Fate Actually: Moonstone Cove Book Two

by Hunter, Elizabeth

  “I won’t. But when harvest is over, I’ll have a much easier schedule, and I like cooking. I’m not trying to dictate your life—that’s what you said, right? But I am worried that you’re going to push yourself too hard and make yourself sick. Cooking is a thing I can do. Even if you need the night to yourself and you just want me to leave food for you, that’s fine.”

  Toni opened her mouth. Closed it. “Don’t be so logical,” she muttered. “It’s spoiling all my arguments.”

  He smiled and kept rubbing her feet. “You said you’re getting tired in the afternoon? That’s normal.” He worked his large hands from her ankles up her calves. “You don’t need to be eating less food so you don’t get sleepy, you need to be taking a nap when you’re tired. You have a couch in your office. Use it.”

  “How am I supposed to explain that to the guys?”

  “At some point, they are going to start wondering why you’re smuggling a basketball under your coveralls, Toni. You might have to tell them you’re pregnant.”

  Since all her longtime employees were dads, she had a feeling it would be a mostly positive reaction.

  Still. Very weird.

  Toni was melting into a puddle. Her house smelled like cheese and baked pasta, Henry was rubbing her feet, and her cat was purring on her lap.

  “I could get used to this,” she murmured.

  “So could I.” He pressed his thumbs into the side of her ankles again. “I’m gonna show you, Antonia Luciana Dusi, that there are some very real benefits to being my girlfriend.”

  Her head popped up. “How did you find out my middle name?”

  He smiled broadly. “I have my secrets.”

  “Did you call me your girlfriend?”

  “Yes.” He squeezed her ankles. “Before you start arguing with me, you need to look at the evidence and be logical. Are you romantically involved with anyone else?” His hands halted on her legs.

  “Henry, of course not.”

  His hand started moving again. “Okay, good. Neither am I. Do we spend regular time together?” He held up a finger. “Not go out on dates, but spend time together.”

  Saturdays in the garden. Home-improvement projects. Phone calls that turned into watching movies together that turned into something in the neighborhood of phone sex.

  “Uh…”

  “You know we do.”

  The cat, sensing an opportunity for more attention than Toni’s half-hearted pets, decamped from her lap and headed toward Henry.

  “We spend time together,” he said. “We like talking and being together. I’d like to actually show my face in public with you and meet some of your friends since I’ve liked the ones I’ve met so far.” He moved one hand to pet Shelby and kept rubbing Toni’s legs with the other.

  Betrayer cat. Toni would have to plot some petty revenge.

  “And you know, just as an aside, we’re also going to have a kid together,” he said. “So there’s that.”

  Toni opened her eyes and sat up straight. “See? This is what I was afraid of. Just because I’m pregnant does not mean that we have to change everything and commit to some kind of long-term—”

  “Toni.” He cut her off. “I was trying to have a committed relationship with you before the baby happened. It’s not like this is some kind of one-night stand. We’ve been involved for almost a year. I’m in. Do you get that? I am in this.”

  She felt her heart racing. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Henry, it was just that no man in her life had ever been able to accept her—all of her—without trying to change who she was.

  And Toni wasn’t okay with that. She liked who she was. She liked her life and her job and her crazy family that was constantly in her business. She wasn’t going to change. No relationship was worth that.

  “Do I want more of a commitment from you?” Henry continued. “Yes. I mean, that’s not exactly a secret. But I can’t force you. I know you well enough to know that if I push it, you’re just going to dig in your heels.”

  She closed her mouth and sat back. “You make me sound like a child.”

  “You’re not a child.” His hand snuck up to her thigh. “But you do have a slightly overdeveloped need for independence.”

  “I don’t like everyone knowing my personal life.”

  “Considering the size and closeness of your family, I get that. But can you just… consider letting me be your boyfriend and not keeping me a secret for the sake of our relationship and also possibly our future child?”

  She slumped down. “I told Megan and Katherine about you.”

