*Olivia*
Dahlia answered her phone, her face white as a sheet. I absently chewed on my bottom lip, anxiety threatening to overwhelm . I forced myself to take a deep breath and let it out. It wouldn’t help anybody for to have a panic attack right now.
“Hold on, Tallon. Let put you on speaker,” Dahlia said, looking at .
Her face was a mirror of my emotions. We both stared into each other’s eyes, terrified that Tallon was going to give us horrible news. I sent out a prayer to the universe that everyone was safe. I didn’t know if the universe was listening or not, but it felt like the right thing to do.
‘Hold it together, hold it together,’ I repeated to myself. No matter what Tallon said, I had to keep my wits about . Dahlia had already been through so much, and I didn’t want to fall apart on her like I had after we’d been attacked. I needed to be a stronger friend.
“Hey, yeah, Dahlia? Olivia? Can you both hear ?” Tallon’s voice crackled out from her phone. He sounded calm, which seed like a good sign, but that might have been because he was about to deliver devastating news.
“Yes, please just tell us what happened!” I nearly scread into the phone. I couldn’t take this waiting ga any longer.
“We were successful. We’re on our way ho now.”
I could practically hear him grinning through the phone.
I stared at the phone in disbelief, too afraid to accept what Tallon had said. Dahlia patted my shoulder and gave an encouraging smile when I looked toward her. I tried to ground myself by repeating what Tallon had said in my head. They were successful; they were on their way ho. Could it really be that simple?
“How far out are you? I need to call Mom and Dad. They’re going to want to et you guys here,” Dahlia said.
“About an hour. We’ll see you soon.”
Tallon hung up without saying goodbye. Finally, I allowed myself to believe that it had really worked–Alessandro and Giovani were safe. Sohow their dangerous plan had worked! I let out a small sob, and Dahlia grabbed into a massive hug. We both cried against each other, finally allowing ourselves to feel all of the emotions that we had been trying so hard to avoid. Just one more hour and Giovani would be here; even better, he’d be safe.
After a few minutes, Dahlia pulled away from our embrace and wiped her eyes.
“Okay, I’ve got to get my parents here,” she said shakily.
I turned away to give her so privacy, still feeling the tears streaming down my face and regretting all the drinks I’d had. I didn’t feel drunk anymore, but I was finding it hard to get my emotions back in check now that I had loosened my hold on them.
“Okay, bye. I love you,” Dahlia ended her phone call, then patted my back. She seed to sense that I was a ss.
“They’ll be ho in just a few more minutes, Olive. Don’t cry,” she murmured soothingly.
I forced myself to smile at her and wiped away the last of my tears. I was starting to regain control now that I knew I’d have Gio in my arms again so soon. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It had been a little over ten minutes since Tallon’s phone call. Dahlia reached out and tried to wipe off my runny eye makeup.
“Here, let get you cleaned up. I know you want to look good for Gio,” she laughed.
We both knew Giovani wouldn’t care what I looked like when he got back, but it gave us sothing to focus on other than how badly we wanted the next forty-five minutes to fly by. It comforted to think that by the ti she finished, he would hopefully be walking in the door.
Dahlia tugged into her room and used a makeup wipe to clean off the last of my tears and mascara before guiding to sit down in her vanity chair and turning it to face her. I didn’t know why I had even bothered with mascara today of all days. I should have known I’d end up crying it all off at so point. Once she managed to get my face back to being a blank canvas, she went to work with her makeup. She worked quickly; she had applied makeup on thousands of tis. She knew my face as well as she knew her own.
“Et voilà!” she exclaid before turning to face the mirror.
I stared at myself in wonder. It was so of her best work; I looked like she had put an Instagram filter on . She had masterfully applied just the right amount of eyeshadow to make it look like I naturally had bedroom eyes. She’d even managed to cover up the red splotches that always surrounded my eyes after a good cry without making it obvious that I had makeup on. The lip gloss she’d used made my lips look just slightly pouty without leaving a sticky residue, which was good, because I planned on kissing the hell out of Gio the second I saw him.
“Damn, Dahlia, why haven’t you done my makeup like this before?” I asked.
She just laughed and ran her fingers through my hair to ta it a bit. Just as she was pulling away, the door slamd open, making us both jump. We looked at each other for a second, then both made a mad dash for the kitchen. Even with Dahlia’s injuries, we made it there in record ti.
