Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
He chuckles, running the pad of his thumb over his bottom lip as he steals a glimpse of my family before turning back to me. “I didn’t really have a choice.”
I hold my nose to the flowers that are wild instead of picture-perfect roses. I like these better. Tilting my head, I look up at this tall drink of a man and say, “I was already planning on coming. You didn’t need backup. You were enough, Warner. You were always enough for me.”
Closing what little gap still exists between us, he caresses my cheek. “When a Bayetti is set on a plan, they go all in. Reminds me of someone else I know.”
I laugh. It’s light, but it feels as if a heavy cloud has lifted, leaving us nothing but blue skies ahead. “No lies detected.”
He leans down and brushes his lips against mine. “Let’s keep it that way.” Not leaving me any room to argue, which I wouldn’t have anyway, he kisses me.
My arms come around his neck as his arms reach around my body, landing on my lower back and holding me to him. When our lips part and I open my eyes, I shoot Lorenzo a look again. He says, “It’s like a real-life soundtrack.”
“I think we’re good.”
I release Warner and ask, “Now that you got me here all dressed up in my graduation outfit, what are you going to do with me?”
Swinging his arm over my shoulders, he begins to lead me to the entrance. “First. We’re getting the photo you should have gotten the first time without asking.” Placing me beneath the Luna Park sign, he kisses my forehead and says, “Stay here.” But then he comes back, running his hand along my exposed neck and says, “You look beautiful, Sass.”
I’ve never felt more beautiful than how he makes me feel when he looks at me just like that. He steals a quick kiss, takes the flowers when I hand them to him, and backs up ten feet or so. Holding his phone in front of his stupidly handsome face, he says, “Say Warner.”
Putting my hand behind my head and posing for him, I say, “Hotshot.”
He lowers the phone and signals to my family. They rush in, surrounding me. My dad wraps his arm around me and says, “Love you, Cannoli.”
“Love you.”
My mom hops in next to me with her arm around my waist. Lorenzo is on her other side, while Joe stretches his arm around my dad’s shoulders. My heart is so full that I struggle to hold back the tears that threatened to fall earlier. Just as one slips down, Warner says, “Say cheese.”
“Parmigiano Reggiano,” we say in unison, then crack up laughing.
My mom says, “One more.” They disperse as she walks to Warner, taking his phone. She holds it up. The slow-motion walk of my man coming to me sends my heart racing. Fine, that was all in my imagination, but Warner has a damn good walk. He wraps himself around me from behind, kisses the top of my head, and then says, “I do.”
I glance up at him and laugh. “I do? She said, ‘Say cheese.’”
Coming around, he drops to one knee in front of me. My mouth falls open. “Warner?” I don’t know what I mean because words are lost under the shock of what’s happening.
Holding my hand, he says, “I don’t want to fight you.”
“Not the romantic start I imagined for my proposal.”
He chuckles. “Felt like a good preface for the rest.”
“I’ll allow it.” It doesn’t matter what he says, my heart was already his from the moment we met. Okay, maybe not the moment we met, but a few days after, I was all his, and he was mine.
“I think we both know the lies we got caught up in. They served a purpose, and then when they didn’t, we fell apart. That’s not going to happen this time. I want to start over with you.”
“I want that too. Clean slate. No past. Just moving forward from here.”
He nods as if I stole the words out of his mouth. Oh no, maybe I did. I need to let him do this proposal how he wants. I don’t need to control this. I’ll let him work his magic. Because that’s what he is to me—the dream I never thought could come true.
He says, “The one thing I will carry with us from the past is how you showed me how to live. I have loved every off-the-wall and unhinged moment we’ve had and don’t regret a thing. But what I love more is the way your heart is always at the center of it. I’ve never known anyone as selfless as you, putting your family first, and then a total stranger that you hated. You helped me when you didn’t have to.” His head bobbles. “After you left me for dead, that is.”