“—it’s that I have a hell of a lot of love to share with the right person. I have a lifetime’s worth of love stored up,” Shane went on, needing her to know it. “I want to give it to you, Gabby. Every day, I want you to know you’re loved. When you wake up, I want my smile to be the first thing you see. When you go to sleep, I want my arms around you to be the last thing you feel. In between, I want you to know that I love you with all I have, and you will never have to want for more. You’re
mine
,” Shane said fiercely. “You’re the woman I love, and you’re going to know it. You’re going to
feel
it. You’re going to love it.”
Helplessly, Gabby swiped at her teary eyes. She sniffled, then gazed up at him with an abashed look. “Call it a tie?”
Their love-declaration competition. Shane grinned.
“Let’s call it the truth and leave it at that,” he said, squeezing her rain-drizzled, tear-dampened hand. “Because that’s what it is. The truth is that I love you. Completely.”
“You don’t know
all
of me yet.”
“I’ll love those parts of you, too,” Shane vowed. “Easy.”
Gabby’s earnest gaze met his again. Her short hair clung to her cheeks, making her look impish and sweet. “Honest Abe wouldn’t approve of you, you know.”
Shane glanced up at his weathered bronze face. “Why not?”
“Because you fibbed.” Gabby smiled. “You said you were
bad
at making flowery, over-the-top declarations.”
“I guessed.” Shane shrugged. “I’ve never tried before.” He gave her a compelling look. “I’ve never wanted to. Until you.”
“Well, in that case, I guess yours was . . . adequate.”
“‘Adequate’?” Laughing, Shane kissed her. “I love that you’re so tough, too. I respect that. It’s sexy. It’s . . .
you
.”
“All right, all right.” With pretend surrender, Gabby held up her hands. “That tipped you over the top. You win.”
“We
both
win,” Shane disagreed. “Because we found each other. And then we temporarily lost each other. And then, before we could lose each other for good, we found each other
again
.”
“All’s well that ends well?”
“Damn straight, it is.”
Feeling . . .
strange
, all of a sudden, Shane drew in a breath, trying to puzzle out what it was. Then he figured it out.
He was feeling
content
. This was
happiness
he felt.
With Gabby. He felt happy being with Gabby.
And all he’d needed to do was become utterly vulnerable—in public and under Abraham Lincoln’s stern sculpted gaze—to accomplish that. Shane could hardly believe he’d survived it.
“So . . .” Biting her lip, Gabby eyed her bicycle. “What are you up to next? Because I probably
shouldn’t
really park here.”
Shane grinned. Same Gabby. Same woman he loved.
“You probably shouldn’t get frisky out here beneath this statue, either,” Shane surmised, “but you look pretty hot—”
“In my grimy, rain-soaked chef’s whites and clogs?”
“—and I have half a mind to show you, in explicit and naughty detail, exactly how happy I am that we’re together.”
“We shouldn’t,” Gabby said. “Honest Abe would not approve.”
“Who cares?” Shane pulled her nearer. Their bodies smacked together, sprinkled by rain and heated by desire, surrounded by elm trees and possibility. “Not me.” He gave Gabby an intense, passionate look. “Not you, either, after I’ve kissed you again.”
She looked alarmed. Also, intrigued. Then, “Hold on! Your place is right around the corner,” Gabby reminded him. “Rather than commit public indecency, maybe we should go there.”
“We can’t,” Shane told her. “I’ve moved out. I left the keys with the manager. Technically, I’m temporarily homeless.”
“Hmm. My place feels very far away right now,” Gabby said saucily. “And we can’t go to Campania, because I’m on vacation.”
“
You’re
on vacation?”
“My crew made me do it. It’s a long story.”
Shane figured he’d get the details later. “In that case . . .”
“In that case? Do you have an idea?”
“Yeah.” Shane shouldered his carry-on bag. “I was headed for the airport anyway, and I’ve got money I haven’t even spent yet.” Speculatively, he studied Gabby. “Let’s run away.”
She shook her head. “Uh-uh. I’m trying
not
to run away.”
“Let’s run away
together
,” Shane specified. “Let’s go someplace warm and not rainy, where we can drink margaritas and go crazy with each other. Let’s kick off this thing right.”
Gabby’s gaze shone with eagerness. “Together? As in, you and me stuck together for days in a remote tropical location?”
“A remote tropical
luxurious
location,” Shane coaxed, hoping to sweeten the deal. “It’ll either make us or break us. I think, make us.” He smiled. “We can make up for lost time.”
