THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series (74 page)

“Thank you, Paul,” Ian said, standing to greet the man with an enthusiastic fist bump. “How’ve you been? How’s the wife?”

“Good, good as always. It’s been a while.”

“I’ve been preoccupied.” Ian gestured to me, a proud smile replacing what had been a pleased, but less enthusiastic one. “My fiancée, Mia Rossi.”

“Fiancée?” Again there was that surprise that I’d noted on the maître d’s face. He studied me with raw curiosity, a slight narrowing to his eyes. “I thought you—”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, holding out my hand to him. He lifted it, studying the engagement ring with a bit of a frown.

“Well,” he said after a long moment, “I’ll leave you to it.”

I was getting a bad feeling about being here. It was pretty obvious that the chef and the maître d knew something that I didn’t, and I didn’t like that.

“Ian…”

“Try this,” he said, lifting a fork to my lips. “It’s heavenly.”

He seemed so relaxed, so excited, that I couldn’t help myself. I took the bite and closed my eyes as the flavors burst over my tongue. Espresso and cream…such an amazing combination. Italian cooks knew what they were doing! When I opened my eyes, Ian was watching me with this palpable expectation.

“Delicious.”

“I told you!”

He sat back with a little laugh, lifting a large bite to his lips and sighing as the flavors burst over his tongue. I don’t think I’d ever seen a man quite as pleased with a bit of food as he was in that moment. And that made me forget everything but the look on his face in that moment.

“You’re a foodie.”

“I am. Incurable.”

“When are you going to cook for me?”

“I don’t know. When we get back from our honeymoon, I suppose.”

“I can’t wait.”

He lifted another forkful toward me, but as he did a blond woman came out of the kitchen. I don’t know how I knew who she was. Maybe it was the way she scanned the room, her eyes lighting on Ian with a tension that was so obvious that I could see it from clear across the room. And then her eyes fell on me. When I saw the pain flash through her eyes, when I saw tears fall impossibly fast from her eyes, there was no doubt.

He’d brought me to her restaurant. And she was beautiful, exactly how I’d imagined her.

“Ian…”

He must have seen something on my face because he turned in his seat, looking to see what it was I’d seen. And I watched as they stared at each other. Her eyes narrowed, anger bursting through her almost as if there were flames burning all around. She crossed her arms in a defensive move, but it did little to stop the hurt that was written all over her face. But when he turned, he wasn’t completely oblivious. But it was pretty obvious that he didn’t feel as hurt at seeing her as she felt at seeing him.

“We should go,” I said, pushing my chair back from the table.

“Why? We haven’t finished our dessert.”

I just shook my head, my eyes moving back to her as she turned and ducked back into the kitchen. I hated myself that I felt a little glad that he was with me. I hated that I felt possessive of him, that I felt big because he was mine. I hated myself because I’d been where she was and I should have felt more compassion. But all I felt was relief when he got up and came to my side, slipping his fingers through mine.

“I don’t know why I did that,” he said a while later as we drove past the Boston City Limits sign. “I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”

“You shouldn’t have done that to her.”

“I know. I guess I just…I wanted you to know that it’s over. That I don’t feel for her what I feel for you.”

I reached over and took his hand. There was really nothing else to say.

Ian

I stood in front of the mirror, my hands shaking as I tried to tie my tie. I could put it down to the party Killian and Stacy threw me last night after the rehearsal dinner, but I knew that wasn’t what it was. I had never been so nervous in all my life.

“You okay, son?” Pops said, coming up behind me.

“I just…I can’t get this tie on straight.”

He touched my shoulder and turned me toward him, tugging at the tie and putting it to rights in a matter of seconds. Then he smacked my cheek.

“Everyone’s nervous on their wedding day. It seems insane, the idea of committing yourself to one person for the rest of your life. But it’s a good thing.”

“I know, Pops.”

“You’re going to be happy. Believe me.”

“I hope so.”

“I see the way you look at her. In only a few weeks, you already look at her the way I looked at Abigail before our wedding.”

“Were you happy, Pops? Really?”

“We had our moments. I know you kids know that we separated several times early in our marriage. But we always found our way back to each other.”

I nodded, my thoughts going everywhere. I had never intended to get married, never thought what it would mean to be that committed to anything, especially a relationship. And children…that was just something that was always on a back burner. I never really let myself think about having my own children because I wasn’t confident I was capable of being a good father. But since meeting Mia, I found myself thinking I was capable of a lot more than I ever gave myself credit for.

Could I really do this? Could I really make her happy? Could I be happy?

