Page 78 of Comforting the Grump

And I had Ennio. He was in love with me.

Oh, he hadn’t said so, but that was probably because he didn’t want to scare me. You know, like the skittish animal I was. Or, more accurately, that I had been. Because suddenly, the idea of Ennio telling me he loved me wasn’t scary at all. It was…

“Excuse me,” I told Sebastian. “I have to talk to Ennio about something.”

“Go,” he said, grinning widely.

Ennio was still with Hadley, and they were talking to a group of other men I didn’t know, all dressed to the nines. “Marnin, I’d like you to meet?—”

“Not now,” I told Hadley, then turned to Ennio. “I’m in love with you.”

His eyes blew wide open. “What?”

“I’m in love with you. I know, it’s as much of a shock for me as it is for you. I didn’t think I was capable of feeling something this…this grand, this vast, this all-encompassing. But I do. When I look at you, I…” Words spun through my head, none of them adequate. “Ifeel. I feel so much, and I’m so scared yet so grateful. It’s like… It’s like I was a frozen landscape, and you thawed me with your presence.”

A chorus of awws made me pause for a moment. Fuck, I should’ve taken him aside, shouldn’t I? I was doing this in front of complete strangers. But one look at Ennio’s face made me forget everything else. He was crying.

“Shit, baby, don’t cry. Please. Whatever I said wrong, I’ll fix it. You know I’m not good with words, and I never meant to h?—”

“Shut up,” Ennio said, now laughing through his tears. “You had me at ‘I’m in love with you.’”

Warmth bloomed inside me. “Yeah?”

“The rest was just icing on the cake. Very romantic icing, I might add, but icing nonetheless.”

I understood now why he was crying because my eyes were growing misty as well. Me, the man who didn’t do emotions. Boy, had I been wrong about that one. “Let me say it again, then. I’m in love with you, Ennio Frant. The kind of love I didn’t even think myself capable of. The forever and till death do us part kind…and Jesus, I can’t believe I just said that, but I mean it. I’ve never meant anything more.”

“I love you too.”

He said the words as quietly as a whisper, but they hit me like a tight embrace, like the longest and best hug ever. “You do?”

“So very much.”

His eyes shone with it, the love radiating out from them like a lighthouse on a dark and stormy sea. “I’m the luckiest man in the world, sunshine. I vow to do whatever I can to be worthy of your love and to make you happy.”

Ennio closed the distance between us and raised his face to mine. Our lips met in a kiss that was featherlight yet shook me to my core. When we parted, our mouths only an inch apart, I whispered, “Be careful with my heart, sunshine. It’s fragile.”

His smile lit up my whole world. “It’s safe with me. I promise.”

26

ENNIO

Marnin was in love with me. I’d hoped it, considered it, but I hadn’t expected him to admit it this soon, to be ready for it. The man kept surprising me…in the best ways. I kissed him again, all too aware of the many eyes upon us, then stepped back, though I reached for his hand.

“I think Hadley was about to introduce you,” I said with a smile. “But you had different priorities.”

Marnin shrugged. “Sorry, not sorry.”

“Nor should you be,” Hadley said, grinning widely. “That was pretty spectacular as far as love declarations go.”

“I’d rate it a ten out of ten,” Nordin, one of Hadley’s brothers, said. Hadley had introduced me to his three brothers, and I’d been chatting with them for a few minutes. They were all super nice and welcoming, and I felt immediately at ease with them.

He extended his hand to Marnin. “Nordin Foster, one of Hadley’s brothers. And these two are Lagan and Jaren, my other brothers.”

Marnin shook their hands. “Good to meet you guys. Hadley’s talked about you a few times. Not that I usually listen when he prattles on, but I don’t always manage to tune him out.”

“See how mean he is to me?” Hadley complained to his brothers, pouting.

---