Mafia's Final Play (Mafia's Obsession #3) - Summer Cooper Page 0,52

he’d been up all night, so it had just been Matteo and her for lunch.

“If we go back and stay in New York, I’ll have to make a point of keeping my lunches clear for you. And make more time for you, as well.” He said it like it was a promise, but Marie knew he’d be busy if they went back to that life.

She turned the radio on as she cleaned up and tried to decide what to have for dinner. She took out a few things, poured herself a glass of juice, and sat down with a pad of paper, a pen, and an old atlas she’d found in a drawer in the living room. She started to list off the places she’d like to go and see.

By the time Matteo came back in, she had quite a long list of places to visit. If they started in New York, they could head straight down to Florida, then all the way across to California. From there, it would be up to Canada, or maybe down to Mexico, and all the places there were to see down there.

“If we rent one of those tour buses, you know, like famous people have? Okay, one of those, we’d have a bedroom, a bathroom, even a washer, and dryer, along with a kitchen. Or we could buy one.” Her excitement made her talk fast and her cheeks were flushed.

He looked at her and she could see he was fascinated. “What have you been doing?”

“Planning out where I’d like to go.” She handed over the pad of paper to him and watched as he read all of the places.

“This would take a long time,” he noted and looked up at her with his eyebrows drawn together. “Do you want to live like this for months, maybe years?”

“If we can, sure. I don’t need a fancy penthouse and lots of clothes, Matteo. You gave me all of that and I love it, don’t get me wrong, but I’m a simple girl, I like simple things. I don’t need to be…” she paused to try to find the right word, “fancy, I guess. I don’t need that. I need you and if that means we stay put in New York, or we become nomads, as long as I’m with you…”

She let the words trail off because she wasn’t certain he wanted to do it now. He seemed hesitant, and she didn’t want to push him into something he didn’t want. As long as she was with him, she didn’t care anyway.

“I’m not trying to discourage you. I just want to know what you want, that you’re sure it’s what you want?” He sat down beside her and looked at her with seeking eyes.

“I’d love this, actually. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d be homeless, living in that car of mine. My plan was to travel until I found a place to call home, once my mom passed. I knew it would happen eventually, and that was my plan. Sell everything and just find a new home. Then you came along.” She shrugged and left off the part where she’d had to marry him to save everything, even herself.

It wasn’t a sore spot anymore, but she didn’t think it needed mentioning again. She’d come to terms with it, they both had, and had found they’d got far more out of the marriage than they’d ever dreamed of. There was no need to throw it out there at him.

“So, you really do want to travel?” He picked the pad of paper back up again and looked it over. “I could buy us something nice, put Anton in charge, and maybe Trina, she’s a smart girl. She wants to have something more to do anyway. This might be possible.”

She squealed happily and leaned over to hug him. “Oh, I hope we can do this. It would be amazing, I swear. We could start in New York and go in any direction you wanted to go to. We could even go up to Canada if we wait until spring. The roads will be better. No snow.”

“Hmm, maybe we should buy one in Florida. Fly down and go across and down until the warmer months hit, then go up.” He showed her a new path and she nodded in agreement.

“That sounds good too. Oh, and I looked it up, we can get wifi in most of the places we’d park up, and if not, we can buy a mobile