“Sir,” a voice said.
Dante ignored it.
“Sir,” the voice said again.
Dante turned around, said a few words she could not hear to a waiter who looked at him as if he’d gone insane, but then the man laughed, said sure, if that was what he was determined to do…
And then they were alone.
Just she and Dante, and the rain.
Just she and the man she loved, would always love, in this place where she had foolishly opened her life to him, where she had foolishly admitted, if only to herself, that she loved him.
Why had she come with him? Why had she done again that which she had vowed she would not do, let Dante sweet-talk her into something that would seem wonderful for the moment and, ultimately, leave her weeping?
“Gabriella,” he said, reaching into his pocket, taking out a small blue box…
She staggered back.
“No!”
“Gaby. Sweetest Gaby…”
“What is it this time?” she said in a horrified whisper. “A diamond pin? I do not want it!”
“It isn’t a pin. It isn’t a goodbye gift, baby. Take it. See for yourself.”
“A gift to buy me back, then? Do you truly think I would permit you to do that? That I would let you—let you buy me, as you have tried to do these past two weeks…”
“Honestly, Gabriella…”
“Honesty be damned!” She was weeping now; salty tears running down her face and mingling with the sweet rain. “You are the least honest man I know, Dante Orsini! You made me think—you made me think that someday, someday you might…you might—”
“I love you.”
“You see? There you are, lying again. If you loved me—oh, Deus, if you only loved me…”
She began to sob. Dante caught her in his arms, whispered her name, kissed her again and again until, at last, she kissed him back.
“I hate you,” she whispered.
He smiled. “Yes. I can tell.”
“Honestly, Dante—”
“Honestly, Gabriella.” He drew back, just enough so he could lift the tiny package between them. “This is for you, sweetheart. Only for you, forever.” He kissed her again. “Please,” he said softly. “Open your gift.”
She opened the little blue box only to silence him, to give herself time to get her emotions under control, telling him all the while that he had wasted his money, that she did not want whatever was in that box…
What was in that box was a diamond solitaire ring.
Gabriella stared at it. Then she stared at her lover. His smile was almost as bright as the diamond.
“I love you,” he said. “I adore you. I always have. I was just too much a coward to admit it.” It was wet on the terrace but what did that matter? Dante went down on one knee. “Marry me, Gaby,” he said softly. “And let me make you happy forever.”
She laughed. She wept. And when he rose to his feet to take her in his arms and kiss her, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all the love in her heart.