Chapter 1

“You’ll never guess what happened today!” Santino was bouncing on the balls of his feet, gesturing wildly. God, he looked young when he was fluttering about like that. Right in the middle of his sentence he decided it was time to come inside. I managed to dodge his waving hands as he squeezed his way into my flat, completely unaware of the hazard his flailing was causing.

“Erm…”

“Mr. Angello—” he went up on tiptoe and gave me a quick peck “—asked me to come to a meeting today.”

Mr. Angello? Half of Santino’s family worked at the same firm, so it was a bit hard to know which Mr. Angello he was talking about, but given his excitement…“Enrico?”

“Yes, Enrico.” He added some impatient flapping to make his point.

“Then why didn’t you just say—”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Tommy-boy!” My skin prickled as I pursed my lips. Tommy-boy. What grown man would ever accept being called Tommy-boy? “Enrico, my uncle—Mr. Angello—asked me to join them in the big-boy meeting room today. And guess what? You’ll never guess.” He sucked in a breath of air—apparently, he did run out of oxygen every now and then. “We’re going to Thailand!”

“No.” Wewere not going to Thailand. I would not be going to Thailand, not now, not ever. It was out of the question.

“Please…” He flashed his hazel eyes at me, almost compelling me to give in on the spot, but no.

“No. I don’t want to go to Thailand, I’ve never wanted to go to Thailand, and I don’t think I’ll ever want to go to Thailand.”

“Why do you always have to be so grumpy?”

As if on cue his lower lip pushed out. He always did that when he didn’t get his way, and he was adorable while doing it, but no. I would not be going to Thailand.

“I’m not grumpy.”

“You so are. You’re forcing me to bitch and badger, which is going to make you sullen and cranky. But then, in the end, you’re gonna come with me because you’re gonna remember that you love me and don’t want to be away from me. You. Love. Me. And you wouldn’t want me to be all alone in crappy Thailand on our one-year anniversary, would you now?”

My heart sank. It was as if I could hear it plummet and splash down somewhere in my belly. “You’re going away on our anniversary?”

His doe eyes became pleading as he nodded. I turned away, rubbing my forehead as I went into the living room. I needed to get my face under control before I let Santino see me, and I needed some time to think.

Months. I’d spent months planning our anniversary. Everything was perfect: the restaurant, the hotel room, even the ring was perfect. Now I had to cancel everything, or maybe I could get him to postpone the trip? Probably not. I gritted my teeth, it would take months to get another reservation at the restaurant.

“Tom?”

“Give me a minute, Santo.” He turned his wounded gaze to the floor, not coming into the living room, but hovering by the entrance. “I’ll…I…Why do you have to go?” It hadn’t occurred to me to ask before, but now I remembered him being all happy and excited.

“I’ve been promoted.”

I had to strain to hear him and got a bit ashamed for ruining his good mood. Why did I always have to put a damper on his bubbling excitement? It hurt me—physically hurt me—to see how without meaning to I squashed his exuberance.

“You got promoted?” I put a bit more enthusiasm into the question than I felt and pulled him to me. He buried his face under my chin, sighed, and went boneless in my arms. His styled dark hair caught in my stubble as I held him.

“Don’t get too excited.” His breath was hot against the skin on my throat, making me shiver. “It means I’ll be travelling all over the world.”

“All over the world?” I stared as my rough, oil-stained fingers dug into his shoulders and had to force myself not to press down too hard. The thought of him flying all over the world had me nauseated. What if something were to happen to him?

“Maybe not all over the world, but we’ve sold a manufacturing plant to Thailand, so now I’m going there to give the workers a crash course in maintenance and stuff.”

I took a step back so I could see his face. “You’re going to give a crash course in water treatment plant maintenance?” My forehead creased as I tried to make sense of what he was saying.

“Don’t look at me like that. I know how to do maintenance.”

“Sure, sure. I just thought that you, you know, engineered the purification systems, not…never mind.” I stepped back some more, bumping into the doorpost as I shook my head.