He rubbed the back of his neck. I could tell he was frustrated, trying to tamp down on his pain to deal with mine. “It’s not about me. You need to be loved—”
I shook my head. “You would baby me for the rest of my life, Dante. I swear it—”
“I wouldn’t regret a single moment of it either.” He shrugged, turning toward the mirror and vanity behind him rather than stepping into the tub with me.
“If you don’t get in here and fuck me without a look of sadness on your face, Dante, I swear I’ll scream and cry all night.” There. That was using all the words I wanted to.
The man did as he was told. He couldn’t deny me even if he tried. We worked through my emotion that day in the way I loved best. He fucked me like a man on a mission in that tub.
After, I stepped out of it smiling at him. He reached for me, and I jumped away. “Stop. Now, we really have to get ready.”
The man’s green gaze held mine for a second longer before he murmured, “I love you, Delilah Armanelli. I love your smile, your hair when it looks like I’ve fucked you into oblivion, and the blush on your tits when I say things like what I just said. I love how hard you tried before you tried hard not to try. I fucking love you. I know this has been challenging, but I wouldn’t want easy with anyone else. I think you know all that, but I wanted to remind you.”
Dante’s vows had been just like this, so deep from his soul that I think everyone in the farm fields of our home, where we had the ceremony, had been crying.
“I love that you love me at my worst but enjoy me at my best, and I love that I can sometimes catch a glimpse of the worst in you, even if you’ve practically found a way to control every part of you and the world. We might be living through a hard part of life together right now, but I’m an overachiever, so we’re going to get to easy if it’s the last thing I do.”
The smile that whipped across his face held me up on a cloud next to heaven for the rest of the night.
We grilled up the shrimp and fish before sitting around the bonfire, my mom, Mrs. Reid, Izzy, and I going over updates on everyone while the guys argued over what was happening in the news.
“I’m sure they’ll be closing down the mall this year,” Mrs. Reid sighed as our conversations merged over the fire.
“Retail is dead.” My brother, Dex, shrugged before he took a sip of his beer.
“It is not!” My mother looked affronted. “I need to try on clothes before I buy them.”
“I’m sure there will be small boutiques that stay open, Mom.” Dom patted her shoulder. “Or I’ll bring in a shopper for you, okay? Don’t worry.”
Dimitri mumbled that Dom was a momma’s boy.
Dom stood up and chuckled. “I’m not just a momma’s boy. I’d do the same for any of the Hardy girls. Izzy and Mom and … well, Delilah, I guess Dante and I can fight over you some more with regard to your last name.”
Everyone around the fire groaned. Dom had been pissed that I had even contemplated taking the Armanelli last name.
“She took my name, bro. It’s done.”
“We can undo that shit in a minute,” Dom grumbled, glaring at my husband.
“Dom, are we really going to fight about this? It’s been over a year.” I rolled my eyes at the same time Izzy did.
Our gazes met, and she giggled. “Can you imagine? In twenty years, he’s still going to be whining about it. Stop being a freaking baby, Dom. So your best friend married your sister. If not Delilah, I would have begged him to marry me.”
I choked on my drink and laughed even harder as she fell on my shoulder and laughed with me. After a few late nights at a bar days after Dante proposed, where the bartenders poured us alcohol and we poured out our hearts to each other, our bond was stronger than that vibranium in Black Panther.
Izzy had shared that she needed me as much as I needed her. She’d been a constant, by my side nonstop the past two years, even moving into a condo down the street. She’d continued working for the government but had switched into data analysis and coding instead of undercover work.
“Just so we’re clear, I would never have let my husband marry you.” We kept laughing at our ongoing joke.
“You guys have had enough to drink,” Dom grumbled.
“Not possible,” Izzy sing-songed.
“Totally possible,” Dante agreed with Dom.
“Even so,” Izzy continued, “I think I’m right when I say you’ve always been a part of the family, Dante, and now we can officially say we’re a part of each other’s.”