“You and Cassidy…”

Pops rested both his hands on my shoulders so that I had to look him in the eye. “Cassidy is about as different from Abigail as two women can be. And our relationship is so different that I can’t even begin to explain. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t love your mother or that I wouldn’t prefer that it was her standing beside me as you get married today. But she’s gone, and she’d want me to be happy, and I am so happy with Cassidy.”

I looked down, studied my shoes.

“I wish she was here.”

“So do I.” Pops touched the side of my face. “She would be so happy to see you with Mia.”

“Does it really show? I mean…this whole thing began…and now…”

Pops chuckled. “I know. Love can be that way, son.”

The door burst open and Killian, Sean, and Kyle burst through the door, the baby giggling from Killian’s arms.

“Stacy says to stop your blubbering and get ready. The ladies are just about set.”

“Mia? Did you see her? How is she?”

“She’s not here yet. She’s getting dressed at her parents’ house, remember?”

“Yeah.”

Pops slapped my cheek lightly, winking when I looked at him. Then he turned and scooped the baby from Killian’s arms, swinging him around until he was laughing with absolute glee. Killian came over and slapped me on the arm.

“You holding up, bro?”

“I’m good.”

“Not too hung over from last night?”

“I was about to ask you that. You had a lot more than I did.”

“Yeah, well, Stacy has this really great way of soothing a hangover.”

Killian winked, the implication not missed on anyone in the room.

“T.M.I.,” Kyle called.

Sean just laughed.

I smacked his arm. “She’s my sister. You know that, right?”

“She’s a sister to all of us!”

Killian just laughed.

I pulled my cell phone out of my back pocket and went to sit on the arm of the couch, my thumbs working as I texted Mia. We’d gotten into this habit of sending each other texts multiple times a day, talking about the wedding or her things that’d been showing up at my apartment a box at a time, or just the weather. It didn’t matter what we said to each other, it was just really nice to see her name flash across my phone, her picture filling the screen. I’d taken it when she wasn’t looking, a lovely profile picture that highlighted everything I liked about her face. Last night, I lay in bed, unable to sleep, and just stared at that picture for hours.

I had it bad. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if things went sour after today.

“You’re not supposed to talk to the bride until the ceremony,” Sean said, knocking his finger against the back of my phone.

“I thought it was just seeing her that was bad luck.”

“Delaney says you’re not even supposed to speak to her. It’s bad luck.”

“The two of you talking weddings now?” Pops asked.

“Just in relation to all this. It’s not like I’ve proposed yet or anything.”

“Don’t rush things, Sean,” Killian said. “I waited nearly a decade to tell Stacy I was in love with her—and look at us now.”

“Well, I’m not waiting that long, but—”

Someone was yelling just outside the door. Someone who was exceedingly angry.

I got up and looked out the window just in time to see Mia’s brothers shoving some guy back off the church steps. The guy was clearly angry, maybe even high. He was fighting them, swinging his fists and threatening them in words that were better suited for a bar than a church.

Sean was out the door before I could react. I followed, and Killian followed me, Kyle behind him.

“What’s going on, Carlo?”

Carlo glanced over his shoulder at me, his face filled with tension.

“This asshole thinks he’s going into the church, but we’ve explained to him that Mia doesn’t want him here.” He shoved the guy back with a well-placed hand pressed to the guy’s shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Spider?”

“This is Spider?”

I stepped away from my brothers, pushing my way past Carlo and Carmine Jr., coming face to face with Mia’s ex.

“You realize this is her wedding day, right?”

“Yeah. But I also heard she was forced into it by her family. I’m here to take her back to Chicago.”

“You really think she’d want to go away with you?”

Spider pulled himself up to his full height which was about even with my collarbone.

“She loves me. I never forced her to do anything she didn’t want to do.”

Carlo snorted behind me. “What about the bruises you put on her when she told you she was coming home?”

Spider shifted slightly. “That was a misunderstanding.”

“You like hitting women?” I asked, taking a few pokes at him myself, pushing him backward until he was stumbling over himself at the curb. “You hurt Mia?”

“Who the hell are you, anyway? What do you have to do with this?”

“I’m her fiancé, asshole. And if you really think she’d leave me to be with you, you must be as stupid as you look.”

There was hesitation on his face for a brief second. But then he raised himself up to his full height again.

“She loves me. She didn’t make me any promises just because her family forced her to.”

I inclined my head to acknowledge the truth in that statement.

“But do you really think she still wants you?”

“Let me talk to her. You’ll see.”

By coincidence, the limo carrying the bridal party pulled up at that moment. Sean came up, stepping between the car and me, forcing me to turn sideways.

