Top Dog

“Hey there,” I said. “Thanks for meeting me again.”

“I’ll always come when you call,” he said. “Do you remember the first time we snuck out?” I asked.

I watched Romeo furrow his brow before he sat back in his chair. A woman came out and set a cup of coffee down in front of him, and he thanked her, then brought it to his lips.

His movements were mesmerizing, his piercing blue stare hooked onto mine.

“I do,” he said. “We went to Central Park and sat on a bench underneath a tree.”

“It’s one of my favorite memories of us,” I said. “It was the first time we ever talked about what we wanted our futures to be like.”

“You told me you wanted to become a teacher, and I told you I wanted to start my own business.”

“Yep. I think you said you wanted to start your own construction business.”

“Without any knowledge of how it worked,” he said with a grin. “But my favorite memory of us is that long walk we took down by the beach.”

“Oh, my gosh, my father almost caught me sneaking back in that night. We practically stayed until the sun started to rise.”

“I didn’t want to let you go that night,” he said. “We walked and talked. You looked so beautiful in the moonlight.”

“I don’t think there was a moon that night.”

“Then maybe it was your smile that illuminated your skin, Julia.”

I shivered at my name falling from his lips.

“Do you think we could ever go back to those kinds of days?” I asked.

“Where we snuck out at midnight and didn’t get back until four?” Romeo asked.

“No,” I said with a giggle. “I mean when things were good. Proper. Romantic. We were in love, and things were simply—”

“Easy?” he asked.

My eyes met his, and I gave him a nod.

“It was a good time,” Romeo said as nostalgia laced his voice. “You were beautiful every time I saw you. No matter what you were wearing, it always made my heart flutter. I sometimes close my eyes, and I can feel you nestled in the crook of my arm, leaning against me in the backseat of that beat-up car I was determined to fix up myself because I thought I was a real man back then.”

“You were,” I said. “You loved me and took care of me the only way you knew how. You jumped through a lot of hoops to be with me.”

“And I’m still willing to do that, Julia.”

His words left me breathless.

“Those days were better for me. Happier. I never wanted to take over my family’s business. I didn’t want any part of it. I wanted you, and only you, no matter what it took. But when my father died, I made the decision to take it over because I thought I could right his wrongs. Undo the damage my family had wreaked in this city.”

I watched him over my coffee cup, trying to put as many barriers between us as I could. But even as I did, his foot slipped underneath the table and nestled against mine.

And I couldn't bring myself to pull away.

“I want to make everything better, Julia. Above board. Legit. I want to be able to provide a good and honest living for my family.”

His eyes hooked with mine, and I gripped my coffee cup harder. He was talking about Matteo and me. The family we had created. The family he couldn't touch.

“But it’s going to take time to undo all of the knots my father tied us up in. All of the nooses my family tied for themselves. I can give you those days back. I can give every one those days back. But I need time, Julia. I need time to undo my father’s legacy.”

“I want to believe you, Romeo. I do,” I said. “But I—”