Page 33 of Forging Caine

When I married Matt, I took Foster as my last name. Logistically, changing it and then changing it back to Caine a year later was a major hassle that I swore I’d never go through again. Maybe I could do it one more time, but I didn’t want to more than that. Driver’s license, insurance, passport, bills, voter registration, bank accounts…

All the energy drained out of me just thinking about it.

But when I married Matt, I knew it wasn’t right before I brought it up. How many times had I told myself it was what I wanted, never believing myself?

There was something to be said for how much a stubborn person could accomplish when they set their mind to it. Whether it was the right choice or not.

A door closed downstairs, startling me. Antonio’s deep voice carried up the staircase, singing some tune I didn’t recognize, causing a smile so big I had to bite down on my bottom lip to contain it. My fiancé was home.

Fiancé.

“Come and get it!” After all the groceries he’d had delivered, it was silly that he’d gone out to get breakfast. Especially since we were supposed to be leaving town in a few days. He insisted it was another surprise, which meant he was probably headed to Russo’s bakery, and there was no way I would turn that down.

“Bring it up here!” If we sat at the dining table to eat, he’d waggle his eyebrows at me, and we’d end up in bed. As appetizing as that sounded, I was getting into the zone and didn’t want to pause the research yet.

Plus, Antonio needed to get to work on Fiori’s painting. He joined me upstairs with a white box tied with a string.

“Is that a Russo’s cornetto for me?”

His brow furrowed, that adorable crease deepening between his brows. “It looks like a crop circle.”

I frowned at him, then at my work. “Except for the complete absence of crops.”

“Sì, but paper circle does not have the same ring to it.” He snatched my left hand and brought it to his lips. “Speaking of rings…”

“No, I haven’t changed my mind.”

He yanked me into his arms, beaming.

I narrowed my eyes playfully. “Yet.”

“What is all this?” he asked, gesturing to the stacks.

“The stuff Elliot brought me. It has to stay in a secure location, so I’ll have to lock it back up if we’re going to leave. It was easier to spread it out here than lug it all downstairs, then lug it back up again.”

He hummed in ascent as he let go of me to open the box and presented me with my choice of two sugar-dusted cornetti. “Lemon or chocolate hazelnut?”

“You have to ask?”

He grinned and pointed to one of them for me. “Can you tell me about the papers? I see paintings and invoices…”

I plucked my cornetto from the box and used it to point as I spoke. “The first stack is purchase orders, intake forms, sales slips, and inventories from pre-2010, then stacks in five-year increments as they got busier. The last two stacks are photos, in no particular order. That’s where I’m focused right now.”

“Best if you catalog them away in your remarkable brain first?”

I nudged him, heat climbing up my cheeks. My hair was in a messy bun, so I had nowhere to hide the blush I knew was there. “I know it’s silly, but—”

“It’s not in the least. It’s astounding.”

“Anyway…” I bit into the cornetto. There was more chocolate hazelnut filling than I expected, and I had to toss my head back to catch it before it dribbled down my shirt. I covered my mouth and continued. “If I commit them all to memory, it should speed up my review of the other paperwork and searching for links or connections.”

“And this?” He pointed to the onionskin sheets. “You’re looking into this for my father?”

“It’s an interesting mystery. But I haven’t gotten anywhere with it.” I knelt to retrieve two thin papers, holding them up to the skylights.

“You know there’s a light table over there?” He pointed to a table by the desk, with three stretched canvasses on top of it.

“How could I have missed it?” I swatted him with the sheets. “This place is a disaster.”

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