“But we haven’t had any lost time,” Gabby argued, looking mystified. “We don’t have anything to make up for. Not yet.”
“What do you call all the decades before we knew one another?” Shane angled his head sideways, wordlessly urging her to agree. “I call that lost time. Because you weren’t there.”
“Aw.” Softening, Gabby leaned up. She kissed him. “If you keep this up, I’m going to think you’re not so tough after all.”
When it came to her, Shane knew, he wasn’t.
He was a pushover, all the way through.
He scoffed. “I’m super tough. Let’s go. Right now.”
Gabby didn’t move. “I love it when you’re bossy,” she said. “Because I know you’re really sweet underneath.”
“I love it when you’re bossy,” Shane returned, “because usually, in the next few minutes, you get naked.”
“You like it.”
“I
love
it.”
“But since I can’t have you leaving here believing that you’ve beaten me . . .” With a deliberate look, Gabby raised herself again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, then kissed him.
He nearly levitated with the joy of it.
He got instantly hard, too. As hard as Abraham Lincoln’s granite pedestal.
“Uncle,” Shane rumbled when Gabby had stopped, knowing he was probably dazzle-eyed and witless in her embrace. “I give.”
“Ha. I
knew
you’d see things my way,” Gabby told him. Then, with a final wink for Honest Abe, she took Shane’s hand. She nodded for him to hoist her bicycle, then she led them both toward his parked car. “President Lincoln agrees, too.”
“President Lincoln just got a pervy show.”
“It wasn’t pervy! It was a few innocent kisses.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Grinning, Shane stowed Gabby’s bicycle in his trunk. He opened the car’s passenger-side door, then ushered Gabby into her seat. “In my imagination, it was a whole lot more. It was
hot
.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Gabby watched as Shane slung his carry-on bag in the backseat, then slid into the driver’s seat. “That wasn’t your imagination, Shane. It was me, giving you a promise.”
“You can get into my mind with a kiss?”
“Sure, I can. Wanna experience it again?”
If it involved her kissing him . . . “Yes, please.”
Gabby leaned over. She stroked his face, gazed into his eyes, then gave him the sweetest, sexiest, most moving kiss he’d ever experienced. Which was saying a lot, between them.
“I changed my mind,” he said. “Let’s get a hotel room.”
“Just hold on.” Looking satisfied, Gabby buckled her seat belt. “Everything good comes to those who wait. Besides, we have all the time in the world.” She smiled at him. “Now.”
All the time in the world
. Shane wasn’t sure what that would be like. But he couldn’t wait to find out. With Gabby.
“A quickie in the executive lounge at the airport?” he proposed. “I have access. I can bribe the staff to leave.”
“One of your ‘new leaves’ just fell off the tree.”
Whoops
. “You’re right. Thanks, Jiminy Cricket.”
“I’m not your conscience.” Sultry-eyed, Gabby looked at him. “I’m your muse. I’m your naughty inspiration.”
“You’re my love,” Shane said. “I’m about to prove it.”
Then, putting his car in gear and trying not to break too many speeding laws in the process, he headed toward the airport to start his new life with Gabby.
Together. Forever. Just the way it always should have been.
And just the way it always would be, from here on in.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Five weeks later
Gabriella noticed the first telltale signs of subterfuge while she was still walking hand in hand with Shane toward the brewpub. She dismissed it as a mistaken fleeting glimpse, but she could have sworn she spied Hypo ducking around the corner as she and Shane approached, moving with a speed that suggested her crew member had developed that rarest of all conditions . . .
Ants in the pants. It
did
have speediness as a side effect.
Grinning over the silliness of that idea, Gabriella squeezed Shane’s hand. Above them, the moon glowed with a brightness that reflected her mood. The trees stretched upward with a sturdiness and evergreen tenacity that made her glad to be back home in Portland. The streets, at such a late hour, were mostly empty, but that didn’t mean Gabriella felt lonely.
Not with Shane by her side. She never felt lonely now.
Because Shane understood her. He accepted her. He did everything he could, night and day, to make sure she felt his love. And Gabriella, in return, did all the same things for him.
Because that’s what true love was all about. Wasn’t it?
Feeling giddy and a little sunburned, she kept walking. They were almost there. Coolly, she nodded at the brewpub.
“Everyone’s going to be
so
surprised to see us,” she predicted. “After all, we weren’t supposed to be back yet.”
