“What do you mean what?” I waved a hand around the empty gorgeously renovated living room. “Whose house is this, Theodoro Anibal?” The moment the question came out of my mouth flames flared up in my belly.

Oh, God, that cocky “I’m about to blow your mind” smile of his did things to me.

“It’s mine,” he told me with a sweet smile on his lips and he grabbed me by the waist and pulled me tight to him. “And yours.” His eyes grew so serious, the gray in them almost pulsing with intent. “I want a fresh start here. I want to build things that matter and I want to watch you create things that make people happy. I want a whole life with you, Alba Serena. Filled with lots of good days and even some terrible ones. But with you. Always with you.”

My first instinct was to question it, to let doubt pierce the perfect, perfect thing that I was being given. A fresh start, a life we got to define and build together. A home that we could make ours. I could let my father’s shortcomings keep robbing me of having faith in what I was being offered, or I could believe in this, in him. I could have faith in us.

Fuck doubt, it had already taken too much from me.

“I want that too.” He kissed me then, like he’d missed me more than air, and I kissed him just as hard right back. When I came back for air I turned my head to look at the big, beautiful room that I could turn into something that was ours. “I’m not doing every room in this house in a book theme, Theo.”

He lifted a shoulder then bent down to kiss my forehead, making me melt a little. “As long as you’re here I’ll be happy.” I breathed through the leaps my heart was making into my throat and spotted a frame leaning on a wall. It took me a moment to figure out what it was. Then I gasped.

“Are those your medals?” He smiled that smile that made me glow inside, the one I now knew belonged just to me.

“They are.” He nodded and kissed my lips. I was so in love I throbbed with it. “I finally have someone to display them for.”

“For me?”

“In part, but for me too. For the me that wants a future that leaves room to take stock. To slow down. For the me that belongs to you.”

“I love you,” I said, pressing my face to his strong chest.

“I know you do.” He held me tight and brought me up for another kiss. “And that is and will always be the greatest win of my life.”

Epilogue

Alba

Two years later

“There really are ten of you, damn,” my as-of-three-days-ago fiancé said, voice full of shock, as he took in my cousins.