“No, Bridget. Go back to sleep. Thank you.”
I placed my phone on the bar top carefully. Matthew looked like he was having a hard time speaking.
“What…what did you just do?” he asked hoarsely.
I sighed. “Please tell me you can accept a simple gift.”
“Nina, you just—if you did what I think you did—you—that’s not exactly a simple gift!” He gestured toward the now empty box on the table, as if to demonstrate the difference.
“Matthew.” I quieted him by setting my hand on top of his. I had never felt so sure about, well, anything. “Did you mean what you said last night? About wanting me to feel safe?”
“Of course, but—”
“Well, I want the same for you.” I inhaled. I hadn’t really understood how true that was until I said it out loud. “Did you ever consider that? I can’t do much for you, but my money can. Eric might be holding the purse strings, but some of the money in that bag belongs to me, not him. And I’ll use it as I like.”
“Still—”
“It’s already done. You don’t owe me anything else.” I brushed my thumb over the top of his hand.
Finally, he stopped sputtering. “Owe you anything else? What’s that supposed to mean?” He pulled off his hat and rubbed his face. “The whiplash, Nina. It’s real. A month ago you wanted nothing to do with me. Now you’re feeling guilty yourself?”
I sighed, and turned to look over the piazza, now bright with sunlight, the white marble facade of the Basilica di Santa Croce gleaming brightest of all at the far end.
“Look at us,” I said. “Look at this. We are in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and for the first time, I can stand next to you in broad daylight. I can look at you and not have to hide my expression for concern of who might see. Kiss you without fear of being discovered.”
Slowly, Matthew smiled, casting a dimple on the left side of his cheek. But I wasn’t through.
“But there is still a mess waiting for me back in New York. Another just a few minutes away. I’ve already cost you your job. I suspect continued involvement with me may cost you more than that.”
Matthew looked uneasy, but he didn’t argue.
“Just as I thought,” I said, though the knot in my stomach tightened.
“I cost myself my job, Nina. I should have turned over the case from the beginning.”
“Either way, I won’t blame you if you don’t want to deal with me anymore. So…you don’t have to.”
Just like that, his frown reappeared. “Come again?”
I swallowed. “You’re not beholden to Eric because this money will come from my inheritance, not his. So forget whatever he is or isn’t paying you for. I’m the one doing that. And I’m saying…if you don’t really want to be here, you can go.”
I’d told him last night that love was about keeping the other safe enough to fly together. Now I was putting my money where my mouth was, so to speak. Without a tether, a duty to Eric…would Matthew fly away again now that his wings were no longer clipped?
Essentially, I was asking if he was here for the money, or if he had really meant what he said about wanting to repair what had been broken between us. If he really would do whatever it took.
Matthew replaced his hat and examined me for a few long minutes. I stared at my empty coffee cup, wishing there was a bit more to drink for want of something to do. The brittle cornetto seemed like it would stick in my throat.
But then he cracked another sly half-smile. “In broad daylight, you say?”
I looked up and flushed under the sudden heat of his gaze. “Well, yes. It is nearly ten.”
With a simple, graceful movement that never failed to catch me off guard, Matthew slipped a hand under the folds of my coat to grab my waist and pulled us both to standing. And then his lips were on mine, sweetened with espresso and cream, lush and open as only Matthew could be.
I opened right back, to a chorus of whistles from passersby, even a clap from the barman who had served us. When Matthew finally released me, I was completely out of breath.
“I don’t know what to say about you buying me off your cousin,” he said. “But I’ll never say no to kissing you in the open, duchess. Not when I’ve been dreaming about it for an entire year.”
“You’re not the only one who can take care of the people you love, you know,” I reprimanded him, even as I took his collar with both hands and pulled him close again.
He pressed his forehead to mine. “Love?”
I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the fear knotted in my stomach right alongside the joy when he looked at me like this. “It’s looking that way again, isn’t it?”
I could feel his smile curve against my lips.
“I’ll hold you to that, Ms. de Vries,” he said, and then kissed me again.
Chapter Fourteen
Matthew
After I spent a few more minutes making out with Nina in the middle of the street like we were sixteen-year-olds on spring break instead of thirtysomethings on a somber mission, we finally left the piazza and started making our way toward Gavinana, a residential neighborhood in the southeast part of Florence.
A weight had been lifted. Not entirely. Not all the way. There were a lot of questions still, and I could feel New York and the burdens of home waiting for us like a dark cloud ready to burst. I also wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden generosity that would change my life in more ways than I could count—or if I’d even accept it once we were home.
But I understood what she was trying to do. Nina valued freedom more than anything else, I was discovering. And why not—she had lived in one gilded cage or another her entire life.
