Page 217 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

“You told her, didn’t you,” she said with a gentle smile.

“Told her what?”

“That you love her.”

That stopped me dead in my tracks.

“How did you know that?” I asked in wonder.

“So you did.”

“…yeah.”

I felt intensely uncomfortable admitting that to the woman I was supposed to marry.

“Good,” Isabella said with a little smile, like she approved… although for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“I could just tell.”

“You got that from reading books?”

“…yeah,” she said, and her smile turned mysterious.

Then she and Ludavica walked out the door and headed for the SUV, with me and Paolo following along behind them.

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Despite Paolo being a worrywart, nothing bad happened. We got home in plenty of time.

At dinner, Don Vicari asked, “Did you enjoy your day out?”

Isabella started talking his ear off about Cefalù – the buildings, the restaurants, the ocean breezes,everything.

The old guy barely paid attention to her. He just gruntedMm-hmandThat’s nice.

I think she was so high from her experience that she didn’t notice. Or didn’t care.

She just beamed like the sun coming out from behind the clouds.

“Can we go to another town tomorrow?” she asked eagerly.

“I suppose,” he said as he continued to cut his meat.

“Where?”

“I’ll talk with your fiancé after dinner.”

After dinner, Isabella almost went skipping out of the dining room.

The old lady came up and beamed as she patted my cheek.

“You a good boy,” she said, then followed her great-granddaughter.

Don Vicari had a slightly different reaction.

“I don’t carewhereyou go tomorrow, just as long as I don’t have to hear every goddamn detail,” he said crankily as he walked out of the room.

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