72. Chapter Seventy-Two

Chapter Seventy-Two

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I rest my head on Gio's chest and listen to his heartbeat while he hugs me close. It's been an eventful day, that's for sure. First off, Gio had an epiphany about his gambling. He says it came out of nowhere, but I think Beth brought it out in him. He's spent the most time with her, and he must have told her some things that brought his past right back to the forefront of his thoughts.

I barely got the chance to use my touch on him before Jack called Enzo freaking out about Beth leaving. I think the shock of that broke Gio out of his self-reflective downer of a mood, because barely a minute later he was taking charge and making plans like he usually does in a crisis.

We were all able to relax once she agreed to come back.

Gio took me to bed for the first time in weeks afterward.

I can't even express how happy it makes me that he's starting to act like himself again. He was so closed off for months. It feels like he's finally returning to who he was before we moved and started this business. Before he became so obsessed with gambling.

"Do you think it was just too much too soon?" I ask, lifting my head to look at him.

He has his eyes closed but I know he's not sleeping.

Sleep isn't going to come easy tonight.

"She doesn't know that much about us, but she seems to like what she does know," I go on when Gio doesn't answer straight away, filling the silence with chatter in the dimly lit bedroom he usually shares with Jack. "So, it has to be a timing thing, right?"

He opens his eyes and I press my lips together, giving him a chance to think about what I'm asking this time. He turns slightly into me and gives me a wry smile.

"Sometimes timing's the only thing that matters, freccia," he tells me. "She wasn't ready, but she was getting there. If another couple of days had passed … who knows? Now, we'll have to give her some space to make up her mind on her own. She has every right to take her time with that."

Damn. He's not wrong, but it sucks. Considering how impatient I've been since the decision was made to wait to tell her, I don't know how well I'll do with waiting around even longer.

I let out a soft sigh. "I wish life had a fast-forward button."

He snorts. "You need to stop watching so much TV."

"Maybe you need to stop taking so many baths," I retort, only realizing what I'm saying a second after it's out there. "Wait. I'm not joking about that."

"You think I bathe too regularly?" Gio asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

"You shower in the morning, and you take a bath every single night, but it's not the fact that you're always clean that bothers me," I start. "It's like you're using those long baths to hide from the rest of us. We barely get to spend any time with you lately."

"Oh," he murmurs. "I didn't … I was taking baths to try and relax because I was feeling on edge about the business failing. I know Enzo hates me gambling, but I couldn't think of another way to fix our money problems so that was bad, too. It was a stress thing. I didn't think about how much time I was spending doing it, or how that would affect everyone else. I'm sorry, la freccia del mio cuore. I'm not going to keep doing it."

"You don't know how glad I am to hear that."

I lean in and he closes the gap to kiss me on the lips.

It's a sweet, soft touch and it fills me with contentment.

Everything has been such a mess since we got to the city.

Despite what happened today, it feels like we're finally getting onto the right track.

It can only get better from this moment on.