Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Frankie’s muffled, breathless voice answered. “Nico’s not in here!”
Yeah, he didn’t believe that. “Open the door, Frankie.”
“No?”
“Open the door, girl.”
“Daddy—”
“Open it.”
It took another minute.
Not a single inch of Salvatore felt shocked to find Nico grinning from where he leaned against the footboard of Frankie’s bed. His daughter, on the other hand, wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Get out,” he said.
“You got it, boss,” Nico murmured, winking at Frankie as he passed.
“Terrible, both of you. It’s tradition to wait to see one another. Couldn’t you just try?”
She just rubbed the top of her swollen stomach, looking entirely too pleased with herself. “Too late now.”
“Mmhmm.”
“What’s all that?” Frankie asked, pointing at a manilla folder and the small gift bag he’d picked up along the way to her room.
“Wedding gifts.”
“Oh?”
She beamed. That helped his annoyance.
Her and Nico...they couldn’t be helped. He’d figured that out a long time ago even if he did try to ignore it as much as he could. Stupidly.
“Sit,” he said, pointing at her bed. “And we have to do this quickly, because Carina is just about on the warpath even though we’re not behind schedule.”
“You basically gave her a little more than a month to put this together, so she’s gonna be a live wire today. It’s kind of your fault. I mean, I didn’t mind waiting until after the baby to get married, but you—”
The look he tossed her quieted Frankie instantly. “Sit, I said.”
She did, using the little stairs beside her bed to get up there. “I bet that’s the only reason we’re having the wedding here at the estate, too. Because we couldn’t get in anywhere else on such short notice, right?”
“Everybody’s got a price, Sunshine. And I would’ve paid.”
She arched one eyebrow higher than the other. “But?”
“It’s going to mean something. That I’ll have it here, that out of the hundred or so guests invited today, most of them will immediately understand why the last couple of months happened when you stand in front of them, clearly pregnant, on the altar with Nico. Sure, I could have announced those things in another time or place, but I’d rather it be clear and unquestionable.”
“What do you mean? What’s it?”
He smiled softly “What I’ll do for my family. Now, which do you want first?”
She eyed the two gifts he held between both hands. Technically, there were three, but she didn’t know that yet.
Frankie pointed at the folder. “Let’s see that, because the last time you gave me something that looked like that...well.”
He chuckled. Smart girl.
Salvatore set the gift bag aside on a sitting chair and then opened the folder. “Do you know there are two properties up for sale in Rose Ridge Community at the moment?”
Frankie blinked. “No?”
“Well, there were three. I closed on one yesterday.”
“What?”
“Twenty-three acres, wooded fence line along the back, and a waterfront along the south side. There’s also a guest house, a pool house, and a thirty-car garage. I almost bought it for myself just for that, but I didn’t think you’d want this one.”
“Daddy.”
He grinned at her. “Yeah?”
“Did you buy me a house?”
“You and your husband-to-be, yes. And my grandchild. I mean, I know that he has a home, and you have the penthouse, but—”
“How far of a drive between here and there?”
“Ten-ish minutes,” he whispered.
Frankie’s fingertips met her lips as the tears started to gather the longer she stared at him. “How much?”
“What it took to get it.”
He wasn’t gonna die with all this money and they wouldn’t bury him with it, either.
He stepped close enough to hand over the folder so that she could look over the details of the property sale while he turned back for the bag. Pulling the square velvet box from the bag, he spun on his heel to open it for Frankie to see.
A bracelet, matching the one she still wore for her new brother, waited. Only now, pink diamonds glittered around the band.
“Inscribed just like SJ’s,” he told her.
Frankie gasped sweetly. “I wondered!”
“There’s a ring for Nico, too. I’ll give that to him before we get started today.”
“Give it to me, please.”
He handed the box over, and Frankie went to work pulling the bangle from black silk to fit on the opposite wrist of the white gold and blue sapphire one that she rarely took off.
“Perfect,” she said, shooting a smile his way.
He already had that third gift waiting. A key chain. It held two keys.
“This one is for the new house,” he said, pointing at a silver key in question.
“And the other?”
A copper-colored key hung with a tag attached. A number stamped on it.
“Storage holding number fifty-three,” Salvatore explained to his daughter. “Everything inside, is yours.”
Confusion lit up her pretty face. “Storage for what?”
Now came the hard part for him, anyway. “Your mother’s things. Her paintings. Her wardrobe. Jewelry. Bags. More, too. Just...Anything I didn’t...”
“It’s okay,” his daughter whispered.