Page 96 of Sinful Promises

I squeezed his palm to mine, feeling his warmth. “But do you have another job?”

“No. But I’m not worried. Something always pops up.”

And that right there was one of the billion things I loved about Roman. He was always so positive.

“Hey, you two lovebirds.”

Smiling, I turned to the voice.

Maria was standing on the balcony, a massive grin lighting her face. “Dinner is ready.”

“Dinner?” I bulged my eyes at Roman. “We’ve been eating all day.”

Roman stood. “Come on. Mamma will make a huge fuss over you. Just go with it.”

I liked the sound of that.

And I was totally going to show Mamma and the sisters how different my eating prowess was compared to Caterina and her calorie-counting bullshit.

Holding my hand, Roman led me to his house and just that simple gesture had me glowing inside and out. This public display of affection melted my heart way more than it should have. But it served as one enormous first for me . . . it showed that Roman was proud to be with me.

We were a couple.

I wanted to scream it from the rooftops. I wanted to skip up Manarola’s main street holding Roman’s hand. I wanted to send a photo to Zali, to show her just how perfectly my quest to find Roman had worked out.

I’d made a plan, and holy fuck, it’d worked.

Life did not get better than this.

The chatter from the family was as loud as some of the backpacking groups I’d looked after. It sounded like there were a hundred people upstairs. Maybe there were. After his four sisters and mother, I’d lost track of how many kids I’d been introduced to.

At the top of the stairs, I met Roman’s father. He was shorter than Roman and wore a brown beret cap and a cheeky smile, and when he took my hand in his and kissed the back of my palm, it was insta-love for me. Roman introduced me and Papà’s eyes lit up. “Sono contento che tu sia qui perché Roman mi sta facendo impazzire.”

Just like Roman’s mother, Papà only spoke Italian.

Roman rolled his eyes at his father and then turned to me. “Papà says he’s glad you are here because I’ve been driving him crazy.”

Nodding, I twirled my finger around my ear. “He drives me crazy too.”

Roman slapped my arm. “Hey. I do not.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“He drives us all crazy.” Donatella bellowed over the boisterous family and waved at me to come over. “Daisy, come and meet the rest of the family.”

“There’s more?” My jaw fell open.

Roman leaned into my ear. “Here we go. You ready for this?”

I grinned at him like a complete nutter. “Absolutely.”

“That’s my girl.”

My girl. YAY.

They went around the table and each of the sisters introduced me to their husbands and their kids again. Treating it just like the first of every month during my time at Vacation Dreamz where I met thirty new tourists, I put my photographic memory into overdrive.

Dinner went on forever. The conversations flowed so well I had the wonderful feeling that I’d known this family forever. And the four sisters made a special effort to include me. They put shit on Roman all the time, but he gave as much back.