“We could have stayed away
much
longer.” Equally sunburned and more relaxed than she could remember seeing him, Shane strolled beside her. “I had use of that summer house for two months.”
“Five weeks were plenty. Believe me.” Gabriella tossed him a grin. “I liked your friend’s private Pacific island, though.” She still couldn’t believe she’d taken such a luxurious and outrageous vacation. But Pinkie had managed Campania capably in her absence, and her dad had stepped in to pick up the slack, too. He’d been reinvigorated by his time off and his investment deal with Shane. “But it can’t be all play and no work.”
“Why not?” Shane gave her a seductive look. “Playtime with you is the best thing ever. When you do that thing with your hips, it makes me lose my mind. And your mouth is so—”
“We’re here!” Brightly, Gabriella stopped at the brewpub’s entrance. If Shane kept up his provocative talk, she’d lose interest in joining her crew for after-work drinks altogether. Apologetically, she said, “I really want to surprise everyone.”
“Let’s make it an early night.”
“Let’s see if you still want to do that after we go in.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Shane broke off, canting his head as though listening to something. Listening to
nothing
. “That’s odd. There’s no music playing. Maybe this place closed down?”
“Bowser didn’t tell me, if it did.”
“Lizzy didn’t, either.” Shane frowned at the door, puzzled.
His assistant had remained in town, Gabriella knew. Lizzy had claimed she needed to take care of some urgent “business.” Gabriella suspected that “business” had to do with a certain pierced and tattooed pizza slinger whose initials were B.Q.
“Well.” Gabriella shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
Agreeably, Shane opened the door for her.
They both stepped inside the darkened brewpub.
At once, every light in the place flared to life.
“
Surprise!
” dozens of people shouted. “Surprise!”
Everyone rushed forward. Gabriella spotted Pinkie and Hypo, Scooter and Jeremy, Lizzy and Bowser and many more of their friends. They filled the brewpub to capacity. The music thumped on again, making the whole place reverberate with loud beats.
Caught in the overall festive atmosphere, Shane looked at her, handsome and beloved. “Did you know about this?”
Grinning without admitting anything, Gabriella pointed. “Look! Pinkie brought a cake. It’s a really huge one, too.”
They both watched as her cousin brought forward one of her most incredible pastry-chef ’s creations yet. Five rectangular layers high, iced with way too much buttercream, sporting colored sprinkles and a contingent of candles, that cake was . . .
“Impressive,” Shane said. “I thought nobody even knew we were coming back early. We were supposed to still be in—”
He stopped talking, staring intently at the cake.
Beside him, Gabriella hugged his arm against her, feeling overwhelmed with tenderness and caring and love for him.
Any second now, Shane would realize this
wasn’t
a party to welcome him and Gabriella home from the tropics.
Almost
there . . .
Holding her cake, Pinkie reached Shane. Everyone else crowded around, holding beers and wearing bright smiles.
They started singing the inevitable song. Gabriella joined in, too. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!”
As they reached the song’s crescendo, Shane finally smiled. He shook his head, his whole face brightened by the lighted candles—the lighted candles that blazed atop his birthday cake.
“Make a wish!” Jeremy shouted, grinning. “Make a wish!”
Shane, looking touched and surprised and even a little bit sentimental, glanced at Gabriella. Then, dutifully, he inhaled, preparing to complete the ritual and blow out all the candles.
Before he could, everyone else sucked in huge breaths.
As one, they blew out the candles. They whooped with glee.
They gathered around, slapping Shane on the back, giving him good wishes, welcoming him and Gabby back to Bridgetown.
Amid all the hubbub, Shane seemed perplexed. “Wasn’t
I
supposed to make a wish and blow out all the candles myself?”
“Usually,” Pinkie admitted blithely. “At least traditionally.” She aimed a teasing look at Gabriella. “But around here, we do birthdays this way. It means you get
lots
of extra wishes,” Pinkie explained, “because everyone pitches in.”
“Hmm. I should have known you’d start your own traditions.”
“It’s the Grimani way, son,” Gabriella’s dad said as he came over. He hugged Shane, then smiled. “I’m glad everything worked out with you and my little girl.” He hugged her, too. “Happy birthday.”
As Robert Grimani went with evident relish to join his wife in sampling the enormous cake that Pinkie was now preparing to cut, Shane leaned confidingly nearer to Gabriella.
“Do you think I should tell them it’s not my birthday?” he asked. “My birthday was four and a half weeks ago.”
