Page 72 of Ciao, Amore

She cleared her throat. “Such as?”

“You know I booked you a round trip ticket for the flight back to New York if you want to come with me. If not, and you want to wait here until I get back, I think you should move into my suite at the estate. I told Nonno you might, so they’ll be ready for you.”

“Wait…” She laughed with disbelief. “You told Nonno I’d move in with him and Nonni? Nico, your grandmother still doesn’t like me.”

“She does like you. After tonight, she’s given up on the Steffi thing. I was just talking to her, and she gave us her blessing. Fuck, she’s just thrilled I’m getting married period.”

“Mission accomplished.”

Nico’s eyes were fixed on her. “What does that mean?”

Ignoring the question, she moved on. “What about the rent and security I already paid my roommate? What about my job? I can’t do a three-hour one-way commute.”

Nico exhaled. “You said you have the option to work remote. You could easily work from the vineyard the same as you’d work from anywhere else. It’s a few centuries old but they do get Wi-Fi over there.” He grinned. The smile that could warm her soul now made her flushed and anxious. “Besides, Steffi said that place was a dirt hole. When I get back, we wouldn’t be staying there anyway. If you think it’ll be awkward living with my grandparents, there’s an old cottage on the property we could use. It’s small but it’s cute.”

“Do you have any other plans to tell me about?” she asked softly.

“Yeah, actually. I was thinking we could get married in Parma this Christmas. I know that’s a few months away, but you would not believe how beautiful it is that time of year. We’ll fly your family over. It’ll be awesome. What do you think?”

“A Christmas wedding in Parma?” Dani shook her head and laughed. It hurt in her throat, that laugh. “That is definitely some Hallmark shit.”

“Okay, then New York. Even easier.” When she didn’t answer with words but with another laugh that hitched in her throat, his shoulders tensed. His arms dropped to his sides. “I’m getting the impression there’s a problem.”

“What could be wrong? You apparently have managed in one night what I’ve been trying to accomplish since I was sixteen.”

“And what’s that?” His voice had gone silky smooth. His eyes narrowed as he watched her pace the ground.

“You’ve got my life all figured out. What to do about my job, where I’ll live. I’ve gotta say that’s pretty impressive. So, when am I quitting work entirely? Before Baby Number One or after Baby Number Five?”

Her voice was rising. Dani tried with all her might to keep it tempered, to not betray how his proposal had thrown her off-kilter. Too late. The crease between his brows was etched deep and the lips she’d thought she’d spend this night kissing and teasing were drawn thin.

“This wasn’t the conversation I thought we’d be having after we just got engaged.” A muscle ticked in Nico’s cut jawline. As if in reflex, he pulled the tie around his fist tighter and tighter. “When we were in the library, Angelo said he thought we should wait a little longer for the wedding. That maybe it was too soon to be proposing in the first place. I told him he was wrong. He was wrong, wasn’t he, Dani? You can’t be regretting that you said yes already.”

Her hands were shaking. She rubbed them along her pants, feeling the dampness of her palms even through the denim.

“It’s too soon, Nico. This is too much for me,” she uttered.

He looked like a statue. Still and cool. But when Dani tried moving past him to go back inside, his arms shot out, and he grasped her.

His voice deepening, Nico said, “But you said yes. Because we love each other, and we want the same things. A home, a family. The timeline doesn’t matter if its right. And you wouldn’t have said yes if it wasn’t right.”

“You didn’t give me a choice. I had to so I wouldn’t embarrass you.”

Shock broke out across his features, his mouth parting. And the look in his eyes…she hadn’t thought her words would hurt him, but she’d been wrong about that. With that shock, his fingers loosened, and she managed to pull away.

“Wow.Wow,” he breathed, and this time, he was the one who laughed with disbelief. “You said yes not to embarrass me. So I could save face, not because you want to marry me. Not because you love me. Wow.”

He absorbed that, standing there rifling his hair and staring at her.

“I do love you. But I’m the one who has to ask that question, aren’t I?” She wished, with all her might, that she could keep that fucking tremor out of her voice. “Maybe for a minute in Positano, I thought you could love me, because it felt good to believe someone could feel that way about me for the first time,ever.”

She hated how he looked when she said that, how his eyes had pulled down at the corners with sorrow for her. She didn’t want or need his pity.

“Dani, please…” He tried reaching out, but she backed away again, evading his care.

“All of this—the romantic trip, the romantic proposal, the push for the babies—I’m not sure it matters to you who the woman is. I feel like you said, ‘It’s time, it’s what’s expected of me, and whoever’s around when it happens is who I’ll end up with.’ Well, sorry, but I don’t want to be the woman someone ‘ends up’ with. I want to be the one because…” She had to stop, to catch the unsteadiness in her voice. “I want you to want to marry me because you love me, and you can’t live without me. But right now, I don’t see that. I could literally be anybody.”

Dazed, he pressed his hand to his mouth. The shock melted into resignation, the lines of his face smoothing down to stillness. When his eyes flicked toward her again, the spark was gone. “And here I am, again.” Another soft laugh, a shake of his head. Eyes wet but with a sardonic smile on those lips.