A ring that was perfect for me.
Then my eyes shot to Benny, the man who was perfect for me.
His brows rose, but his eyes were locked to mine as his deep, easy voice asked, “Wanna spend the rest of your life with me?”
My breath stopped.
“Frankie?” he called.
I didn’t move or speak. I just sat frozen in my chair staring at my Benny Bianchi.
“Cara,” he whispered.
“Did you have to ask?” I whispered back, and his lips curved up.
“No.”
“Will you put the ring on me?”
That was when he gave me a full-on, beautiful Benny Bianchi smile.
“Yeah.”
I licked my lips and held out my hand.
Ben reached out and picked up the ring. He slid it on my finger and, swear to God, I felt an electric charge over every centimeter of skin as he glided it to the base.
When he was done, his fingers curled around the side of my hand with the pad of his thumb pressed to the diamond, but his eyes stayed on mine.
“You gonna down another glass of Champagne?” he asked.
“Absolutely.”
“You wanna do that after you kiss me?”
“Most definitely.”
We sat there, Ben holding my hand, his thumb pressed to the diamond he just laid on me, and neither of us moved. We just looked into each other eyes.
When this lasted awhile, Ben prompted, “You wanna do that before the waiter comes back, interrupts the most important moment in my life, and pisses me off?”
The most important moment in my life.
God.
Benny.
I moved, but Benny didn’t let go of my hand and he continued not to let it go, even as I rounded the table and he shoved his chair back.
We were in Giuseppe’s. This demanded decorum.
But I didn’t care.
I sat in his lap, slid the fingers of my free hand in his amazing hair, while he pressed the hand he held to his chest. Once situated as close as I could get to my man, I tipped my head and kissed my brand-new fiancé.
When I was done, Ben didn’t let me up. He cupped the back of my head, pressed my forehead to his, and kept hold of my eyes.
“Never loved another woman. Not in my life,” he said quietly, and my breath went funny. “Waited until I got it right,” he went on. His hand squeezed mine, he moved so the tip of his nose skimmed mine, and he finished, “I got it right.”
God.
Benny.
“Honey,” I whispered.
“Love you, Frankie,” he whispered back.
“Love you too, Benny.”
I watched his eyes smile, then this time, he kissed me.
When he was done, he pulled an inch away and declared, “Told Ma I was givin’ you Aunt Mary’s ring. Gotta be you who tells her you didn’t want it.”
I jerked back and snapped, “Benny!”
Then I was jerked forward, held tight in his arms, in his lap, and I listened just as I felt Benny Bianchi burst out laughing against the skin of my neck.
Oh well.
Whatever.
So Theresa would be mad at me about the ring.
She’d get over it.
***
I sat curled in the corner of Gina’s couch in her living room, Sal in his armchair beside me.
Benny was in the kitchen helping Gina get after-dinner coffees for everybody.
This was because he was awesome.
This was also because he was doing what I’d asked him to do before we went over to Sal and Gina’s for dinner.
“Proud of that boy,” Sal said, and I looked to him. “Went large. My Frankie, she deserves a man who’ll go big.”
I had no idea what he was talking about until he reached out and touched the kick-ass diamond on my finger that was on the hand I had lying on the armrest close to him.
“Yeah, he’s awesome,” I agreed.
Sal looked from my ring to my eyes, his warm with happiness for me, and he said, “Yeah.”
I had to admit, I loved it that Sal loved Benny for me.
And now it was time.
“Speaking of my ring,” I started, straightening a little in the couch and turning fully to Sal.
“Frankie, amata, it’s okay,” Sal said softly.
“I—”
“Gina and I understand.”
“Sal, if you’d—”
“We’re just glad Benny brought you over for dinner tonight so we could have our moment to celebrate your good news with the two of you.”
“Sal—”
He reached out his hand and curled it around mine. “Happy for you, Francesca.”
“Can I say something?” I asked.
He steadily kept my gaze and nodded.
“I talked to Vinnie and Theresa.”
“You don’t—”
“Sal,” I cut him off quietly. “Please let me finish.”
He shut up.
“Benny talked to them with me.”
When I said no more, Sal nodded.
“They understand.”
“It’s a joyous day for them, you and Benny, and Gina and I don’t—”
I interrupted him again.
“They understand and agree that, if you want to do it, you should give me away.”
Sal went still.
I went on.
“It was Benny’s idea.”
Sal stared at me.
Suddenly, I felt funny.
“Dad still isn’t talking to me, partly because I’m not talking to him, and anyway, he really didn’t earn that honor. But if that’s weird to you—” I began.
That was when, suddenly, my hand was jerked, making my arm lurch painfully right before I was out of the couch, on my feet, and in Sal’s tight embrace.
He still said nothing. He just kept hold of me.
So I asked, “Can I take that as a yes?”
He continued his silence, but he gave me a squeeze that took the breath right out of me.
I took that as a yes.
***
“Your father is a horse’s ass.”
This was said by Chrissy, who was sitting at the table next to me.
It was Benny’s and my engagement party. A huge ’do that Vinnie and Theresa insisted we have since, once Sal agreed to take the honor of giving me away, he horned in and declared he was paying for the entire wedding. Benny and him got into it and the compromise was that Benny and I were going to pay for the rehearsal dinner and honeymoon.
So when there was nothing left to pay for, Theresa lost her mind and declared we were going to have a huge-ass engagement party. She then set about planning it before she got the official go-ahead from Benny and me.
Benny found this annoying.
I liked parties and having a reason to buy a fabulous dress that would make my fiancé get hard, so I absolutely didn’t.
“What’s this?” Cheryl asked, sitting with Chrissy, Cat, Violet, Asheeka, and me.
I tore my eyes away from Keira, who’d brought up her very handsome young boyfriend, Jasper Layne, so she could show him off at the party, and looked to Cheryl.
But Cat, holding her sleeping son, Sean, piped up first.
“Enzo Senior, our not-so-illustrious dad, bein’ a moron. No surprise.” She looked to me. “It’s Nat who has my panties in a bunch.”
Mine weren’t.
I was hurt.
Genuinely.
I’d called to share the news and heal the breach. I did it, even though I had a feeling Nat wouldn’t be in a good mood, mostly because she was in the middle of a divorce, living with Ninette, and things weren’t going well.
Nat being Nat, she had pushed it, but Davey beat the rap, what with the amount of damage he’d sustained and Nat not even having a bruise. But even before, his mom had bailed him out, then he’d kicked Nat’s ass out, changed the locks, and got a second job so he could pay for the attorney he hired to file for divorce.
She was now working as a stripper, living with a mom who never grew up, and had lost the man she loved—all that on her because she made bad decisions. All she refused to grow up and see her decisions, and change the course of her life, so she just got bitchier.