  “Which is great.” Henry raised an eyebrow. “Is your mom aware that I exist?”

  “How can you ask that? You’ve been to dinner at her house.”

  “Yes, as Nico’s winemaker. And you didn’t speak to me all night.”

  Okay, he maybe had a point. Toni took a deep breath. “Henry…”

  “Yes?”

  She said it quickly so she wouldn’t lose her nerve. “Would you like to go with me to Sunday dinner at Frank and Jackie’s this weekend?”

  Both of Henry’s eyebrows went up. “As your date?”

  She nodded.

  “Yes.” He leaned over, grabbed her hand, and kissed her knuckles. “Antonia Luciana Dusi, I would like that very much.”

  “Okay.” She wasn’t panicking. Who was panicking? Not her. Probably the cat. Maybe she was panicking a little. She reached outward and searched for Henry’s calm, centering presence.

  “Toni.”

  “Mm-hmm?”

  “Don’t freak out about your parents. I like your parents.”

  She took a deep breath. “I mean, you think you like them because you met them as Nico’s new winemaker, but you didn’t meet them as my boyfriend, did you? Also, you like my parents, but do you like my brother, my sister, my nieces and nephews, my aunts and uncles, my forty-two cousins, and all their children?” She stared at him and his goofy smile. “You’re stuck on the fact that I called you my boyfriend, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah.” His smile was wide and… Yes, it was goofy. And adorable.

  Toni sighed. “You need to understand something. When you dive into this pool, it’s not the shallow end. There is no shallow end with my family, and they are not optional.”

  He nudged the cat—who had slowly taken over his lap—to the floor and pulled Toni’s hand until she was nearly sitting on him.

  “I know I’m diving into the deep end.” He brushed a thumb over her cheek and examined her lips. “I know you don’t come solo.” He drew her across his lap so she was straddling him before he took her mouth in a long, lazy kiss.

  Henry’s hands worked their way from her shoulders, along her spine, and down to the curve of her bottom. His hands stroked her skin and the small of her back, teasing a shiver from her spine.

  “Antonia.” He whispered her name against her mouth.

  Toni’s eyes were closed and her head was swimming. “Uh-huh?”

  “Are you going to let me feed you and stay the night?”

  Nausea was a distant memory. “Yeah. That sounds good.”

  “Then I will take all the crazy family you throw at me.” He scraped his teeth across her lower lip, which was swollen from his kisses. “Worth it.”

  * * *

  Hours later, Toni was barely hanging on to consciousness with a full stomach and a very relaxed body that Henry had teased and seduced to the point of spontaneous combustion before he put her out of her sexual misery.

  He pulled on his boxer shorts and left the bedroom. She heard him walk to the door and whistle for Earl, who galloped into the house.

  “Shhh,” he whispered to the dog. “You have to be quiet, okay?”

  The dog’s excited paws tapped on her hardwood floor.

  “Okay, go lie down. Stay.”

  Earl gave a low woof, and Shelby meowed from under the bed.

  Toni poked her head over the side and saw the cat. “He’s in the house now. What are you going to do
with him?”

  Shelby stared at her with narrowed eyes. I could say the same thing about you, human.

  “Okay, we’ve let a dog and a large man into the house.” She glanced at the clock. “It’s after midnight, so I don’t think—”

  “Are you talking to the cat?” Henry leaned in the doorway, arms crossed over his bare chest, smiling in amusement.

  “I am.” Deal with it.

  He climbed into the bed and immediately drew her into his arms, wrapping her up with blankets, a warm hug, and a contagious sense of calm. “Don’t worry. Earl is sleeping by the fireplace.” He yawned deeply. “He won’t bother her in here.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She snuggled back into his chest and was nearly asleep when she heard her phone buzzing.

  “Is that you or me?” Henry asked.

  “Me, I think.” She opened her eyes and looked at the name flashing on her screen. “Nico?”