“Tell her,” I said to Carmine Jr. “Let her make the choice for herself.”

“But, Ian, there’s a whole church full of people waiting to—”

“Do what he said,” Pops said in his low, don’t-fuck-with-me voice.

Carmine Jr. hesitated just a second, then he ran around me to the limo. I could see the hope written all over Spider’s face, but then it turned to surprise and appreciation.

“What are you doing here, Spider?” Mia, standing somewhere behind me, asked.

“I came to save you from your family, baby,” he said, turning toward her.

Carlo stepped between him and Mia just like Sean had done for me. I moved a few steps in the opposite direction, not sure I wanted to hear what was going to happen next. It occurred to me that, instead of taking Mia to the restaurant Carrie managed, I should have asked her a few more pointed questions about Spider. I was so convinced that I was the problem…that I couldn’t give her what she wanted that it never occurred to me that I might not be what she wanted in the first place.

“How did you even know I was getting married?”

“Rachel called me. She said your family was forcing you into it.”

There was silence. Then Spider said something I couldn’t quite catch. Killian came up behind me and rested his hand on my shoulder as we both stood still and listened.

“You shouldn’t have wasted your time,” Mia finally said. “I don’t want you here.”

“But baby…!”

“Go home, Spider.”

I second later, I heard the heavy doors at the front of the church slide closed.

“She’s gone,” Killian said near my ear.

I turned and charged Spider, slamming two quick punches into his midriff.

“I’d advise you to do exactly as she said, Spider,” I whispered near his ear, “because if I ever see your face again, I’ll kill you. Do you understand?”

“Yeah. I get it.”

I shoved him onto the street. Carlo and Carmine Jr. took their turns, too, kicking him while he was down. Then they picked him up and shoved him against the broken down Buick he’d clearly driven here, turning their backs on him as they crossed back toward us. Spider was gone before they stepped onto the curb.

“Let’s go get you married, brother,” Carlo said, clapping me on the shoulder.

It was the first bit of acceptance either brother had offered. But it didn’t feel nearly as good as hearing Mia tell Spider in no uncertain terms to hit the road.

There was no longer a tremor in my hands.

***

She looked amazing. Her dress was incredibly feminine, the lace and the satin flowing from her waist to lay in a near perfect circle at her feet. The white was a lovely contrast to her dark hair, the faint sprinkling of freckles on her chest like some sort of adornment meant just for this day. Her face was hidden behind a veil of lace, but I could still see her soft smile, her bright green eyes filled with a pleasure I could only hope to duplicate every day for the rest of our lives.

How could I ever have doubted that I could feel this much for one person? My heart felt as though it would burst, my jaws ached from the power of my smile. I wanted to run down the aisle and snatch her from her father’s grip, pull her into my arms and never let her go.

It frightened me, to be honest, at just how happy I really was. Happiness was a fleeting emotion, and I was afraid it would dissipate and there’d be something dark waiting to take its place. But, for the moment, I pretended I didn’t know that. I pretended that I believed happiness could be a forever sort of state.

Killian and Stacy had done it. Kyle and Amelia were making a go at it. And Sean and Delaney were doing pretty good—even without the permanence of marriage. I could do it, too.

“Hi,” Mia said softly as she finally joined me at the altar.

“Hi.”

I lifted her veil and stole a little kiss even though Stacy elbowed me when I did.

We turned to face the priest, people from both the Irish and the Italian mobs watching us from the nave. I’d even seen tears in the eyes of people from both sides—not all of them women.

To be honest, I didn’t really hear much of what the priest said. I stole looks at Mia as often as I thought I could get away with it, clutching her hand with my slightly sweaty one. But I do remember the moment he asked me to repeat my vows.

“I, Ian Crawford Callahan, take you, Mia Isabella Rossi, as my lawfully wedded wife from this day forward, to love and to cherish in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, until death us do part.”

That I remembered because I stumbled over my own name when I saw the tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Those are happy tears, right?”

She laughed. “They are.”

And then we kissed, and any doubts I might have had simply disappeared.

The applause in the church was nearly deafening. We walked down the aisle and ducked into the small room off to the side of the narthex. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her, a real kiss that was nothing like the almost chaste one I’d been able to offer her in front of every person we’d ever known. She sighed against my mouth, melting into me.

“I wasn’t sure we were going to get this far,” I whispered.

“Why? Because of Spider?”

“You have to admit he has a gift for timing.”

“Did you really think I’d choose him over you?”

“I don’t know. He came first.”

“Yeah, so I would know a real man when I finally met you.”

“Is that right?” I slid my hand over her jaw. “You do know how to say the right thing at the right time.”

“I try.”