Page 200 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

She told him how stunning they’d been as angels...and how heads always turned whenever they passed. And about the shared bedroom again. Out it all came.

‘They even got beautiful names—Cassandra and Celia, I got Susan.’ She halted, as if stunned by her own vitriol. ‘Oh, God, I sound so...’

‘Jealous,’ he said. ‘And no wonder.’ He was practical. ‘Next time your mother accuses you, say,Yes, I am jealous, so perhaps you could be more thoughtful.’

‘I doubt that would work.’ She closed her eyes and took a breath and he pulled her back down. ‘Do you get jealous?’ she asked.

He thought for a moment. ‘No.’

‘What’syourfirst memory?’

‘I think getting a smack.’ He laughed. ‘I wandered off on the beach.’ He thought of his mother. ‘My mother was furious.’

‘Scared?’

‘Yes. That was the only time I saw her angry. When I was in the jewellers yesterday—’ He stopped. He really hadn’t meant to go there. But then he looked at her wet lashes and reasoned that she’d told him some painful stuff. ‘I remembered being there when my mother chose some stones for a ring. She was laughing. Then a few weeks later we went with my father to pick the ring up. I asked Sev what an eternity ring was.’

‘What did he say?’

‘I can’t recall,’ Dante admitted. ‘You remember I told you that I had people comb the accident site? They found two rubies from that ring.’

‘And you haven’t told anyone?’

‘No, it would be too much for Gio. He cried over a loose stone on Nonna’s choker...’

She frowned, clearly still not getting it.

‘I don’t know if my mother took her ring off, and that was how the stones didn’t shatter in the fire,’ he said. ‘Or...’

She was still frowning, so he was more direct.

‘There was nothing of them left intact.’

‘Oh, God,’ she said, which was entirely the wrong thing, but he found he didn’t mind.

‘It’s fine. Gio doesn’t need to know. They’re in an envelope in a safe. I don’t look at them or know what to do with them. I spend most of my life with people who are fighting over things and I don’t get it. I can’t imagine fighting over a house, or a yacht, or anything.’

‘Why haven’t you told Sev?’

Dante shook his head, and although it was clear he was telling her to leave it, Susie saw he was looking right into her eyes.

It was the first time in her life she’d truly felt close to another person—as if it was in this room, in this conversation, that she completely belonged.

Susie stared into his dark eyes and told herself that was ridiculous.

She had family, friends, work... And, yes, she was loved.

But in this moment, she was in the right place, and nothing and no one could invade it.

His hand brushed back the hair on her forehead, and they were still staring at the other.

‘Suuu-zeee...’ he said, changing the topic in the nicest of ways. ‘I think it’s a beautiful name.’

‘Only whenyousay it.’

He gave a very gentle smile as they continued to stare right into each other’s eyes.

‘Maybe...’ he said, and moved to kiss her.