I know they aren’t meant to be cruel. They come from a good place and I admitted my addiction to pills and wine, he knows that I’ve been struggling.
“Okay, Massimo,” I whisper.
He arches a brow, unsure as to what I’m agreeing to, I’m sure. I don’t say another word, instead I reach for the buttery biscuit and bring it to my lips. It tastes like heaven. It’s so good, I eat two.
Then I eat everything else on my plate and by the time I’m finished, I’m so full that I’m practically sick, but admittedly, I haven’t felt this happy since Rosana lived with me.
Maybe Massimo just needed to come home. Maybe all of our personal drama will be done and over with now that he’s right where he has always belonged.
Now that he’s home.
Chapter Thirty-Three
MASSIMO
I need to meet with Brando alone, but I don’t want to leave Pippa. The only alternative I have is to have Brando meet me at the casino and have Arlo call her into work. I offer to clean up breakfast but she shoos me away. Making my way outside on the small deck, I tug my phone out of my pocket and find Arlo’s name in my contacts.
“How are you moving around? I figured you’d stay in bed all day with your pretty wife,” he says.
Chuckling, I lean over the banister and stare out at a view that I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see again. I figured I would be done, every day that passed felt like a lifetime and my dreams and desires just kind of faded away.
“Got a problem. I need to meet with my police contact, but I don’t want to leave Pippa alone.”
“Does this involve her?” he asks, immediately guessing what this is most likely about.
There’s a moment of silence. I think about ignoring him, maybe shifting his question to something else, but I don’t. He’s been right beside her for the past several years. He gave her purpose and I know that without him, she probably would have been completely lost not just from me, but from herself too.
“It does. Something that started before I left, something that Brando thinks he could have finally tracked down. Something that involves the famiglia, too.”
“Fuck,” he hisses.
I snort. “That’s the long and short of it.”
“I’ve got plenty for her to do at the casino. Go ahead and bring her in with you, I want in on this meeting with Brando though.”
Part of me wants to tell him to fuck off, the other part is thankful, grateful even, that he gave Pippa something in her life. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have let her work for him, but I am man enough to admit that it was a good move—even if I only admit it to myself.
“You’re in, Arlo. One hour, yeah?”
“I’ll be there.” I hear the door from the house open just as I end the call and shove my phone in my pocket.
Staying where I am, I let Pippa come to me. She doesn’t touch me as she approaches my side. I wait for her to lift her hand, to brush it against my arm or anywhere else against my body, but she doesn’t.
“We need to go to the casino. I have to talk to Arlo, he said you could do some office work if you wanted while we meet.”
I hear her clear her throat. Turning my head, I tilt my chin down and look into her blue eyes. Grazie a Dio they’re a bit brighter than they were just yesterday. If I keep up this pace in a matter of days, they’ll be back to the way I remembered them the day I took her to be my wife.
“Okay, I should go and change then,” she mutters.
My eyes flick down to her clothes and I smirk. She’s wearing a pair of tight jeans and a loose-fitting t-shirt that hangs off of one shoulder. Her hair is up in a messy bun and she doesn’t have even an ounce of makeup on. She looks fucking perfect.
Turning to face her, I lift my hand to cup her cheek. Sliding my thumb along her cheekbone, I smile. “You look amazing. Nobody will be there during the day, you’re fine. You know that Arlo doesn’t care.”
“He won’t, but I will. I need to feel like it’s a real job and not one that he handed to me because he felt sorry for me.”
I bark out a harsh laugh, sliding my hand to cup the back of her head, tugging her closer to me and pressing her face against my chest. She pushes against me, tilting her head back to look up into my eyes.
“He may have initially allowed you to work for him as a favor to me, but you are invaluable to Arlo because of who you are, Pippa. You are smart, organized, and sweet. I know that he wants you to stay with him, even though he knows that it’s not what I want.”
She licks her lips, her eyes searching mine, most likely looking for a lie. She isn’t going to find one. I know that Arlo has come to rely on her, as much as I fucking hate it.
I want her to be at my beck and call, to be here for me every second of every day, but I also know that after spending five years apart, she has a life of her own that I can’t force her to change, at least not completely.
“What do you want, Massimo?” she asks on an exhale.
Her eyes are so wide, practically begging for something, but I don’t know what. Clearing my throat, my fingers tighten in the strands of her hair. My lips twitch, my eyes flicking from her gaze to her lips and then back again.
“You, dolcezza. I only want you, however that happens, however