  She sat up. He wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t an emergency. Toni answered the phone. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Marissa.” Nico’s voice broke. “She’s at the hospital, Toni. Can you come? Someone broke into her house and beat her up pretty bad. The doctors aren’t sure what her condition is yet, but they put her in a coma because there’s a skull fracture and—”

  “We’re coming.” She was already shoving Henry out of the bed. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  Chapter 16

  The emergency room waiting area was filled with Dusis, Lópezes, and various members of Marissa’s family by the time Toni and Henry arrived. They’d thrown on clothes and dropped Earl off at Henry’s place before they raced down to the hospital in San Luis Obispo.

  As soon as the doors opened, Nico’s daughter, Beth, spotted them.

  “Auntie Toni.” She ran over and threw her arms around Toni.

  “I’m here, kiddo.” Toni pressed her hand to Beth’s head and felt the girl nearly collapse as she started crying. “I got you.”

  Henry put his arm around both of them and guided them toward an empty set of chairs.

  “She texted me last week, and I was such an asshole.” Beth was crying and hiccuping as she tried to speak. “I’m so sorry. I hated her, but I didn’t want anything—”

  “Honey, of course you didn’t.” She stroked Beth’s hair. “She knew that.”

  “She wanted me and Ethan to go over to her house this weekend, and I told her we had better things to do and now he’s, like, really mad at me because I didn’t tell him she texted, and he and Dad are, like, so angry and—”

  “Bethy.” She tried to calm the torrent of words. “Bethany.” She drew away and patted the girl’s cheek. “Honey, no one is angry with you. We all know you would never want something bad to happen to your mom. Where’s your dad?”

  She wiped her eyes. “Uh… I think he was talking with the doctor. They’re still married, like, officially, so they want to talk to him and not Grandma and Grandpa Bianchi, so they’re mad too, but I think that Grandma is really just upset.”

  “Of course she is.” Toni scanned the crowded emergency room but couldn’t spot Nico. “Beth, can you stay with Henry for a little while so I can figure out where your dad is? Or do you want to find Grandma Dusi?”

  Beth blinked, suddenly realizing that Henry was sitting next to her. She wiped her eyes and looked between Toni and Henry. “Is Henry, like, your boyfriend or something?”

  “Yeah. Henry’s my… uh—”

  “I’m her boyfriend,” Henry said. “Do you need anything? Do you want some water or Kleenex or anything?”

  “Wow.” Beth looked at Toni. “Way to go, Auntie Toni.”

  “Why don’t we focus on finding Grandma right now, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  She rose with Toni as they walked back toward the fray of relatives, wading into the cacophony of people asking questions, speculating about what had happened, and fighting back tears.

  Nico and Marissa might have split up, but she was still Beth and Ethan’s mom. She was still family. And as Toni noticed the crowd of men gathering around Marissa’s father, Toni’s uncle, her father, her brother, and Nico’s extended family, she realized that whoever had assaulted Marissa misunderstood their family on a very fundamental level.

  Marissa might be annoying as shit, but she was still one of theirs.

  “Toni!”

  She turned toward her mother’s voice. “Mom.” She grabbed her mother in a swift embrace. “This is so awful.”

  “Can you believe this? What kind of world are we living in now? What is wrong with our town? First someone murdered and now someone breaks into Marissa’s house and beats her? I just don’t understand any of this.”

  “Did someone break in? Have the police said—”

  “I mean, someone must have broken in, don’t you think? They must have been going after a woman on her own. That’s the only thing that makes sense. They must have thought she had some jewelry or something like that.” Her mother pressed her hands to Toni’s cheeks. “See why I worry about you living out there all on your own? If someone broke in—”

  “Mom, can we not? This isn’t about me. We need to think about the kids, okay?” She lowered her voice. “Did you know that Marissa and Whit Fairfield—”

  “I don’t know anything about any of that, so don’t start. You know I don’t listen to gossip, Toni Luciana. Saint James said the tongue is a fire and a world of evil, so I do not listen to gossip about my children.” She must have spotted Henry over her shoulder. “Who is that?”

