“Good luck with that,” Rico said on a laugh.
“It’s worth a try,” Teresa said and beamed at her brother. “I’m so proud of you, Gianni.”
“Imagine. Me. Working for the police.” Shaking his head, he walked to the door and paused only long enough to look back at Rico and say, “Treat her well, Rico. I’ll be in touch.”
When he was gone, Rico grabbed Teresa, pulled her against him and just held on. Burying his face in the curve of her neck, he inhaled her scent and dragged it so deep inside him he would never take another breath without tasting her on it.
“I love you, Teresa Coretti King.”
“I’m going to want to hear that a lot,” she said, leaning back to look up at him. “I love you so much, Rico. I always have. Living without you was so horrible—”
“Shh. That’s done. It’s gone. Neither of us will ever have to feel that misery again, that’s all that matters.”
“Being here. With you. On Tesoro. It’s perfect.” She leaned her head on his chest and whispered, “Take me home, Rico. To our home.”
“First,” he told her as he stepped away, “I have something for you.”
“All I need is you, Rico.”
He grinned at her. God, he felt freer than he had in years. Just hearing her say that filled him with the kind of joy he had never really expected to feel again. But this had to be done. “Trust me. This you need.”
He walked to his desk, opened the top drawer and took out a small velvet box that he had looked at every day for the last five years. When he brought it to her, he opened it and Teresa gasped.
“It’s your ring,” he said unnecessarily. “The one you left behind with your note, telling me only that you had to leave.”
“Oh, God.” She stared at the yellow diamond and clapped one hand over her mouth. “It almost killed me to take that ring off, Rico. It—you—meant everything to me.” Shaking her head, she murmured, “You kept it. I can’t believe you kept it all this time.”
“Sometimes,” he said, “I admit, I thought about selling it or even tossing it into the sea.”
“Oh, God…”
“But something kept me from it,” he admitted as he plucked the ring from the velvet and slid it onto her finger. He sealed it there with a kiss, then met her eyes, now drenched again in what he knew were tears of happiness. “I think a part of me knew that we would find our way to each other again.
“Because you are my one. My only. And now the ring—and you—are back where you belong.”
“And this time,” Teresa whispered as she lifted her face for his kiss, “my romantic, wonderful husband, it’s forever.”
“It is a deal,” he said with a smile, then kissed her with all the love he held in his now healed heart.