Page 139 of Finding Peace
The beep of the microwave brings me back to the present, and I look over to find Joe sliding a plate across the island toward me. “You need to eat.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I did eat.”
She lifts a brow. “You had a piece of toast.”
“That counts.”
She crosses her arms. “Not for someone growing an entire human being, it doesn’t.”
Enzo snorts from the table. “Better listen to her,Bella Rossa. That one’s never been in a fight she can’t win.”
Joe smiles proudly at Enzo.
“Bella Rossa?” I ask the room.
“Beautiful redhead,” Dante mumbles. Enzo looks momentarily surprised. “What? If Joe can learn Italian, then so can I?”
“Gonna talk dirty to me in Italian, Big Daddy?”
Dante’s eyes heat, and Joe just laughs.
“Better get that all out now. You know how your brother feels about hearing you call D that,” Luca mutters, still working away at his computer. “While we’re on the topic.” He looks up from his computer to Enzo. “Don’t let them hear you call Abigail that. I imagine it’ll be as well received as what you call Harper.”
“I guess only time will tell,” Enzo replies, now winking at me.
Dante chuckles softly into his mug.
The warm sound settles in my chest.
For people who technically showed up here as almost strangers, they’ve made the house feel sosafe.
Comfortable.
Like an extension of a family I’d always dreamed I would be lucky enough to have.
And still—there’s an undercurrent of tension running beneath it all.
Everyone feels it.
Just then, Sebastian’s phone buzzes quietly in his hand.
His head lifts, and for a split second, something flickers across his face.
Joe notices immediately, and their eyes meet. A silent conversation passes between them, and my stomach flips in anticipation.
“What?” I ask.
Joe blinks and turns back toward the stove, a soft smile on her face.
Luca glances up from his laptop and looks between us before settling on Sebastian. “Mio Re?”
Enzo only nods at him.
The tension in the room shifts.
Lucy must feel it because she lifts her head as her tail begins sweeping the floor.
“What’s happening?” I ask carefully.
