41. Chapter 41
Chapter forty-one
Lucy
Eighteen Months Later.
I lingered on the sidewalk, looking up at the brand-new building in North Beach where Ristorante Bellissima once stood. It had baroque details, stucco walls, and stood like something from a dream.
Dax beamed at me as he walked past the covered patio toward the front door where a red ribbon was stretched between two poles. My heart melted, like it always did when I saw him smile. Not a smirk or a cheeky grin, but a genuine smile. My heartbeat pulsed to warp speed.
After the articles about Dax’s old restaurant circled the media for a few weeks, word spread fast he would be opening a new one in its place. It had become one of the most highly anticipated openings in the Bay Area for months.
Dozens of people had lined up for the grand opening of the new restaurant, excited chatter chorusing through the street. My chest inflated with pride for Dax.
Okay, some of that pride was also for myself.
After all, this was the first building I’d designed that I got to see come to life.
He’d offered me the job before I even graduated, and I pretended to act surprised, but I had a feeling he might have snooped through some of the drafts I’d already been imagining.
It was an offer impossible to refuse, especially considering my summer job came to such an abrupt halt.
Not that it mattered anyway. I received a suspiciously large stipend from my former boss as a means of severance since the last restaurant burned to the ground.
I tried to reject the money, but then it ended up reappearing directly in my bank account a day later.
Around the same time, my credit card debt had mysteriously disappeared, but he denied having anything to do with that.
That meant that I was able to sail through my last year at SFUD without squeezing in shifts at the bookstore, and I also had a little more time to spend with Tara when she came back to California at the end of the summer.
When she returned, she looked so much better than when she left.
She was in therapy, working through what she endured, and she still had rough days and nights, but she was healing.
I never told her the full details of what happened when she was away, but she knew Chase and Bryce were no longer a threat to her.
The news had broken out no less than a day after Dax and I left New York.
Deana Laskin, CEO of Echelon Developments, was announced deceased and had been revealed as a human trafficker and serial killer.
Alongside her, the bodies of Chase and Bryce were discovered, with records of their sadistic crimes.
The police took all the credit, which was something CIPHER was used to and not inclined to change.
They weren’t working for glory, they did it for virtue.
I ended up getting offers for a few internships that might have actually been legitimate, but I ultimately decided to take a leap of faith on my own architectural design startup instead.
Now, I stood in front of the fruits of my labor, the construction of my first project had finally reached completion, and this was its debut.
Dax gestured for me to follow him up the marble steps to where he stood in front of the ribbon. I shook my head. This was supposed to be his big moment, not mine. He raised his eyebrows, and it was like I could read his mind.
Don’t be stubborn, Luce.
I felt my lips crack into a grin and relented, reaching my hand to catch the high-five Ricky held out to me as I joined Dax on the steps. He held out a pair of large scissors, and I looked up at him in question. This was definitely supposed to be his part.
“Together,” he whispered, pressing the scissors into my hand.
Warmth tingled up my back as he stood beside me, wrapping his hands around mine and positioning them right in front of the ribbon.
With a snap, the red velvet line spit in two and fluttered down.
The crowd lined outside the restaurant cheered as a sign flicked on above the marble entrance to the brand-new building.
Renascence
Dax’s dazzling eyes shot to mine, rapturing me before he pulled me in for a warm, lingering kiss that almost made me forget where we were.
Almost.
“Long live the King and Queen!” I heard Ricky cheer, and I felt heat rise to my cheeks as I pulled away, trying to look calm as Dax shot him an eye roll. That was our cue.
The next several hours were a whirlwind of celebration and the comforting, familiar chaos of service.
Opening night of Renascence was a smashing success, even though Dax didn’t let me wash any dishes, even for old time’s sake.
Instead, I spent a good part of the evening talking with journalists about the building’s sustainable, chic design and the restaurant’s menus.
By the time we finally shut the doors for the evening, only a few people remained. Ricky poured us all a Gin it to Win it; Renascence’s signature cocktail, while Emile and Clay hovered over a charcuterie platter Dax had piled up for us to snack on.
“What’s he even doing here?” Bianca asked me in a hushed voice as she shuffled a deck of cards in her hands, bridging them in a perfect curve.
“Who?” I asked, even though I already had a feeling I knew what she was about to stay.
“The barbarian hovering over the prosciutto like it’s about to run away.
” She scrunched her nose up, and it took me everything not to laugh.
Over the past year, she and I had become friends.
Ricky was right after all, she was a piece of work with a heart of gold.
