Chapter 19 - The Second Kiss
Dante chose nothing about our dinner.
Not the restaurant.
Not the table.
Not the wine.
He let me choose all of it.
I noticed.
“Are you doing this on purpose?”
“Yes.”
“That’s slightly annoying.”
“I can order dessert if it helps.”
I laughed.
The sound surprised both of us.
He looked different without the machinery of crisis surrounding him.
Older.
Gentler.
Still dangerous in ways I didn’t romanticize.
I knew who he had been.
I knew what his family had done.
And I knew change did not erase history.
“Do you regret it?”
I asked.
“What?”
“The life you built.”
Dante considered the question.
“Parts of it.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
He looked out the window.
“I regret every time I convinced myself a bad act became acceptable because worse men existed.”
“That excuse can last a lifetime.”
I thought of Nolan.
Different scale.
Same mechanism.
Dante continued.
“I can’t rewrite what I did.”
“I can decide what I do next.”
I nodded.
“That’s what my therapist says.”
He smiled.
“I already like her less.”
Dinner lasted three hours.
No declarations.
No promises.
When we stepped outside, snow had begun falling across Chicago.
Dante offered me his arm.
I looked at it.
Then at him.
“You know the first time I kissed you, I was terrified.”
“I know.”
“I wasn’t attracted to you.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“That seems unnecessarily specific.”
I laughed.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“I kissed you because Nolan was afraid of you.”
Dante nodded.
“I know.”
“And you helped me anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His answer came without hesitation.
“Because you asked without knowing how to ask.”
My throat tightened.
Then he stepped back.
Giving me room.
Giving me the decision.
Again.
This time, I moved toward him because I wanted to.
I kissed him slowly beneath the falling snow.
No ballroom.
No audience.
No fear.
When we separated, Dante touched my cheek.
“Better?”
“Much.”
Then his phone rang.
Sofia.
He answered.
Her voice was urgent.
“Dad.”
“The prison transport carrying Nolan was hit.”
My blood turned cold.
Dante’s expression hardened.
“What do you mean hit?”
“Someone intercepted the convoy.”
“Is he alive?”
A pause.
Then Sofia said the words I never wanted to hear.
May you like
“Nolan Pierce is gone.”
---
