Page 180 of Captivated

“And what about you?” Joe asked. “Do I get a blessing from you?”

Lucian smirked. “Joe, I would have given you my blessing months ago—the first night you met her, actually, and noticed that she was a dancer just by the way she walked. What kind of man notices that sort of thing about a woman, anyway? I suspected … the kind of man who would notice everything else about her, too.”

“You heard that?”

Because they had all seemed rather distracted at the table.

Lucian chuckled. “I told you—”

“You see and notice everything.”

“Exactly. I’d like a call before you ask so that I know, and can let her mother know.”

Joe nodded. “Will do.”

“And give her something more than asking her in bed,” Lucian grumbled. “That’s not the story I want to be told.”

Glancing away, Joe smirked. “I will keep that in mind.”

“You better.”

EPILOGUE

Three months later …

“YES, CELLA,” Liliana huffed into the phone, “I will meet up with you before I head to Chicago next week.”

“Promise?”

“You know I’m not even moving there yet.”

“Feels like it,” her sister said sadly.

Liliana slowed her rushed movements to finish getting dressed—she was already late to class, and didn’t want to miss the whole damn thing. Still, she also didn’t want to hear her sister sounding like Liliana had just kicked her fucking puppy.

“Chicago isn’t that far away, Cella.”

“Far enough.”

“Yeah, I guess, huh?”

“Lucky I like Joe,” Cella grumbled.

Liliana smiled. “He’s hard not to like.”

She had another couple of months left before summer break was there, and then she would be heading to Chicago to live full-time with Joe. Next year, she would start her second to last year of school before she could move onto counseling domestic violence victims within hospitals and shelters.

She wanted to do this more than anything. She knew her sister—and her littlest sister, too—was going to miss her, though.

That kind of made it hard.

“I’ll be over,” Liliana said. “Promise, Cella.”

“Okay. And you know, even though I’m sad that you’re moving, I’m also really happy that you’re happy, Liliana.”

“Yeah, I know. Love you, huh?”

“Love you, too.”