“Giada,” Mom shouts from the other room. “You have to see this.”
Shaking my head, I walk to the kitchen door. “Good luck, Giada. She’s been talking about babies for days now.”
“Hopefully we’ve been making babies for days.” I push it open and go into the living room where she’s got a laptop open, scrolling through baby room ideas.
For the next few hours we stay glued to these sites, finding cute baby rooms that I want. I love almost all of them. I can’t decide and honestly, until I’m pregnant, all of this is moot, but it’s better than sitting around waiting for bad news to hit us.
It’s well after lunch when I can hear excessive movement around the house. We were watching some soap operas when the news comes on. “Shots fired at an office building. It’s the second shooting at this building in as many weeks. We don’t have any details, but from the lack of rushing or staging outside the building, we can assume that it’s already been subdued. The medics are leaving and the coroner has appeared on the scene.” They walk up to Joey who’s holding a bag in his hand and just going toward the building. “Sir, can you tell us what’s going on?”
“No.” He pushes past them and the police officers, showing his badge and whispering something. Tears are flowing down my face as I wonder what’s going on.
Suddenly Martin and Angela are in the room. “Ladies, we need to take shelter in the specialized room.”
“Oh my goodness. It’s Rafael, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but we’re going to secure you and inform Santino.”
“But the shooting?”
“He’s okay as far as we know. We just received word from Joey. Please accompany us to where we can keep you safe.” They are insistent and I can’t take it right now. I’m so freaked out about Santino that I can hardly concentrate on actually breathing.
“Why can’t they just leave us alone?” I sob into my hands.
Mom wraps her arms around me and kisses my hair. “Because they can’t stand losing their possessions. That’s all we were to them. A possession that they didn’t care for, but hell if they wanted anyone else to have it.”
It takes me a minute to calm myself down and focus on the path ahead as we move into a safe room that Santino had built over the first few days I’d been on the island.
We go down into the room and wait for word on Santino. I need to know he’s okay. Goodness, I don’t know what I’d do if he doesn’t come home to me. We are just getting started on our happily ever after and I can’t lose him.
For the next hour, it feels like nothing but a waiting game. One I don’t like playing. All I want is Santino. I don’t even have a cell phone to check up on him.
I close my eyes and think of him and the vows we spoke the other day.
“Giada, will you do me the honor in marrying me?”
“Marry you? Why would you want that?”
“Because I know you’re the one for me and I can’t imagine a life without you in it. I knew it the second I crept into the room and snatched you up.”
“Yes. Yes I’ll marry you.”
“Thank you, Tesoro. The judge will be here in two hours.”
“Are we getting married today?”
“Yes. Sorry. We can have a special wedding later, but I want you with me before someone can try to separate us ever again.”
“I don’t need anything special except you.” He slides a diamond ring.
“This has got to be one of the shortest engagements ever.”
“That’s okay with me.”
“What am I going to wear?”
“Rita has already thought of that. Well her and my mother, but since Rita’s the only one of you that can go out, she picked up three dresses this morning.”
“Oh my goodness.” I kiss him hard and then run from the room to see both Rita and his mom waiting for me.
“Yes. We have to get started.”
“He’ll be here by five.”
My two hours flew by fast, but I’m ready. Walking down the stairs with Joey, leading me to Santino, I walk up to Santino who’s standing there with a smile on his face. We have a small gathering of Russian mob people and the security as our guests. They all stand as I move down the makeshift aisle with only two hours he’d made every minute count. It’s perfect.
Within ten minutes it’s all over and the photographer snaps photos of us. I can’t believe how he managed to do all this but I’m happy. Cupping my cheeks, he presses his forehead to mine and says, “I love you, Giada.”
“I love you, Santino.” We kiss as if we don’t have an audience and honestly I don’t care who sees it. Before the judge leaves we filed all the necessary docs with the notarized and ready to be submitted for public record. We even made copies should something befall the judge before the documents are entered. Although I’m sure Santino won’t let that happen.
“Congratulations, Mrs. Benedetti.”
“Thank you, your honor.”
He leaves as we enjoy a small cake that Rita ordered along with some fine Italian cuisine from a local restaurant. The entire time, Santino can’t take his eyes off of me, and there’s always a hint of a smile on it with a wink or two even when he talks to the Russians.
“Giada, Giada,” Mom says, shaking me out of my memory.
“Oh no what’s going on?”
“Are you okay? We lost you there for a minute. He’s going to be okay. I’m sure of it.”
“Thank you. I was lost in a very happy memory.” We hug and wait for news.
Chapter Twenty-One
Santino
“Romo, what brings you here?” I ask as we step out of my office to go to the parking garage. I don’t want the media or my father to