We arrived just in ti to see Alessandro and Giovani walking through the door. Both of us broke into a dead sprint and nearly tackled them to the ground.
“Careful, carino!” Gio exclaid. “You’ll get bleeding all over you.”
I wanted to start crying all over again as I saw his bruised and bloodied face, but I knew that wasn’t what he needed right now, and I didn’t want to ss up all of Dahlia’s work. I studied the injuries on his face and cringed internally as I realized that soone must have beaten the hell out of him. This was what had happened to him because he had been brave enough to put himself in Alessandro’s place. I hated that he was hurt, but I was so proud to love a man as courageous as Giovani.
I gave him a brave smile and said, “I’m so glad you’re back.”
“I’m glad too,” he responded in a quiet voice before pulling into a kiss.
I pulled back just a little, terrified that he would hurt himself, but he tugged at my waist to bring back to him. Too afraid to touch his face, I wrapped my arms around his waist and let him take the lead as he deepened the kiss. I trusted that he wouldn’t do anything that hurt.
Spending the day terrified that I was going to lose him had only deepened our connection. Everywhere he touched left my body buzzing with an electrifying need for him. My world shrank down until it was just him, , and our roaming hands. I forgot to even breathe as his mouth moved against mine. His tongue just slightly brushed against my bottom lip, sending a jolt of lust straight through , when I rembered that we had an audience.
I pulled away from his kiss and felt a blush creeping up my face. I shifted uncomfortably, trying to stifle the need that had been growing in my lower abdon.
“Well... I guess I’m out of a job now that I can’t hold that over your head,” Alessandro said awkwardly.
Dahlia looked at him reproachfully.
“You’re lucky I’m so happy you’re safe, or otherwise I’d kick your ass!” she said while smacking him on the arm. “What the hell is wrong with you, blackmailing our cousin and my best friend?!”
“Giovani, Olivia, I truly am sorry,” Alessandro said. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I am so embarrassed over my behavior. I hope you can both eventually forgive and learn to trust again.”
He looked so forlorn, I reached for his hand before saying, “I forgive you.”
“I do too, ya little shit,” Gio chuckled. “And don’t worry, you still have a job here. You’ve actually managed to convince that you can be pretty useful when you want to be.”
“Of course he’s useful, I raised him after all!” I heard Becca’s voice co from behind and turned to see her and Jas walking into the kitchen from the other side.
“Welco back, son,” Jas said before pulling Alessandro into a tight hug.
Becca tried her best to wrap her arms around both of them, then finally gave up and just waited for Jas to pull back.
Jas clapped Giovani on the shoulder. “Thank you, Gio, for everything. I would never forgive myself if you hadn’t succeeded in getting him back. I can’t believe I now owe you for the lives of two of my children.”
Becca turned toward Gio with tears in her eyes. “I’ll never be able to tell you just how much this ans to us.”
Gio cleared his throat awkwardly, uncomfortable with the sudden attention. I beca very aware of the fact that he still had his arms wrapped tightly around and wondered what the two of them would think about this.
Becca seed to notice that Gio was holding much more tightly than any friend would right at the ti, that I wondered if I should step away. She looked at his arms around and made eye contact with , her eyebrows raised.
“It seems history repeats itself,” she said teasingly.
“What do you an?” Jas asked.
Becca looked at him, then looked aningfully at us.
Dahlia broke out laughing. “Ha! I wasn’t the last to know!” she crowed triumphantly.
I rolled my eyes at her but was secretly glad that she had managed to break up the awkward mont. Having Becca and Jas know about and Gio felt a lot like bringing a boyfriend ho to et my parents, and I wasn’t exactly sure that I was ready for that yet. It also ant that I would need to call my mom and tell her as soon as possible, because I knew that if I didn’t, Becca definitely would.
“Well, if you’re not too busy snuggling up to Olivia,” Jas said with a grin, “I’d like to hear about exactly what happened. I know this isn’t my operation anymore, but knowing the details will help feel a lot more comfortable with us heading ho.”
Becca ushered us all over to the dining table and brewed so coffee. I gratefully took a steaming mug; I knew it was going to be a long night, but I hoped that soon Gio and I would be able to sneak off from the rest of the group.
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