The Bachelor Takes a Bride. Brenda Harlen

Why anyone would choose to be out in such weather was a mystery to him, and yet here he was, at the behest of his sister—because he never could refuse her anything.

      “I have an insatiable craving for tiramisu,” Renata had said, explaining the reason for her call. “I’d come to the restaurant myself, but Anna and Bella are in their pj’s and ready for bed.”

      The restaurant was Valentino’s—an establishment in Charisma’s downtown core that had been started by their grandparents nearly half a century earlier; Adrianna and Isabella were Renata’s daughters, ages five and three years respectively, and Marco loved them both to bits. A definite benefit of doing this favor for his sister was getting to spend some time with his adorable nieces.

      “Tiramisu, huh?”

      “It’s not me—it’s the baby,” she said, referring to the third child she was carrying.

      He figured pregnancy cravings were the responsibility of the baby’s father, and he knew that his brother-in-law wouldn’t hesitate to drive through a torrential downpour to get his wife anything she wanted or needed. The fact that Renata had called Marco suggested that her firefighter husband was at work and unable to cater to her every whim, as Craig was usually happy to do.

      “Well, the baby’s going to have to wait at least half an hour,” Marco told her. “Because I’m not at the restaurant right now.”

      “Oh. I’m sorry, I just assumed...”

      “That I spend twenty-four hours a day at Valentino’s?”

      “Something like that,” she admitted.

      “It’s Saturday night,” he said, reminding her of the one night a week he forced himself to take away from work to ensure that it didn’t become all consuming. He could—and often did—take more days and nights, because a well-established restaurant pretty much ran itself even without one of his siblings or cousins on-site to oversee every little detail.

      “Ohmygod—I didn’t think...you have a date. I’m interrupting a date. I’m so sorry.”

      “Relax, Nata. I’m just working at home tonight—you’re not interrupting anything.”

      “It’s Saturday night,” she repeated his words back to him. “Why don’t you have a date?”

      He shook his head. The abrupt change of topic and the demanding yet concerned tone in her voice were so typical of his sister, he didn’t know whether to chuckle or sigh.

      “I’ll be there with your tiramisu in half an hour,” he said. “You can grill me in person then.”

      “And I will,” she assured him.

      He had no doubt, but all he said was, “Don’t let the girls go to bed before I get there,” then he disconnected the call.

      And so he’d abandoned the blueprints on his desk, picked up his keys, dashed through the rain to his car and headed to Valentino’s.

       Why don’t you have a date?

      He considered various responses to Renata’s question as he drove the familiar route, hoping to come up with something that was believable and reassuring. The truth—that he was tired of dating the wrong women—wouldn’t satisfy his sister. She would insist that he not give up, because the right woman was out there, waiting for him as much as he was waiting for her. But he was getting tired of waiting.

      All of his siblings were in settled relationships. Nata and Craig had been married for almost eight years. His oldest brother, Tony, had been married to his high school sweetheart, Gemma, for nine. And Gabe, his other brother, had recently—finally—gotten engaged to Francesca, the woman he’d started to fall in love with more than two years earlier but for whom he’d only recently acknowledged his feelings. His sister and brothers had each found the right people to share their lives with and were happy and settled. Marco yearned for the same thing.

      When you find her, you’ll know. Nonna’s words—spoken to him at Gabe and Francesca’s engagement celebration—echoed in the back of his mind.

      Caterina loved to tell the story of her first meeting with Salvatore, which happened to be on their wedding day. “It was like lightning—a surge that tingled through my veins. I had worried about what marriage to a stranger would bring, but I knew then that I would love him forever.”

      Marco figured sixty-one years was pretty close to forever. And from what he could see, his grandparents were still very much in love with each other. Sure, they argued—sometimes loudly and passionately—and they often made up the same way. The key to a long and happy marriage, Nonna told him, was to never go to bed alone or angry.

      So he didn’t question the conviction in her words, because that was how it happened in his family—starting with his grandparents, then his parents, and his sister and both of his brothers. No, he didn’t doubt it would happen that way, but he was starting to worry about the when—or even if—it would happen for him.

      He’d dated a lot of perfectly nice and undeniably attractive women, but none of them had been the right woman. He’d wanted them to be; each time he’d embarked on a new relationship, he’d had high hopes that this woman would turn out to be the woman who would make him fall head over heels in love forever after. But it had never happened. Not yet.

      So he was waiting, albeit a little less patiently with each year that passed. He wasn’t ready to give up, but he wasn’t holding his breath, either. And if he didn’t actually experience a lightning moment of recognition, he would settle for a tingle of attraction—or even a spark of static electricity.

      He backed into his usual parking spot behind the restaurant and turned off the engine. As he did, thunder crashed and the skies opened up again, the strong and steady thrumming of the rain on his windshield washed away by an absolute deluge. He unhooked his belt but didn’t reach for the door handle—he wasn’t leaving the shelter of his vehicle until the downpour eased up.

      After a couple more minutes, when the rain finally began to slow, he saw the take-out door of Valentino’s open and a woman step out. She exited from under the red-and-white-striped awning with her pizza box in hand and hurried across the parking lot. Despite the ongoing storm, something about her snagged his attention and wouldn’t let go.

      Her hair was short, dark and wet from the rain. She didn’t wear a coat, and her dress showcased some nice curves as she moved surprisingly fast in the heels she wore on her feet. Lightning flashed, illuminating the sky for what might have been a heartbeat if not for the fact that his heart literally skipped a beat.

      His eyes continued to track the mystery woman’s path to her vehicle. She opened the driver’s side of a light-colored compact car and ducked inside, setting the pizza box on the empty passenger seat before closing the door, extinguishing the interior light.

      He’d barely caught a glimpse of her, yet he felt an ache beneath his breastbone, a yearning that suggested she might be the one. Finally.

      The initial sense of jubilant relief was supplanted by frustration as he watched her taillights disappear in the night.

      He might have finally found her—but he didn’t have the first clue as to who she was or when and where he might see her again.

      * * *

      When Marco entered the restaurant through the same take-out door a few minutes later, he found his sister-in-law, Gemma, behind the counter.

      Usually a hostess in the dining rooms, Gemma was happy to fill in wherever she was needed. And since their cousin Maria was currently on an extended holiday/honeymoon with her new husband—because it wasn’t just his siblings but also his cousins who were happily pairing up—they were short-staffed at the take-out counter.

      Gemma glanced up when she heard the bell over the door and smiled at him. “What are you doing in here on a Saturday night?”

      “Renata says