“Do you think we don’t know that?” Beaming, Lizzy put in an appearance. She hugged Shane and Gabriella, too. “
I
certainly do. I’ve been tracking your birthday for years. I just hadn’t had anyone to throw a party with until we came here.” She waved at Bowser. “Until we met all these weirdos and had a place to belong, that is. Once I saw how well you fit in with everyone at the pizzeria—how proud you were of the work you were doing there—this party was a slam dunk.”
“
This
was your secret,” Shane surmised, shaking his head in evident amazement at his assistant. “Your plans for this surprise party were what you were hiding from me all that time.”
“You’re a hard man to surprise, boss. It took work.”
“It took love,” Gabriella corrected. “Lots of it.”
That was true. The proof of it was in all the shining faces of the people surrounding them, still pushing forward to talk with Shane. If he’d never had a home before, he definitely had one now.
“The only hitch was with Pinkie,” Gabriella confided. “We were planning this party, expecting it to happen earlier—”
“Aha!” Shane caught her. “You
were
in on it, then.”
“—which meant,” Gabriella continued noncommittally but happily, “that Pinkie had to bug out of Campania early one day to work on version 1.0 of that monstrous cake—”
“That’s version 2.0 over there, I assume?”
Gabriella nodded. “Because it was going to be a huge undertaking, and Pinkie had to start early. So she took out the pizza dough to warm up
way
before schedule that day. She thought she was turning
down
the thermostat to compensate—”
“Which explains why I saw Pinkie fiddling with it.”
“—but she accidentally turned up the temperature instead,” Gabriella said. “By the time we both got there, it was too late. The day’s pizza dough was ruined.” She tossed a commiserating look at her cousin. “Pinkie was absolutely wrecked about it.”
“On the other hand,” Lizzy put in, “when the two of you ran off to an idyllic desert island together,
someone
had to eat all that version 1.0 cake before it went stale.” She patted her belly. “Let’s just say I’m looking forward to sampling the 2.0 version. I’ll bet it’s new and improved. So it’s all good.”
Shane glanced at her. “Since when did you get to be so happy-go-lucky?”
His assistant shifted her glance toward Bowser. “Since I got to know and love the special charms of staying put a while.”
Gabriella was happy for Lizzy. She was
beyond
happy for Shane. Giddily, she elbowed him. “You’ve never had a birthday party like this one before. Am I right?”
“I’m not saying,” Shane told her. But his face revealed everything. As he glanced around at the friends and gaiety surrounding them, he seemed more content than ever. “But I
am
saying, you just wait a few months till
your
birthday. You won’t
believe
the surprises that are headed your way.”
“Mmm-hmm. You’re going to win the birthday-party-throwing contest?”
He surprised her by shaking his head. “I already won everything I need to.” Shane pulled Gabriella close, then kissed the top of her head. “Because I have you. That’s all I need.”
“Awww!” chorused the people surrounding them.
Feeling her cheeks heat, Gabriella raised her arm to silence her friends, then cleared her throat. “From now on,” she announced firmly, “the new rule is, ‘no
awwwwing
us’! There’s liable to be a
lot
more mushy talk where that came from—”
“Awww!”
“—and I don’t need all of you calling attention to it like a wandering Greek chorus working in Dolby Surround Sound.”
“Awww!”
Her efforts were clearly failing. Giving the crowd her best, most intimidating frown, Gabriella tried to silence them.
It didn’t work any better than her proclamation had.
In fact, if anything, her friends’ appetite for sentimental schmaltz only grew more intense.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” the crowd began chanting.
“Give Shane a big ole birthday kiss!” Scooter yelled, waving his wrinkly fist in the air. “Kiss that man!”
Gabriella gave her old friend a quelling glance.
She turned to Shane, all the same. “Happy birthday,” she said in a low voice. “
My
gift is coming later. In private.”
Shane’s dark eyes flared. “Hubba-hubba.”
“I think you’ll find that’s my line?”
“Hubba-hubba,” he insisted, pulling her nearer. “That’s all I’m saying until you kiss me again. Hubba-hubba. Hub—”
Gladly, Gabriella pressed her mouth to his.
The crowd went wild.
Heart pounding, Gabriella leaned back. She stroked Shane’s cheek. She smiled at him. “Now we’ve done it. We’ve given in to peer pressure. Who knows what will happen from here?”
Shane smiled back. “Not me. But I can’t wait to find out.”
Then he took Gabriella’s hand and went to join the party, merging her world with his . . . and turning both their hearts to one.
Now and forever.