Page 2 of His Kind of Beautiful
Tony stepped back, hands on hips, his head lowered as he took a deep breath. “She shouldn’t be alone. She needs help. She needs—”
“You, Tony,” Gavriil said, dropping his hand on his shoulder once more. “For years, you thought it could never be for the two of you. I know your dad didn’t approve of where she came from, and what she did to survive, but I don’t think you ever saw her as anything other than what she is. A loyal, trustworthy woman who would give the shirt off her back to anyone who needed it. Someone whose childhood made ours look like a walk in the park.”
Tony nodded. “And she’s beautiful. You forgot beautiful.”
“I agree.” Gavriil stepped back, pulling Abigail under his shoulder. “But I didn’t want myangilto hear me say that of another woman.”
With love shining in her eyes, Abby smacked Gavriil’s stomach with the back of her hand. “Oh, stop it. You know I’m not like that.” She turned to level her gaze at Tony. “She is beautiful, Tony, but she’s scarred in more than one way. She’s lost the ability to see herself as anything but those scars, and that means she’s lost the ability to heal herself. Gavriil’s right. She needsyou.”
Tony lifted his gaze to Gavriil’s and waited. No one could make his friend do anything he didn’t want to, so all he could do was pray that he saw whatever it was he was looking for. A tense silence followed for a moment, and then Gavriil nodded.
“She’s down at the lake house. And before you haul off and punch me again, I sent a couple of men down to watch over her. She doesn’t know that part, and I’d appreciate it if she never did.”
Tony exhaled a breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding as relief flooded his system. Leona was protected and at Cedar Lake, only an hour away. Less if traffic was kind. He headed for the back entrance of the bakery, determined to at least protect Leona there if she wouldn’t come back to the city.
“Tony.” Abigail’s voice was soft, and he turned to face her. “Leona is hurting. Angelo and everything that happened has broken her. She doesn’t see herself now like I know you see her.”
Tony nodded, sent her a small smile. “That’s the thing, Abby. No one ever could see her like I do. She’s my other half.”
He strode out the door and headed for his truck. Abby was right. Leona saw herself as broken but not because of Angelo. She’d been like that for as long as he could remember. Yes, his father had disapproved of her, but if she’d given Tony half a chance, he would have told his father to go to hell and taken her as his own when they had first met two years ago. He wanted to care for her, to cherish her, but she didn’t see herself as worthy of that. Hell, he’d known she was a working girl, and had been before he ever knew her, but that didn’t matter to Tony.
He climbed into his truck, pressed the button to turn the engine over, and mentally cursed. That wasn’t true. Of course, it mattered. He hadn’t wanted her to have to sell herself to make a living. He wanted to provide everything she needed, but she wouldn’t allow it. He’d asked her so many times over the years to give him a chance, to be his, but she repeatedly told him no. That he could do better.
Leona had always been his. She just never admitted it. Well, Tony was done asking and taking no for an answer.
