Elliott took my hand and kissed it. “You don’t have to explain the lure of history to me. I spend my days engrossed in it.” He cleared his throat. “I came back here for it. If you can consider you and me a year ago history.”

Below us, I could see, under the glow of the string lights, the massive food table being disassembled, the stage in the center of the dance floor being erected, the band beginning to come in. That was one of the coolest parts of Belle Epoque. The band was in the middle, not on the end, so wherever you were, you were in the action. “Enough history,” I said. “Let’s go dance.”

Elliott smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.” I moved to get up, but he said, “Hey, thanks for sharing your special spot with me.”

I nodded. “You’re the only man I’ve ever brought up here.” I paused. “What I’m saying is, don’t screw it up.”

He laughed. “I absolutely will not.”

Elliott stood, so dapper in his tux, his bow tie ever so slightly askew from the climb. He took my hands in his and pulled me up. As I smoothed my dress, he never took his eyes off me. And I felt, quite simply, loved. Admired. Adored. How was that even possible? How could this man just look the other way, ignore all the things said about me, and love me anyway?

He ran his index finger down the side of my neck, along my collarbone, leaving chill bumps in its wake. I took a step closer to him, closing the small gap between us. “You really don’t care what they say about me?”

“I know you, Alice.” He stooped down so we were eye level. And he repeated, “I know you.”

The deepest calm settled around my chest, my stomach, the parts of me that always felt a little off-kilter.

“Can I be honest about something?”

“Always.”

“Elliott, I underestimated you. I mean, I loved you. And I believed you loved me. But I thought you were kind of a good-time guy. I didn’t believe you could handle the messy parts of me, the dark parts, the scary parts that I think we both need to face will never fully heal.”

He nodded. “That’s why I knew I had to come back. Because I realized that you have been through so much that just assuming you knew certain things—like that I was never going to leave you, that I didn’t need you to take care of me—wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to say those things out loud.”

Now he had. Several times, in fact.