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“Oh, yeah? You’re not giving me another night like this?”
He tilted my chin up. “Sam, I’ll give you as many nights as you want,” he said, practically purring my name. “I worship you. Do you realize that?”
“I want to believe you,” I said.
“You don’t have to. All you need to do is give yourself up, and I’ll do the rest.”
I nodded a little and snuggled closer. “We probably shouldn’t have sex in the living room again though.”
He laughed. I grinned and laughed with him, and it felt like a balloon losing its air, all the tension blowing out of the room.
“Come on,” he said, getting me up. “Let’s get some sleep.”
“Big day tomorrow.” I pulled on my clothes. He watched me dress before getting his own shorts and tank top on.
“Big day,” he repeated. “But a good day. Once we’re married, I think it’ll hurt Colm’s legitimacy with your family. He may not give a damn, but everyone else will.”
I chewed on my cheek and nodded. “I think you’re right about that,” I said.
He took my hand, lacing his fingers into mine, and we walked back to the stairs together. I thought about going into his room and sleeping in his bed, but decided to sleep alone instead. I was going to marry him tomorrow, and I had a feeling he’d want to take his due as a husband in the future.
Which meant my days of an empty bed were nearly over.
I didn’t know how I felt about it, but a strange excited tingle suggested it wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.
13
Matteo
We gathered down at the old oak tree. Don Valentino was there with Bea and an old priest named Father Carmichael. He was some local guy, pulled in at the last minute and willing to do a quick and dirty ceremony.
Sam stood across from me. She wasn’t in a full wedding dress, but she was in white—a simply skirt and button-down shirt. Her hair was up in a braid with small flowers laced through it, and although her clothes and makeup were understated and simple, she looked like heaven.
She looked like my future wife.
Father Carmichael cleared his throat. “Don Valentino invited me here to do a small ceremony,” he said. “I suppose this is as small as it gets.”
“Keep it short, Father,” Don Valentino said.
The priest cleared his throat awkwardly again and flipped through his Bible then sighed and slammed it shut.
“All right then,” he said. “Shall we simply get to the good parts?”
“Please,” I said and felt a strange jab in my stomach.
Sam smiled back at me. She glowed like a lightning bug on a black evening. She was heaven, my sunflower, my north star. I didn’t know when the shift happened, but at some point she went from a beautiful woman I wanted to fuck over and over to a goddess I wanted to kneel down in front of and worship.
And the way she looked at me suggested she felt the same way.
I never wanted to get married. That was never in the cards for me. I figured I’d fight for the Don, maybe get rich for a while, and eventually die in a hail of gunfire. That was always my fate, but now Sam changed everything. She made me want to look back away from the abyss and imagine myself as an old man with a family.
Even if it was all fake, all to try to end this stupid war. I couldn’t help but want it to be real.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today—” Father Carmichael started, but Don Valentino cleared his throat. “Okay, yes, okay, very well. Do you, Matteo, take Samantha to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do,” I said.
“And do you, Samantha, take Matteo—”
“I do,” she said quickly and laughed, covering her mouth.
Father Carmichael smiled. “Then I pronounce you man and wife. Go ahead and kiss the bride.”
I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. I heard Father Carmichael grumble something about the fastest ceremony he’d ever done, and Don Valentino tell him to shut his stupid fat ass and take the damn check, but I was too busy kissing my wife to give a shit or notice.
Eventually, we came up for air. Father Carmichael was already lumbering back to the house. Bea smiled huge at the pair of us, and even Don Valentino seemed like he was in a good mood.
“How’s it feel?” Don Valentino asked. “Marriage is a sacred thing, you know.”
“Feels great,” I said. “Now let’s go end the fucking war.”
He laughed and headed back toward the house.
“Come on, you two,” Bea said. “I’ve got lunch prepared.”
“Can we come up in a second?” Sam asked, looking at me. “I wanted to talk to Matteo.”
“Of course,” Bea said. “Come up when you’re ready.” She walked off with a wave.