That didn’t make her warm and fuzzy, though.
“You’ll have to be a bit more specific than that.” I tried to hide my smirk with my hand.
“Ugh. Never mind,” she said as she walked past me to the other side of the table to pick up her drink and took a long sip from the straw. I didn’t miss the way Clay’s eyes shot at her the moment it touched her lips.
Interesting.
I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder and spun to see Dax with a soft smile on his face.
I loved seeing him like this. I loved him.
Relaxed. In a warm space with a sense of home.
I hadn’t tried to replicate Bellissima when I designed the new building.
Instead, I created something new. something meant for him.
It still had the elegance and charm of the old restaurant, but every corner had been designed with intention.
Just by looking in his eyes, I knew I succeeded.
“Come with me, Luce.” His voice was low and throaty, and nobody heard him but me.
I let him quietly lead me away from the others, down a hallway that led to his new office.
This was one part of the design that did remind me of the old building.
It was just a hallway, but that is where I’d met the man who I called mine.
My heart fluttered as I remembered that first moment I saw him.
The picturesque, tall, dark, and handsome guy mothers warn their daughters about.
I guess it was a good thing my parents ended up loving Dax almost as much as I did. Of course, to them he was just a successful chef who brought my mother flowers the first time they met and not a lethal vigilante.
I’d designed the new office to be almost double the size of the last one, spacious enough for an extra large desk and a small chaise lounge in the corner. Dax had barely opened the door before he lifted me in his arms, and I squealed as he set me on the edge of the desk.
“My god, Dominic Ferraro. You still have guests who have so kindly come to celebrate you, it’s not very polite to whisk me away to fulfill your pleasures.” I laughed.
Dax’s eyes went dark as his lips twisted up deviously. “As much as I love the sound of that, Luce, I didn’t take you here for the pleasures you’re suggesting.” He winked and planted a kiss on my temple before handing me a file sitting on his desk.
“Please don’t tell me you’re giving me the dishwasher job, after all? Is this employee paperwork, Dax?”
He laughed a deep chuckle. “You’re relentless. No, you’re not my employee. But I guess you could say it will be a job.” He pursed his lips a little as he handed it to me.
My face softened, and I opened the folder. It took me a moment to see what it was; a deed to a property in Brooklyn, New York. I gave him a confused look, and he took one of my hands.
“For a long time, Luce, I never wanted anything to do with my father’s deli.
When he died, I tried to recreate what he did here, in this city, but in his spirit.
I poured my heart into Bellissima for that very reason, then I lost it.
What you’ve done here is beyond my dreams, Luce, it’s part of my family’s legacy, yet you’ve made it something truly mine, ours at the same time. ”
Dax ran his fingers through his hair in that rare, boyish form that made my pulse jump every time.
“After what Deana did there, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
How she tainted a place that once had so much love inside those walls.
When they started selling off her properties I…
decided to buy it. I’ve had the building demolished, and I want you to design a new one.
Not just that…I want you to design the place you showed me in your portfolio that day.
The place with the live roof and the old-world style where people who have suffered can go to heal and recover. ”
My heart was pounding a thousand beats per minute.
I was astonished. I hadn’t forgotten about those designs, but I’d lost my portfolio the day Deana took me, and I hadn’t thought of redrafting them since.
They’d lingered at the back of my head, but I’d never anticipated having the chance to bring those visions to life.
“If-if you don’t want to after what happened to you there, I completely understand. I can sell it.” He sounded worried, like he might have offended me.
“No. Dax, I want to do it. I just can’t believe you did this for me. For all the people who this is going to help. It’s perfect,” I whispered, pulling him tight up against me. “You’re perfect.”
He barked out another short laugh. “No, Luce, you are. You’ll never stop mesmerizing me.”
“I love you,” I whispered against his chest, feeling the tight muscles of his back through his shirt.
His lips caught mine in an innocent kiss that turned feral within seconds.
He pulled back with a sharp intake of breath. “I guess this means we’ll have to do a lot of flying back and forth between here and New York soon. You think you’ll finally be ready to join the mile high club?”
I snorted. “I’m pretty sure we already did that when we went to Hawaii, you know, when you asked me to marry you?” I gave my left hand a little Ricky-esque twinkle, the massive diamond catching the light in glittering flecks.
“Hmmm, I can’t seem to remember that, actually. Will you remind me what you said when I asked you?” He gave me a devilish grin, eyes sparkling.
I shot back a smirk of my own.
“Yes, Chef.”