The Santini Collection 1-4 (34 page)

He kissed her then, slowly, deeply. “I love you, Kianna.”

“
I love you too, Gianni.”

He smiled that pretty smile of his and she couldn’t help but laugh and hug him closer. “I really do love you, even if you are my boy toy.”

He laughed, then sobered and reached into the pocket of his jeans.

“
I know you were married before and it wasn’t going the way you wanted it to before Charley was killed.” He opened the box. In the center of the red satin sat an engagement ring. Not something new. It was antique, a simple solitaire. It sparkled in the bright sunlight.

“
I found it in an antique shop the other day and I bought it.”

She couldn’t take her gaze away from it. “The other day?”

“
I wasn’t sure why, but for some reason, I felt the need to buy it.”

She glanced up at him. “Yeah?”

He nodded and for the first time since meeting him, he looked…well…nervous.

“
It’s beautiful.”

“
It’s just the thing I thought you would like. Its circa 1920.” When she didn’t say anything he sighed. “I’m asking you to marry me, Kianna.”

Her vision wavered.

“
I know it’s a lot to ask for and you might be hoping to make tenure and having to move will hurt any chances of that.”

She shook her head. “That’s not important.”

“
No? Are you sure?”

“
I’ve only cared about teaching. I love the job. Tenure was just something I thought I wanted.”

“
So, is that a yes?”

She drew in a deep breath and nodded.

“
Are you sure? It isn’t the easiest of lives.”

“
When you left the other day, I thought we were through. I thought that I would never see you again. That was worse than anything else I have ever been through.”

He smiled.

“
Yes, Gianni, I’ll marry you.”

He took out the ring and put it on her finger. The fit was almost perfect. He hugged her close and kissed her neck. “You’ve made me the happiest man in Georgia.”

He pulled back and kissed her.

“
Hey, Gee, get that woman in here,” Leo yelled.

They pulled back and realized the whole shop had been watching them. She blushed.

“
Get used to it, Kianna,” MJ said. “Santinis always like an audience.”

She laughed as she and Gianni walked hand in hand into the sweet shop.

Epilogue

“
I hope you don’t mind going to Virginia for the weekend,” Gianni said, as they waited at the airport.

Kianna smiled at him. “Of course not. What woman in her right mind would complain about get a private jet ride?”

Gianni chuckled. “It’s hard to think of Alana of being that rich, but I guess she is.”

“
So, she’s not snobby?”

“
First, none of the Santinis would want to deal with a snob. Secondly, Alana is the antithesis of snobbery.”

She smiled but it faded. “I’m still worried about how your family will take me?”

“
I told you. Mom is kind of a hippy child. Your radical political views are no problem.”

She snorted and Gianni couldn’t help but smile. Three weeks since they had gotten engaged and he was ready to tie the knot right now. His mother would have freaked if he’d called to say they’d eloped though. And there was one thing every Santini understood: Don’t upset Joey Santini.

“
I wasn’t asking about that. I’m worried about my age. I am a bit older than you.”

“
Yeah, you’re a year or two away from AARP membership and social security benefits.”

“
I’m serious, Gianni. I’m not so sure most Mamas would be happy about their sons marrying someone so much older.”

He studied her and realized that she was serious. Damn, he hadn’t realized she’d been worrying about this. He pulled her into his arms.

“
Mom is going to love you. She’s so happy with more women in the family, she doesn’t care. But, she will love you not only because I love you, but for all the reasons I do. You’re sweet, smart, and beautiful, inside and out.”

She gave him a small smile, “Yeah?”

He nodded and gave her a kiss. “Yeah.”

“
Is that the plane?” Kianna asked looking over his shoulder.

He turned and saw the plane taxiing up to the hanger. “Probably. Not many private jets fly into Valdosta.”

It took a few seconds and they watched together, his arms wrapped around her as she stood in front of her.

“
You know I love you, don’t you?” she asked.

He did, and every time she said it made him feel twenty feet tall. “Yeah, I do.” He kissed the side of her neck as the door to the jet opened and the stairs descended. “Come on, you have some Santinis to meet.”

Vicente

Melissa Schroeder

A Note from Mel

Virginia. It is where we are headed in just a few months. It was our favorite assignment for location, but I worst for seeing the Man we live with. Our first fall there was magical. We lived through the first Snowmaggeden and lived near the city of much crime, according to NCIS. Being a history geek, I loved to go into DC and walk around the monuments. And of course, for those of you who know me well, I fell in love with Wegmans grocery store. This fall, we will make our way back to those soft rolling hills of Northern Virginia for the next chapter of our life. I cannot wait to settle down and have a place that is our home base.

