*Elio*
When Al and I went to the office, I felt guilty that Cat couldn’t be there. I knew that she would’ve loved to sit in and talk with us and weigh in on the business and participate in the discussion about what was being done to locate Junior and finally get rid of him.
But Cat and I knew Al probably not only would’ve had a problem with Cat being there, but wouldn’t have understood why she was. Not to ntion, it would’ve been rude to leave Mia and Bianca on their own with Emilia.
I was glad that Cat was understanding and didn’t put up a fuss when I’ll asked to go to the office together. She knew that I would catch her up when everyone left. Still, it was so odd not to have her in the room with us, talking business, and exchanging ideas about Junior.
“Franky caught up on everything that’s been going on with Junior,” Al said. “I wonder if he’s going to make a move at the wedding. What do you think?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. and the guys made sure there was enough security on hand to prevent anything from popping off during the wedding. I want her to have the most perfect day. Besides, I have a feeling that right now, Junior is just playing gas. He’s trying to scare us. I don’t think crashing the wedding and causing trouble there is his end ga.”
He took a sip of his drink. “Yes, I have to agree with you there. Junior is a nace, but he’s not an idiot. Unfortunately, he’s too smart for his and everybody else’s own good. If he were just a little more stupid, we’d probably have his ass by now.”
“Yeah, I find myself wishing he was more stupid myself,” I admit. “The only problem with stupid is that people get dead faster. I think I prefer him smarter and a little more crafty than stupid and killing everybody around him. It’s a bit of a catch twenty-two, I think.”
I thought about how easy it would be for him to take one of us out of the ga and leave either Emilia or Cat helpless, and I didn’t want that. Maybe wishing for stupidity was the wrong thing to do.
“I think you and the guys might have this Junior thing under control,” Al said. He stood from his chair to go to the sideboard to get anoter sniffer of brandy.
I leaned back in my desk chair and thought for a mont. “Yes, all that can be done is being done right now. I just wish that we caught him before the wedding. I don’t want Cat to worry about anything during this ti. It should be the happiest ti of her life.“
“She seems happy enough. She doesn’t seem worried at all. You have yourself a winner there,” Al said with a grin, turning around and resting his backside against the sideboard, sniffter in hand.
“Yes, I know that well. Cat is wonderful,” I agreed.
“How is she doing with the new baby?” he asked.
“She’s a great mother. Our little girl is happy and well fed and well cared for. I swear she seems like a natural at it.”
He nodded. “She is definitely a nurturer. The way she put everything together tonight shows that. She made sure everyone had what they needed before she ever sat down. She is a little mother, even when the baby is not around.”
I thought about the way Cat took care of everyone. In so ways, Al was right. In other ways, he knew nothing about her. Cat was a nurturer by nature, but she was so much more, and I was so glad to know all the little pieces of her that made her a whole person. She wasn’t just a mother and wasn’t just a woman. She was everything.
“I’m glad that she is a good fit for you,” he said. “She’ll make a great wife and mother.“
“Yes, she already does.”
A part of felt guilty for smoothing over things and not saying anything about Cat being part of the business the way she was. I didn’t tell Al about how much she knew about the life and how she sotis accompanied to do business. Won were not supposed to know about things like that, and I didn’t want to get that line of conversation started just yet.
“She’s absolutely lovely, Elio.”
I smiled. “I know,“ I said with the upmost confidence in both myself and my woman.
“You don’t have to be so smug about it,” Al said with a grin.
“So, what about you and Mia? How is it going?”
I rembered how surprised Dad said everyone was when he t Mia. Like everyone else, he thought that Alessandro would be a bachelor for the rest of his life. Now, he had a beautiful wife of his own.
“It’s been great,” he said. “I still rember the day we t, and so of our first dates. I rember one ti when she showed up to our dinner date at our restaurant off of the Piazza. I almost fell out of my chair, she was so lovely. She had dressed in this beautiful skirt and had on heels that made her look taller than she actually was. Her hair was up in this thing that was gorgeous. It showed off her features and her make up was done to perfection. She looked like a dream, and from that mont on, she’s been mine.“
I understood what Al was talking about. I felt the sa about Cat. She was my dream co true every day, and every ti I got to lay beside her and wake up in the morning, staring at her profile or feeling her weight on as she used as her own pillow instead of her own, it was like waking up from the best dream in the world. After all this ti, Al still had that sa look i knew was always plastered on my face when I thought of Cat. It was a wonder to see, and I was extrely happy for him.
