Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“Ooh, that’s a perfect idea.”
“Yeah?” he asked with a smile.
“Room service whenever we want, sex all day, right there at the ocean . . .”
“Good. I like it too.”
“What about Medusa? Can she come with us?”
“I’m not taking her on our honeymoon,” he said with a chuckle. “She can stay with my mom.”
“I’ll miss her.”
He pulled me a little closer to him, my belly against his rock-hard stomach. “Trust me, you’ll be too busy to miss her.”
The wedding was in just a few days.
Everything had been planned and scheduled. I had my wedding dress in the closet. His mother knew everyone in Taormina, so she had no problem booking everything at the last minute. The ceremony would be at the Duomo di Taormina, the church right in the heart of the village, where Constantine and I met up before he took me on a private tour. He said it was the only request he had because his mother would never forgive him for getting married anywhere else but within the walls of a church.
I didn’t care where we got married anyway. As long as Constantine was there, we could get married in a coal mine or a zoo. If it was important to his mother, then she could have whatever she wanted. I was just grateful that she would be my mother too.
The reception would be on an outdoor terrace at one of the hotels, right on the cliff’s edge over the sea, an enormous space that could accommodate five hundred guests . . . because that was how many people were coming.
Because, again, they knew literally everyone.
It was my last day at the restaurant. Constantine and I had both decided that we needed to focus on our own restaurant, our honeymoon, and preparing for the baby. I was sad to leave Rosticceria Da Cristina, because it was the place where I became closer to his cousin Antonio and his sister Beatrice. I got to spend time with cousins and family friends. But the bigger I got, the more painful it became to stand all day, and I was grateful that Constantine was able to take care of me so I didn’t have to work if I didn’t want to.
I finished prepping for the day, so I was supposed to wait tables through the lunch rush. My shirt was a little tight on my stomach and really put my belly on display, so there was no doubt I was pregnant, and everyone congratulated me every day.
Beatrice ripped off her gloves and came to my side. “Can’t believe it’s your last day. Gonna miss having you around here.”
“Me too. I’ve learned so much and have gotten to know you all so well.”
Antonio came from one of the other kitchens. “You can always come back, you know?”
“And if you and Con don’t work out for some reason, we’ll keep you and drop him,” Beatrice said. “He’s kind of a prick anyway.”
Antonio squeezed his thumb and forefinger together. “A little.”
When I’d first come to Taormina, I didn’t know where I stood with these people, but now I felt like one of them. “Thank you, guys. It really means the world to me.”
“So excited for the wedding,” she said. “And honored to be your maid of honor.”
“I’m a little irritated that Constantine asked some random guy named Rocco to be his best man, but at least I’m a groomsman,” Antonio said.
I smiled. “It was a hard decision, for sure. He loves all you guys.”
“Well, try to relax and don’t stress,” Beatrice said. “Weddings can drive people crazy.”
“I’m not stressed,” I said. “If the cake doesn’t make it or the decorations are wrong or the dress is too tight on my stomach . . . I don’t really care. All I care about is Constantine being at the end of the aisle when I get there. And I know he will be.”
Chapter 27
Constantine
My mother was blowing up my phone. You can’t spend the night together before the wedding, Constantine.
We’re already living together and have a baby on the way, Ma.
But it’s not tradition.
I’m pretty sure a child out of wedlock isn’t traditional either.
Her dots disappeared, but then my screen lit up with my mother’s name. “Oh boy . . . code blue.”
“What?” Aurelia asked, sitting on the couch beside me with Medusa’s chin resting on her thigh.
“Ma’s gone nuclear.” I answered the call and rose from the couch to step away. I headed out the back door and stepped onto the terrace. “Ma—”
“It’s bad luck, Constantine.”
“No, it’s not.”
“It’s one night,” she said. “You really can’t do one night?”
I didn’t say what I wanted to say—not to my mother anyway.
“How about you come here and spend the night with me?”
Spend the night with my mother? “Ma, I’m a grown man—”
“Listen to me, Con,” she said abruptly, but then there was a long pause afterward. She’d cut me off but had nothing to follow it. “When you were born, my mother told me to cherish this time . . . because I only got to keep you for eighteen years. I know you’re a man now, but soon, you’ll be married and you’ll have your own family, and it’ll never be the same. I would love one more night with you, just the two of us.”