Vicente - Chapter One

Vince Santini fell in love for the first and only time in his life thanks to getting hit in the face with a locker door. He didn’t even remember where he was going or what he was doing. He just remembered turning to hurry out of school and walking straight into steel. He fell back, smacking his head on the tiled floor. When he opened his eyes, his world was spinning.

“
Oh, I’m so sorry,” a girl said. She was leaning over him, her dark brown eyes filled with worry, her red curls tumbling over her shoulder. “I didn’t see you coming.”

He shook his head trying to clear it and found himself face to face with a titian-haired goddess. And she kept putting her hands on him. Jesus. If she didn’t stop, he was going to embarrass himself. He could smell her. Some kind of mixture of baby powder and lust. Although, the lust might have been on his part.

Then she stopped. “Vince? Vince Santini?”

He nodded then winced. “Damn.”

She laughed and offered him a hand. “You don’t remember me. It’s Julianna Andrews, from Twenty-nine Palms. You know, the seventh grade, Mrs. Gillepse’s Algebra?”

Then it clicked—the gangly girl, taller than most, so skinny…always with a smile. “Yeah, Jules.” It had been more than three years since he’d seen her and Jules had definitely filled out. He let her help him up and shook his head trying to clear it.

“
You live here now?”

She nodded. “Dad’s an instructor. We moved in a month ago.”

“
Julianna, I see you met my best friend, Vince,” Mike Callahan said as he walked up and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “I told you about Julianna, didn’t I, Vince?”

He nodded. “I didn’t make the connection. We were at Twenty-nine Palms together. Of course, I called her Jules.”

“
Yeah, well, Mike doesn’t like that.” She bent down to help him pick up the books he’d dropped. “I thought it might be you he talked about. I mean how many Santini families are there, especially with four boys, but you never know.”

Once he had all his books and papers in his arms, Mike smiled. “We were going to get a burger, you up for it?”

He shook his head. “Naw, you go ahead. I’ve got some studying to do.”

Mike chuckled. “Vince is kind of an egghead, but then, he’ll probably get into Annapolis. See ya, later.”

They turned to walk away and Jules smiled back over her shoulder at him. “It was great to see you again.”

He watched as his best friend walked out of the school with the girl of his dreams.

Almost 18 years later.

“
Vicente, are you there?” his mother asked him. He was sitting in the back of his parents SUV daydreaming.

Great instincts, Marine
.

“
Yeah, just sort of dozed off back here.”

She sighed. “I thought you two would help me. You will help me pick flowers, both of you.”

His father gave his mother an indulgent smile and followed her out of the SUV. That’s the way it was for Santinis. Hard as nails military men, always done in by a woman. And he was about to come face to face with the one who always tied him in knots for the first time in fifteen years.

* * * *

Jules wanted to scream. Worse, she wanted to do harm to an inanimate object. The one thing about running her nursery was that she had a lot of freedom. Unfortunately, she also had to handle the computer work.

There was a knock at the door and through the glass she saw Joey Santini waving at her. Immediately, Jules’ heart lightened. Since starting her business six months earlier, Mrs. Santini had been a godsend, suggesting her to friends and even giving her advice about advertising.

She waved the older woman into her office and stood. “Mrs. Santini, I didn’t know you were coming by today.”

She hugged her and it felt good. With her parents back in California, Jules was pretty much on her own. Mrs. Santini had taken her under her wing and had checked on her from time to time.

“
Well, the whole family’s coming in. Marco is bringing Alana for us to meet, since we’ve only talked on the phone, and that skypy thing. I wanted to get some arrangements and flowers for the house. Oh, and Gee just got engaged.”

“
Oh, my. Little Gee is getting married? Now I do feel old.”

“
You? I’m about to be a grandmother.”

She looked at the woman she had known for over twenty years. “You haven’t aged a bit, Mrs. Santini.”

“
I told you to call me Joey.”

“
Babe, did you say you wanted tulips? They’re a little expensive,” Mr. Santini said from behind her.

“
Yes, I think we can afford some tulips. They are Kianna’s favorite from what Gee says and I want to give them to her.”

He grumbled something but went off to do her bidding. It never failed to amaze her how all the Santini men did whatever Joey wanted. There was a healthy dose of fear among all of them.

“
You’re a rock star, you know that?”

She shook her head. “What do you mean?”

“
That man will do anything to make you happy.”

Joey laughed. “That’s a Santini. I’m sure you’ll see it all in action tomorrow night.”

For a second, her brain didn’t comprehend. “Wait. What?”

“
I want you there. The boys would love to see you.”

Only Joey Santini would call four hulking military men ‘boys’ and make them sound like they were sweet little innocents. Of course, in Joey’s eyes, they were all sweet and innocent.

“
That’s really sweet of you, but I have a lot of work to do.”

“
I didn’t say what time and I doubt you have work to do on a Saturday night.”