XOXO (The Calvettis of New York 3)

She was willing to walk away from a trust valued at close to forty million dollars to chase her dreams.

I admire her and cherish her, and I’m going to make that clear to her today.

A knock at my apartment door sends me in that direction.

I swing the door open to find a young woman with light brown hair and a smile on her face.

“Mr. Calvetti?” She glances at the flowers in her hands. “I’m Athena Millett from Wild Lilac. We brought the flowers you ordered, sir.”

“It’s Dominick.” I take the vase from her hands. “You brought them all?”

“As many as I could find.” She glances over her shoulder. “My fiancé, Liam, is helping me out today. I told him it was all hands on deck. I’ve never had this large of an order before.”

I have no fucking idea how she pulled this together in the limited time I gave her.

“I think I purchased every pink and red rose in the five boroughs, New Jersey, and a few other places along the Eastern seaboard.”

I laugh. “The place is yours to work your magic.”

Her gaze settles on the room behind me. “I’ll make it beautiful for her.”

That’s all I can ask for. “I’ll be in my den if you need anything.”

She nods. “Tonight must be a very special occasion.”

“It is,” I answer.

It’s the night I tell Arietta that I love her and my future belongs to her. I’ll sign whatever the fuck she wants me to sign. I’ll do cartwheels down Fifth Avenue in a dinosaur costume if she adds that to her to-do list. I’ll do what it takes to prove to her that I’m in this forever. I hope to hell she is too.

Chapter 57

Arietta

I glance down at my phone’s screen as I walk into Past Over.

I just got off work, and I still haven’t heard from Dominick. I did hear from Sinclair an hour ago. I gave her a brief explanation of what’s going on.

When I first told her about my grandfather months ago, she didn’t say very much. I know that she didn’t want to influence my decision about my future either way, so today when I explained that I patched things up with my granddad, she let out a sigh of relief.

She only wants what is best for me.

She thinks that’s a distraction from Dominick, so we’re meeting here to find a couple of new outfits for me to wear to work.

I have every intention of keeping my job at Modica until my contract expires.

By then, I will have saved up enough to help get me through law school. My granddad called me earlier to tell me that he’ll release my trust fund to me regardless of whether I choose to take over his business.

I want to do this on my own though.

If I invest that money wisely, I can work as a lawyer pro-bono for people who can’t afford legal advice.

“Arietta!” Lynn calls from where she’s standing behind the check-out counter. “Aren’t you a vision?”

I’m still wearing the same striped dress I was when I saw my granddad. I gave up on my hair mid-afternoon, so I tugged it out of the bun it was half-pinned in.

“How are you?” I ask as I approach her.

“Swamped.” She laughs.

Since I’m the only person in the store, I can’t tell if she’s joking or not.

I err on the side of caution. “Can I help you?”

“You can,” she affirms with a nod of her head. “There’s a book on that table over there I need brought up here. Can you grab it?”

Since we’re standing less than twenty feet away from the table she’s pointing at, I take a breath. “You want me to get a book for you?”

“Please.” She cups her hands together in front of her. “I’d be forever grateful.”

Shrugging, I set off toward the table, wondering why the hell she needs help with that. “Which book is it?”

“You’ll know it when you see it,” she calls after me.

I take one last look at the screen of my phone before I drop it in the tote slung over my shoulder.

I approach the table. My gaze hones in on a poetry book that looks exactly like the one I have at home.

It even has the same torn edge in the left hand corner.

I pick it up and notice immediately a piece of paper sticking out of it.

Curiosity drives me to open the book. I thumb through the pages stopping when I see one has been taped back into place.

This can’t be right.

I keep turning pages until I spot an all too familiar paper folded into quarters.

I glance back to find Lynn gone. “Lynn?”

My call to her goes unanswered, so I drop my gaze back to the book.

I tug out the paper and carefully unfold it.

It’s my life to-do list. I read it before I tuck it back into place.