Page 93 of And Everything In Between

He gave her a look—half amused, half something heavier. “I'm trying to have a moment here.”

“My bad.” She straightened up, tone playful. “You were thinking...?”

“About what's next.” His eyes held hers. “For me. For you. For us.”

A flutter started low in Paige's stomach. What he might say next scared her a little bit. She wasn’t quite ready to share him, so she hoped this wasn’t about kids. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He reached across the table, lacing his fingers with hers. “I want more of this. Mornings. Breakfasts. Just... us. All the time.”

“I never want us to forget this. The quiet, the comfort. The small moments that make everything else make sense. Because as we move and continue to grow, I feel like shit might get hectic.”

“We won’t. I promise to always make time for you. You will be the head of our home. Oh shit, I gotta move in now. We have a home.”

“Yeah baby, you do. You ready for that?”

“I’ll get ready. I wanna be where you are. And I know my husband wouldn’t dare let me sleep anywhere that’s not our home, at least I hope he wouldn’t.”

“Exactly, you coming home the minute we get back. Shit, I might make a phone call and get it moved like right now.”

“Do it. My spare keys with Pedro. That’s one less thing for me to stress about.”

Giovanni smirked, eyeing her with affection. “Look at you, handling shit like a big girl.”

Paige moved to clean the table off. She rounded the table, grabbed his plate. She kissed his shoulder and winked at him. Giovanni pulled her back before she could walk away, “I adore you, Paige.”

“I love you, too.”

After breakfast, they moved to the couch, their limbs tangled, her head on his chest, his heartbeat beneath her ear. The TV played softly in the background, some cooking show neither of them was watching. Giovanni's fingers traced along her spine, occasionally dipping beneath the hem of her (his) shirt, making her shiver.

“How my dawg doing?” he asked.

Paige nodded. “As good as can be expected. Dialysis still kicking his ass, but the new meds are helping with the fatigue.”

“I've been thinking about that too,” Giovanni said, shifting slightly to look at her. “About what we could do. For him. For people like him.”

She lifted her head, curious. “What do you mean?”

“The show's got reach now. Platform. Audience.” His eyes lit up the way they always did when he was building somethingin his mind. “What if we used it? Did a special episode, maybe a fundraiser. For awareness of Kidney disease. All of it.”

Paige stared at him, emotion welling up unexpectedly. “You'd do that?” she asked.

“In a heartbeat.” He held her face gently, his thumb moving across her temple. “Your family is my family now, P. That's how this works. And your pops felt comfortable enough to ask that of me. I gotta honor it.”

She kissed him so deeply she tried to pour everything she was feeling into it. Because sometimes words failed her when it came to his heart. She’d never met a man that had a heart like his. A man that effortless put others before himself. When they finally broke apart, both slightly breathless, she rested her forehead against his.

“You're somethin’ else, you know that?”

He grinned, that same cocky, confident smile that had caught her attention the first time she saw him. “I got my moments.”

They spent the rest of the day in that peaceful bubble, alternating between lazy conversation and comfortable silence. Giovanni sketched ideas for builds while she read beside him, occasionally sharing quotes and moments that made her laugh or think. They ordered in, fed each other bites between kisses, and let themselves enjoy the rare luxury of being nowhere, except with each other.

“If someone had told me six months ago that I’d be here,” she murmured, “I would've laughed in their face.” Six months ago, she’d been dragging dead weight, stuck in old cycles, pouring into everyone but herself. Now she had peace. The kind that came with partnership.

Giovanni caught her hand, pressed it flat against his chest. “And now?”

“Now I can't imagine being anywhere else.” She lifted her eyes to his, letting him see the truth in them. “You were the catalyst to everything changing for the better.”

“We changed each other,” he corrected, voice thick with emotion. “And we're just getting started.”

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