Page 13 of Toxic Devotion

“Happy birthday, Mamma,” Alicia said, her voice low and soft.

Marco stared down at the gravestone, reading his mother’s name over and over until a hand slid into his and took his attention away from it.

“Do you think they’re together wherever they are?” Alicia asked, looking up at him with hope shining in her warm brown eyes.

He squeezed her hand and said, “I hope so.”

Alicia’s lips twitched. “Do you think she’s yelling at him about dying so soon after her? She’d be pissed he left us alone.”

“Probably,” he said with a short laugh.

He could imagine it, too. Dantea standing with her hands on her hips, pretending she was looking down at her husbanddespite the man being a foot taller than her and when he’d walk up to her to pull her against him she would hit him with her purse while yelling half-hearted at him until he made her laugh.

No, she wouldn’t be happy about him dying so soon after her, but the shell of a man he’d been after losing her hadn’t been much of the father he and Alicia had known and loved. He truly hoped they were at peace together.

He turned, gaze moving across the cemetery until it landed on a man in a dark suit leaning against the front of a black sedan. His mood lifted instantly, and he had to clear his throat to keep his surprise contained.

“Are you coming?”

He turned his head, eyes meeting Alicia’s. She was a few steps away, having turned back around to look at him.

“I’ll be there in a sec,” he said.

A soft smile widened her lips, and she gave him a nod before turning and heading toward the car. He glanced at Neil, then turned to the gravestone. He knelt in front of it and put a hand on top of it.

“I know I should’ve told you,” he said, putting his other hand on his chest right over his heart. “I was afraid, but God made me this way and I know that’s how you would’ve seen it, too. You wouldn’t have given Papà any other way to see it, either.”

He closed his eyes, head dropping forward.

“I met someone. He’s everything I shouldn’t want. Being with him is dangerous and yet I… I think it’s real.” He stared at the golden letters on the stone. “He’s who I want.”

Having said it out loud, he felt lighter somehow. Like he’d been holding himself down by trying to deny it.

“I think you would’ve liked him.”

A gust of wind blew through the graveyard, and he liked to imagine it was her giving him her approval.

“Ti amo, Mamma.”

He straightened and with a glance Neil’s way, he headed for Alicia and the car with a smile on his face.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

He was standing in front of his desk, staring out the window in his office when his heart sped up, alerting him to the presence of a certain someone.

“I sent Rome out with Alicia. She wants to spend the rest of the day at the harbor,” he said, his lips spreading in a wry smile as he felt the man step up behind him. Arms wrapped around his middle, a warm body pressing against his back, and lips brushed across his cheek.

“The flowers were beautiful,” Neil said, voice soft.

Marco turned in Neil’s arms and leaned back against his desk, pulling Neil with him.

“I’m sure she would’ve thought so,” Marco said.

“Your mom?”

He nodded, gaze roaming over Neil’s face, memorizing the man’s features. The bushy black eyebrows, the two-day-old stubble on his square jaw, the startling gray eyes, those high cheekbones that were to die for.

“She was always the life of the party,” he said, a smile spreading on his lips. “She kept my father on his toes.”

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