Page 67 of Married into the Mob

Perhaps we could talk over dinner. If I explained what was in my heart and she witnessed us together, she’d change her mind. But it was a huge ask, and if I put myself in her position, I’d react the same way.

Being away from Hunter, even for one night, sped up my breathing, and I blinked away tears. My aunt wouldn’t and couldn’t understand how knowing someone for a few days made me want to spend the rest of my life with him.

“Aunt Louisa, you don’t know him.”

“And you do? After a few days going wherever you went with him.”

Rudy had given her a sparse amount of information, just enough, along with my phone calls to know I was okay. Not that I hadn’t been close to being blown into a million pieces.

“How about we go out for a meal?” Hunter had given me a new phone and a credit card before I left. I’d wanted to refuse, feeling as though I was mooching off him, but I had no alternative. “Tonight we’ll watch your favorite TV programs.”

“This is where you belong. And I need you. We were always a team, you and me. Don’t break my heart and leave me, not when we’ve finally had a lucky break.”

She bustled off to make dinner as the fridge and pantry were stocked.

“I can’t come home tonight,” I said to Hunter when he answered.

If Aunt Louisa was listening, she would have picked up on me calling his place home. But when I glanced at her, she was texting, her fingers tapping furiously at the device.

But it was for Hunter I said it.Hewas my home.

“I miss you.”

“Miss you too.”

I asked him where he was, and he said he was in bed, with the sheets that scented of me wrapped around him. Way to tug at my heart!

“Just tonight, right?” I was being yanked from both sides like that old torture method where a person was tied to two horses, each facing the opposite direction.

“Yes.” I was teetering on that tightrope again, trying to please everyone. I hoped I wouldn’t end up disappointing them both. And myself.

TWENTY-SIX

HUNTER

Seven days! It’d been seven days since Odell had left.

Every day was an excuse.

My aunt needs me.

She’s sad.

I think her cough has returned.

She says I’ve made a mistake.

But there were also other messages that had me worried he didn’t want to come back and was only making excuses.

I’m so tired.

I don’t feel well.

So sleepy and my tummy hurts.

My heart, or what was left of it, couldn’t take it anymore.

I’d worn my robe that he’d had on that first morning in this house and made a list of what I’d done since he left.