“She brings out sothing in that was never there before,” he continued. “I’d never t anyone like her and I felt like if I gave her up, I’d never et anyone like her again. I know you feel that way about Cat. I can tell.”
I smiled.
“Mia has beco an intricate part of my life, though we agreed a long ti ago that she would stay out of the business. I don’t want any of that to touch her. She’s so lovely and beautiful and cultured. How could I ever let her into that part of my life?”
I didn’t say anything about his logic. I fully understood it. He was like many of the older n in our business and in our families. He thought of won as delicate, and they were in so ways. But I knew from living and being with my Cat that won were a lot stronger than we gave them credit for.
Won endured, and were resilient. n thought of ourselves as strong, and in a lot of ways, we were. I just couldn’t imagine keeping half my entire existence from Cat, which was exactly what Al was doing with Mia.
It was all so much a part of , being the head of our family. So much a part of what I did and who I was belonged to the business, and I couldn’t imagine not showing that side of myself to Cat every night when I ca ho.
I tried to imagine it now and realized that it would’ve been a lot more stressful than if I had done what Al did and tried to keep her out of it. Cat wasn’t having that crap. And I wasn’t about to start trying to do it to her.
Now I had to find a way to let Al know what was going on and hope he accepted it. I was never going to lie to Cat, and that would have been the only way to keep her out of the business.
I realized at that mont that our lives were different. Even our thought patterns were different. There was no regret in Al’s voice when he spoke of keeping most of himself from Mia.
In his mind, the truth was that he was a businessman. And in a lot of ways, he was. But the majority of what he did could put his life or Mia’s in danger. I understood, now, why Cat hated the lies so much. Having Cat as my partner was far more palatable to lying to her.
I hadn’t realized that before I listened to Al talk. I promised myself at that mont, not to lie to Cat ever again.
When we were finished in the office, so we walked out to look for the won. They were out on the terrace, sitting beside the pool and having a drink. Emilia was nowhere to be found, and I knew she was in bed. Having all those won play with her was probably exhausting.
When we ca out, Cat stood and poured two glasses of wine and brought them over to us.
“Thank you,“ Al said, and he kissed her on the cheek.
I pulled her closer to and took my own drink. “What have you ladies been up to?“ I asked, taking a sip of the wine.
“Getting to know each other.“ Cat said, smiling.
“That’s good,“ I said, rubbing my hand over her back, thinking to myself I knew what she was thinking about from the look in her eyes.
“I’ve invited her to stay here in the east wing, if that’s alright with you,” she said. “I think that would be better than staying in a dorm.”
“Of course,” I said enthusiastically. “That would be great. And of course, we’d love for you to co to the wedding.”
By this point, we were at the chairs and starting to sit down again.
Bianca spoke up in her thick Italian accent. “That would be heavenly, thank you for your kindness.” She looked at Cat. “With that in mind, I would love to go shopping with you if you have the ti, Cat. I know that you have so much going on with your wedding planning.”
“I could probably get in a short shopping trip,” she said. “Is there sothing specific you’re looking for?“
“I was thinking that I would try to look for a dress I could wear to the wedding,” she said. “I did not pack a lot of formal clothes.”
“Al wanted to commission a designer for my dress,” Mia said. “I turned him down. That’s too expensive. Bianca, I was planning to shop for one here myself. Cat, it would be so fun to shop with you.”
“It’s a date then,” Cat said.
The wedding was getting nearer, and I was so excited for it. I wasn’t nervous the way most grooms seem to be in the books and movies. I was ready to be married to the woman of my dreams.
She was my everything, and I was ready to beco hers. It was just a matter of days now. I looked over to see her smiling, and it was just as Al had said.
Cat was the right woman for , and I was so ready to make her my wife.
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