Page 104 of The Woman in the Garage

I didn’t recognize his voice at first. But as he strode into the room—all charming silver hair and warm eyes—I placed it.

Antony Grassi.

The man I’d met at Famiglia.

“Oh, Dasha,” Antony said, giving me a smile before his gaze scanned the room, taking everything in. “Still good with a skillet, eh, Giulia?” he asked, eyes twinkling as he looked at Santo’s mom.

“Can’t let the men have all the fun,” Giulia shot back.

A few more faces joined the crowd over the next few minutes. But most filed out when Aurelio came in from the garage, giving them a hard look.

“Santo, why don’t you take your girl upstairs and run her a nice tub?” Giulia suggested.

“I think I will do that,” Santo agreed, leading me through the house and up the stairs. We climbed silently. We even stood silently as he reached for my zipper, then slowly peeled my clothes off of me in the bathroom.

He ran the tub, then wet a washcloth to wipe the pasta sauce off my legs before helping me into the water.

He surprised me by stripping out of his own clothes, climbing in behind me, and pulling me against his chest.

“I thought I lost you today,” he admitted, his arms going around me as the water slowly filled in around us.

“You almost did,” I told him.

Sure, it was possible I would have found a blunt or sharp object to fight back with. But it was just as likely that David would have overpowered and strangled me. Or beaten me to death.

“I remembered the emergency button,” I told him. “And your mom got the alert. She beat David with a skillet. Twice.”

“That sounds like Ma,” Santo said, fingers moving absentmindedly over my skin. “She doesn’t involve herself in the business, but if shit goes down, she has always been able to handle herself. She also wields a mean wooden spoon when she’s mad at you.”

“Remind me not to piss her off.”

“Nah, you don’t have to worry.”

“Why not?”

“Because she’s already picturing you with my ring on your finger and my baby in your belly.”

“Oh.” My heart felt all gooey at that idea.

“For the record,” Santo said, turning his head to press a kiss to my temple, “I’m picturing that too.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“I mean, I’m really enjoying the practicing for making the babies. Figure we might need a year or two to really… perfect that.”

“That should probably work. We might need to practice several times a day, though, with such a tight timeframe.”

“That’s a smart idea. Just to be sure.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “In all seriousness, though, I’m seeing a future here. I wasn’t planning on saying that so soon. But worrying about losing you today made it seem pointless to wait.”

“I was so angry at him for coming for me here. I wanted to just have our good memories here.”

“Got plenty more of those to build,” he assured me.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I can’t wait.”

Starting right then.

Santo - 1 day

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