But I respected that, especially seeing some of the assholes that’d hang out with their friends, full pockets, little to no work ethic, and empty heads. The kinds of guys that started making me enough money to build my empire.
Dario watched how I conducted my bookie hustle and went to his father with the idea of bankrolling me. Mr. Ferrano helped me take my bookie business to the next level, where men twice, even three times my age were placing bets with me. His father, rest his soul, saw my ambition and gave me great advice as well as access to certain useful resources when I needed them. It’s down to him I opened Genesis, the beginning of my new life. After I paid him back, we rarely spoke, though I won’t ever forget what he and his sons have done for me.
Really though, rewinding back to after my mother died, that’s when my new life started. Mr. Ferrano helped me and Will avoid CPS, and Dario, his older brother Tommy, and their crew took my back when I needed it most, when I made Max pay for what he did.
I’d done a few favors for Mr. Ferrano over the years, too. Not always easy ones, but he was always fair with me and taught me a lot. One of his daughter’s husbands now runs the pizzeria, a guy that started working there not long after I left. I try to eat there once a month and Dario and I stay in touch.
Watching Dario in that little church with just his family and a small group of his closest friends marry a gorgeous redheaded knockout in a strapless white gown that he was clearly in love with, who was absolutely looking at my friend like she was marrying the man of her dreams when he lifted that veil and looked into her eyes, it was beautiful. It hit me in the feels.
And I watched Violet watch them with the purest smile on her face, her eyes going bright with tears as they made their promises. Dimples on display. Fuck, she’s beautiful. And I’m talking on the inside, too.
She’s friendly with a girl who’s hung up on the groom and yet she watches the ceremony with nothing but pure happiness for the couple.
This girl, my girl, has a heart of gold.
This week with her – unbelievable. Better than I could’ve hoped.
I’ve been busy, extra busy with all sorts of bullshit, but to have had her beside me each night this week has been a soothing thing. An empowering thing. We’ve shared a couple meals, spent a bit of time together, and most nights this week I’ve made it to bed before she got up for work.
I know – know for a fact that she’s the one for me. It won’t change.
I’ve had a metric fuck-ton of shit going on this week including shit I do not want her to know about. My goal right now is to do my absolute best to make sure that I give her the life she deserves. A worry-free, abuse-free life after what she’s been through.
No, I’m still not okay about all of that shit with the coin flip, but as it happens, I’ve found a therapeutic way to deal with it.
***
After the ceremony, I introduced her to Dario, who introduced us to his bride, Angel. I said hello to Dario’s brother Tommy, met his new wife, said hello to a few of the guys I know from my old bookie days, and then we left, heading to the hotel where the reception is being held.
As good of a week as it’s been in some ways, it’s also been a bloody exhausting week with a fuck of a lot of running around, and I’ve been looking forward to kicking back and enjoying the wedding reception.
Turns out Amber, my former thieving waitress was the catalyst for all that bullshit last Sunday. It was her thug dealer boyfriend getting up in my shit with all that drama across my clubs, breaking Will’s window, too. All that was not only an attempt at retaliation for me letting her go, they were also trying to find a way to rob me.
I’ve dealt with that bullshit to the extent I have no concerns about that thug and Amber’s in the wind, but she’ll turn up like the cockroach she is.
As for tonight, I’m planning on having a good night.
Violet is smiling, and looking beautiful in a gorgeous blue dress that she bought earlier this week on a shopping trip with Susanna. She asked me to pick her shoes for tonight, so I chose one of the pairs I’d bought her for the Numbers opening and they make her legs and her ass look amazing. I’m looking forward to the end of the evening, maybe getting a little drunk and dirty, so I decide I’ll tease her during the wedding reception. Time to get the anticipation going.
59
Violet
We haven’t had all that much time together; he’s been insanely busy with work, and it’s meant a lot of late nights, but the time we’ve had together has been amazing.
And because he’s been busy a lot and I’ve had time to myself, I’ve gotten space to feel like maybe it isn’t too soon to get serious with him. I don’t feel suffocated or overwhelmed. On the contrary, I’m finding myself hoping he’s not always this busy. But if he is and life with him is like this, it’s still more than enough, because he’s amazing.
Sexy. Demonstrative. Generous. Great in bed. Beyond great. He listens when I talk. He asks me what I think. He smiles at me like he’s smitten with me – every time I smile or laugh, he looks happy – like he’s accomplished something.
I’m falling deep. And I don’t even care anymore that it’s so soon after Ray, because it feels right.
This wedding reception takes place in a beautiful hotel banquet room with an absolutely gorgeous couple after having been in the cutest little church for a simple and elegant wedding ceremony and this is the kind of fun I need. Seeing someone’s happy ending play out. Even if I don’t know them, I do know by seeing how they look at one another, that this is definitely true love.
As for the groom, Killian’s longtime friend, I can certainly see why Deb is hung up on him. Dario Ferrano is male-model gorgeous. Tall, built, blond, with stormy blue-grey eyes and tanned skin.
I’ve sworn off blond men but he’s the kind of guy that’d make a girl reconsider her preference of dark versus fair hair.
One look at his face when the beautiful redhead with the blue eyes walked down the aisle toward him and I knew Deb didn’t have a chance. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody as in love as those two.
Maybe mine and Killian’s love story will play out well too and one day I’ll be in his arms in a pretty white dress.
It’s way too soon for this but with the epiphany of Ray cheating him on that coin toss, I can’t help but fantasize about what might’ve been. What might still be, thankfully. I feel like we’re incredibly lucky we got this second chance.
It’s a small reception, but the banquet room has beautiful people, including Dario’s older brother, who is celebrity hall pass material in the gorgeous department. He has a beautiful wife, too. Everything was picture-perfect for the couple.
While Killian has been busy with his security problems for his clubs, I’ve been keeping busy with my job and my newfound social life, not to mention my love life. He’s made time to get up early and drive me to work all but twice and we’ve only had dinner together twice this week, but once was last night at his club by the airport that I hadn’t been to yet. He had a driver pick me up from his place and drop me off to him.
I haven’t gone back to my apartment. I haven’t said anything else about moving into my own place and neither has he.