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S tone stilled at her comment, then laughed; a second later, she joined him, her cheeks flushing. They quieted when a busboy stopped by to clear the table, followed by a waiter who set large bowls with small helpings of risotto in front of each of them. Stone leaned over and inhaled, catching hints of lemon and truffle.

“It’s traditional here,” Juliana said, picking up her spoon. “Starting with the antipasti, now the primi. A meat dish will be next with sides of vegetables. Depending on how hungry we are—or how much Rocco and Emma think we should eat—there may be a salad before the dessert.”

“I will not say no to anything they put in front of me,” he said before dipping into the mound of risotto in front of him. A tangy punch from the fresh Parmesan burst across his tongue, followed by the earthy flavor of truffles. He ate a few more bites before getting back to their earlier conversation.

“You don’t have to tell me more, but I’m guessing your childhood wasn’t great after you moved in with your aunt and uncle?”

She finished chewing, looking much more comfortable with the conversation than she had only moments ago. He’d have to remember to mention her rack whenever she got uncomfortable.

She bobbed her head from side to side. “There were okay parts to it. They sent me to a boarding school outside DC when high school started. It was a bougie-douchey school, but there were good people there, too. And great teachers who liked kids like me—ones who wanted to learn and didn’t think the world owed me everything.”

“And your cousin, are you close?”

She snorted and shook her head. “No, Elizabeth and I were not—and are not—close at all. Her mother raised her to expect much from the world. And by ‘much,’ I mean adoration, jewels, things . She honestly believes that her job is to go to the gym and host dinner parties. I mean, if she were a bodybuilder or that’s how she made a living, then sure. But that’s not what’s going on. I’m not denigrating those things or the people who do them—my issue is more with how Elizabeth thinks about them. She has a full staff of people who tend to everything, but still, no one has it as hard as she does because—gasp—she spends two hours a day with her personal trainer five days a week.” She added that last with an eye roll. Yeah, he could see why she didn’t get along with her cousin.

Juliana took another bite, her spoon stabbing into her risotto. “And she’s mean. Just like her mom. It doesn’t bother me as much anymore because I managed to find people in my life who taught me what real friendship and real family are like. People like Alyce and Chiara and Rocco and Emma. But growing up around those two was brutal. No one can toss out a cutting backhanded compliment like my aunt. And Elizabeth didn’t even try to camouflage her insults.”

He thought back to a few days ago when he’d knelt before her and tended to her stubbed toe. To the wary surprise in her eyes at his attentions. He’d known then that something in her past had done that to her. That it was her family, though, had anger flaring in his gut. Sure, his parents had been shitty, but he’d had his brother, and he hadn’t been a grieving seven-year-old. Nor had he ever known the love she had, only to have it ripped away.

“Don’t be mad on my behalf,” Juliana said, drawing his attention as he finished his risotto.

“Hard not to,” he admitted.

“I appreciate it, I do. But it’s not necessary.”

He wasn’t going to argue with her about it. “The wedding is where you went the first time that I asked you to dinner and you had to cancel, isn’t it?”

The busboy came and cleared the table while also dropping off a bottle of sparkling water.

After he left, she answered. “Yes. I tried to get away with not attending. That type of event isn’t exactly my thing. For a whole bunch of reasons. But alas, I was summoned. And before you ask why I felt compelled to go, despite disagreeing with about every one of my uncle’s political positions, he’s always been kind to me. He asked me to be there. Like I said, my aunt and cousin were the problem. Well, the primary problem. He never stood up for me or stopped them, but when it was just the two of us, we’d talk. Mostly about what I was reading or my classes. Those were some of the only conversations I can remember that weren’t laced with either antagonism or condescension.”

His chest ached thinking of her as a little girl, alone in a house of vipers, having lost her parents and with only one person to talk to whom she could never fully trust.

“You’re getting that look again. It’s the past, Simon.”

“We learn to cope. That doesn’t mean the scars aren’t also there,” he said.

“Speaking from experience?”

He inclined his head. “I am. But you already know that.”

She wagged her head. “You’ve only told me so much,” she said, then continued before he could protest. “But we’re still getting to know each other, Simon. I don’t expect to know your deepest darkest secrets or reveal mine—not that there really are any. But, as they say during our board meetings, ‘we’re trending in the right direction,’ and that’s a good thing. It feels good. And right.”

He stopped himself from responding right away and thought about her words. While he wanted to know everything about her, every nook and cranny of her complicated mind and every inch of her soul, she was right. They were doing a damn good job of getting to know each other while also dealing with a hairy situation.

He nodded, then poured them both a glass of sparkling water before raising his. “We’ll have a real toast soon, but for now, here’s to us. Figuring out how to unravel a triad of criminal activity and having our first real dinner date. No one can accuse us of not being multitaskers.”

She lifted her glass and clinked it against his, a smile spreading across her face. “We are pretty badass. And you have no idea how happy it will make Rocco and Emma to know they hosted our first proper date.”

An image flashed through his mind as she spoke. Of Rocco and Emma catering a wedding. Their wedding. Shock stole his body, then in the next beat of his heart, it slid away. He’d never thought of himself as the marrying kind. He didn’t have anything against the institution, he just didn’t know anything about it or what it took to have a good one.

But one look at Juliana’s smile had him considering another perspective. He might not have ever considered marriage , but he had no problem seeing himself spending the rest of his life with the woman sitting across from him.