  “That’s Henry. You know, Nico’s winemaker.”

  “And why is he with you in the middle of the night?”

  “Can we talk about this later please?”

  Rose Lanza Dusi narrowed her eyes. “I need to find Julia. The doctors are only talking to Nico, which is just ridiculous. Their daughter is in intensive care, and they haven’t even seen her yet. They’re talking about surgery, but they won’t say on what.”

  “Okay, let’s go find Nico.” She ushered her mother toward the nurses’ station where she could already see her cousin Leah fielding questions. Leah was a pediatric nurse, but someone would have called her as soon as anyone in the family landed in the hospital.

  * * *

  Hours passed as they waited to find out what was happening with Marissa and the surgery that was supposed to happen. The last Toni had heard, there was swelling on her brain from the attack, and that was what the doctors were most worried about.

  She was resting against Henry’s arm, dozing as the hospital noise buzzed around her. Henry was out cold, his long legs stretching halfway across the waiting area. She saw Drew Bisset from the corner of her eye, talking with her cousin Max near the double glass doors of the emergency department.

  She lifted her head and raised a hand, only realizing after she’d done so that she might be in very serious trouble.

  Shit.

  Oh Toni, you’ve stepped in it this time.

  Of all the times for her to remember that she, Katherine, and Megan were probably the last people to see Marissa before she was attacked, this was a bad one.

  “Hey.” Drew sat across from her and kept his voice low. “This is pretty bad, huh? I talked to the guys who got the call and it was ugly. I hope she pulls through.”

  “Who called the police?”

  “One of her neighbors. It was late, and the older lady downstairs heard arguing. Then a big thud and slamming doors. It was enough for her to call, and it’s a good thing she did. The ambulance said she was touch and go with the head wound.”

  Toni took a deep breath, glanced at Henry, and decided to rip the bandage off. “Okay, so there’s something I should probably tell you.”

  Drew sat back and narrowed his eyes. “Nothing that comes after a statement like that is ever good.”

  “We only went over to ask a couple of questions, and she was perfectly fine when we left, but if anyone dusts that house for prints, you will see me, Katherine, and Me
gan all over the place.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Anything else?”

  Toni glanced at Henry. “Uh… Whit Fairfield and Marissa were blackmailing Henry?”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” He glared at her. “When were you going to tell me about this?”

  “I only found out about it like three days ago, okay? I haven’t exactly had a lot of time to process.”

  Drew rubbed a hand over his face. “Tell me you can alibi the big-ass suspect sleeping next to you, who was being blackmailed by the murder victim and the lady who got beat up tonight.”

  “He was cooking pasta in my kitchen when I got back from Marissa’s house last night, and he did not leave my place once until we got the call from Nico about her being in the hospital.”

  Drew nodded. “And Nico?”

  She shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “Okay.” He shook his head. “The neighbor who called the cops said she heard a man and a woman arguing, but she couldn’t hear them clearly. There’s no way she could identify him.”

  “Security cameras?”

  “We’re pulling the footage, but I can tell you that condo complex doesn’t have a great system. It’s more for show than anything else.”

  “Because it’s Moonstone Cove,” Toni said. “Where’s safer than the Cove?”

  “Exactly.” He tapped his fingers on his knee. “Dammit, Toni, I really want to get back to my quiet little beach community. You know what I mean?”

  “A Big Lebowski reference at” —she looked at her watch— “two in the morning, Detective. That’s impressive.”

  “I do what I can.” Drew didn’t crack a smile. “So Fairfield was blackmailing your man here?”

  She sighed. “Okay, it’s a long story and it doesn’t exactly make Marissa very sympathetic, which feels wrong to talk about when she’d fighting for her life, but the short version is, Marissa tried something with Henry before she and Nico split, Henry never told Nico about it, Marissa and Fairfield used that incident—and Henry’s failure to tell Nico—as leverage to try to get him to sabotage Nico’s business.”