Page 42 of Honeymoon for Seven

When they came up for air, he blew out a slow sigh and rested his forehead against hers. “I understand cruises make excellent honeymoons.”

Ginnie didn’t say a word, she barely nodded.

Foreheads still touching, his eyes closed, he prayed he was doing this right and not about to scare off the only woman who ever made him feel this way. “Of course, I’d need a wife to take a honeymoon.”

The moment the words were out of his mouth, Ginnie tipped her head back and stared up at him.

“I don’t think I’m saying this right.” Getting down on one knee, he looked up at her. “I should have a ring, and if you say yes, I’ll buy you whatever you want. And if you need more time, I can wait. But Giovanna Ummarino, I cannot imagine going back to living a single day without you in it. Would you do me the honor and blessing of being my wife?”

The way she stared down at him so long, he thought she was searching for a polite way to say no. Finally, she kneeled down in front of him. “Am I dreaming?”

He shook his head.

“You really want to marry me?”

“Very much.”

A slow smile pulled at her lips and she threw her arms around him, knocking them both onto the hard deck. “Yes, yes, andhell yes.”

Chapter Seventeen– Epilogue

“This is so very exciting.” Antoinette Ummarino stirred the homemade gravy one last time before scooping out the carrots. Like her mother and her mother before her, she’d used the carrots in the weekly gravy-making ritual to take the edge off the bitter tomatoes. Whenever she tasted gravy made with sugar, she’d grimace and frown and come just short of spitting it out.

“What is so exciting?” With a beer in his hand, Giovanni Ummarino straightened and closed the refrigerator door. “Family dinner?”

Rolling her eyes, his aunt sighed. “You know I love Sundays. The whole family here. Everyone laughing, playing, and eating.”

Of course eating. They were Italians, the word was almost synonymous with eating. If he’d heard his aunt Antoinette saymangeonce, he’d heard it a thousand times from her and every mother, aunt, and grandparent in the clan.

“So what’s so exciting?”

Flashing that coy smile that often came before some idea that hardly ever sat well with the receiver, she stared wistfully out the window. The wistfulness didn’t offset the nerves turning in his gut at the smile that usually came right before she volunteered a family member to do something they didn’t want to do. “I’m finally going to have grandchildren.”

“Grandchildren?” He glanced out the window at the family enjoying the sunshine and warmth ushered in with the start of summer. “Who?”

“Anyone.”

Had his favorite aunt finally lost her mind? Taking another look, he studied his cousins. Mina and Kent had been married a couple of years now, even though to his eye they still looked like newlyweds. Every time that man looked at Mina, any fool could see how much he loved her. Same thing for Mina when she was near Kent. Jo was the same story. She and Dylan had been married just over a year and like the eldest Ummarino daughter, was happy as the proverbial clam. Those two looked as nauseatingly cute as they did the day they came home from the cruise where they met. Neither of the women looked to show any signs of being pregnant.

Playing croquet, Ginnie and her fiancé were doing more flirting than playing. Watching them smile at each other, bump shoulders, blow kisses, or momentarily grab hands and squeeze, for Giovanni was somewhat entertaining and just a bit nauseating. He couldn’t picture himself ever being so doting over a woman. At least Nick was a nice guy, and Giovanni, or Johnny as anyone outside the family called him, liked him just as much as his other cousins’ husbands. They’d all found their soul mates, but he couldn’t picture Ginnie pregnant before the big wedding cruise. Even if the two did look like they were glued together at the hip.

So what was his aunt talking about?

Still eyeing his cousins, he watched Ginnie and Nick, hand off their mallets, hold hands, and march toward the house.

Maybe his aunt was merely voicing wishful thinking?

“You look perplexed.” Ginnie came in the back door, her fiancé at her side.

“Just thinking about something your mother said.”

“Don’t think too hard, your head may start to hurt.” Ginnie pulled a cola out of the fridge and handed it to Nick.

The guy received the drink with a smile. With his free hand, he tugged his fiancée into his arms and giving her a not too quick peck on the lips, softly uttered, “thank you” in a tone so deep and sultry that any woman would probably fall into his arms now and ask questions later. Except there was only one woman, he had eyes for and she was already in his arms.

“None of that in my kitchen.” Ginnie’s mother smacked her girl on her behind and kept walking toward the pantry.

“Practicing, Mama, practicing,” Ginnie teased back.

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