words with a spoon.
“I have always prided myself on being needed,” he continued.
“On being loyal. In a way, that’s what my father and I were fighting about.
He was asking how I could leave you again.
He was asking why I chose loyalty to the Moretti Foundation instead of choosing you.
In his eyes, I’m hiding from what’s important. ”
Wow. She hadn’t expected to agree wholeheartedly with Octavius Crane.
“But I’m not sure you need me any longer.”
Her heart slammed in her chest. She could survive without him, but who wanted to merely survive? “Of course I need you,” she whispered.
“That’s good to hear.” He smiled.
He raked his fingers through his hair, appearing nervous. Then he took both her hands in his.
She forgot to breathe.
“If I stayed in Chicago, how would you feel about that?”
She could blame the wind for the tears that were burning the backs of her eyes, but she knew that wasn’t the sole cause. This was what she had secretly wanted to hear—that he was staying. Here. With her.
But she’d had no idea she would feel so ready to dive in with both feet with him. That was crazy, right? It was certifiable to sleep with an ex after eight years apart and then decide to spend the rest of your life with him after two weeks together.
So why didn’t it feel crazy?
Because Dante wasn’t a random guy. He was the man she’d loved with her whole heart. Was it so unbelievable that her heart had found that familiar path and walked down it without hesitation?
“I’ve loved spending time with you. I would love to keep spending time with you.” She pressed her lips together before she said too much.
His smile was as big as she’d ever seen. “That is very good to hear. I have decided to stay—”
She couldn’t keep her cool any longer. She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed. “I was hoping you would say that. I didn’t want to admit it, even to myself. But I was hoping it from the bottom of my heart.”
His deep laugh against the shell of her ear was a salve to her wounded soul. What had happened between them in the past could stay there. They could start fresh.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her for a long while. The distant traffic and whistling wind and their mingling heartbeats were the only sounds she heard.
“You’ll need my help for the launch dinner,” he said. “And I can help you with the rollout as well as the logistics.”
She loosened her grip and faced him, confused for a hot second. “What?”
“I never make a promise and leave before it I see it through. You might not know this about the new me, but I finish what I start. I won’t leave until you and your charity are settled.”
Her chest deflated. He was…talking about the charity? Not them?
She slowly lowered to her heels, and then just as slowly unwound her arms from his neck. Back on her own two feet, which were now solidly in contact with the concrete beneath them, she asked, “You’re staying to help with the launch?”
“One hundred percent. I never should have entertained leaving when there was so much left to do. You have a speech to give. And I was thinking tonight if I’d had to worry about the seating and the music and cake alongside giving my speech—it’s too much to do alone.
So, you have me.” He was still smiling, the clueless idiot.
“You can give your speech. I can handle everything else. This is what I do, Honesty. Let me do it.”
It would be wrong to slap him, right? Her palm twitched with the urge.
Here she’d thought that Dante had been struck by a great epiphany. She’d believed that, like her, he’d realized he had fallen in love. And that the wedding reminded him of what was important in life. And the snit with his father had been another reminder that life was short.
But in which direction would that cliché blow? Was life so short that she should savor every minute with Dante before he ran off to LA again? Or was life too short to waste a single second standing here and listening to his bullshit?
Tough call.
“You’re leaving after the launch dinner,” she said, still trying to wrap her head around what he’d said.
“I figure that’s plenty of time for you to use me up. I mean in every way.” He waggled his eyebrows, which she normally found funny. Now, it infuriated her.
For a brief moment, she’d felt every emotion she’d harbored for two weeks. Unfiltered. She’d dropped her guard. She’d let down her walls. And for what? This…this half-assed promise?
Possibly the real issue was that what he was offering was practical.
Generous, even. The charity event, the rollout, the donor relationships—she didn’t have the knowledge or the time to handle those, even with Gabby’s help.
Dante could talk money out of donors and smooth out any wrinkles before she would know there was a problem.
He wanted to make sure she had everything she needed before he went back home. If she wasn’t madly, deeply, ass-over-tea-kettle in love with him, she might admire his thoughtfulness and foresight.
As things stood now, she couldn’t.
This wasn’t a “new” version of him. After everything they’d been through together, he hadn’t changed at all. He’d spent his life trying to be the man who did not abandon his responsibility the way his father had. He had believed he was being noble and thoughtful.
It was Honesty who had let herself hope for more. If anyone had broken a promise, it was her. She had broken the one she’d made to herself.
“You shouldn’t stay out of obligation,” she said, her voice flat. “Or guilt.”
Dante shook his head. “I’m not staying out of obligation or guilt. I’m staying where I’m needed. I don’t believe in quitting before the job is done.”
Half of her wanted to find her own way home. And the other half of her, the half that still loved him, wanted to gift herself one last night with him.
When they were facing each other on pillows in his hotel room bed, would he say the same thing? Or would the realization that he loved her dawn on him while he was swimming around in postcoital bliss?
That seemed as far-fetched as his father stepping outside to apologize and agree to stay in town as well. And, if she was being honest, her hoping that Dante would suddenly realize he loved her was a tad desperate.
She rubbed her bare arms with her palms under the guise of warming up but she wasn’t the least bit cold. She was burning from the heat of embarrassment.
She caught sight of Chloe through the glass door, who was standing across the room. Chloe gave her an optimistic thumbs up before turning back to Zander.
Did everyone see the truth except for Dante? Or were rose-colored glasses being passed around like wedding favors tonight? Maybe Honesty was guilty of being caught up, too—of seeing something that wasn’t actually there.
“I’m not sure how long we should stay tonight,” Dante said. “I don’t want another run-in with my father. This is Brody and Reagan’s night.”
“You can stay as long as you like. If I get too tuckered out, I’ll find my way back.
” She said that with a smile, despite the monotone delivery.
She needed a clean exit plan because she wasn’t sure what she was feeling.
Everything had hit her at once and was now flying around her like a cawing murder of crows.
“Oh no. You’re not getting away from me that easy.”
Wasn’t she though? Wasn’t she getting away from him very easily? In a week’s time he would walk away no problem. Of all the things he’d said, she hadn’t heard a single mention of them keeping in touch.
For Dante, it was the ultimate have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too scenario. For her, it was another heartbreak to navigate on top of an already wobbly stack of to-dos.
Chloe poked her head through the door and offered a plate. On it was a fork and a slice of cake—half chocolate, half strawberry. Split in two, like Honesty’s heart.
“Jaylyn said this is the cake that you picked out,” she told Honesty. “This is the last slice, and she didn’t want you to miss out. Hope you two are okay out here. Sorry to interrupt!” She handed off the plate and dashed back into the party.
“Chloe is happy for us,” Dante said.
Chloe was as deluded as Honesty had been.
Dante scooped up a bite of the cake and shoveled it into his mouth. The wind ruffled his hair. He offered her the plate. “Do you want a bite? It’s really good.”
“I couldn’t eat another thing.” Especially after finding out that the man she was in love with was sticking around for business reasons.
Maybe she was the one who was the idiot.