Passionately Ever After. Metsy Hingle

hates anyone named Barone. You can’t honestly believe that she’ll ever accept me as your wife.”

      “If she wants to remain a part of my life and our baby’s life, she’ll accept you,” Steven told her. But he knew Maria was probably right. His aunt Lucia wasn’t likely to accept their union. As much as he loved the older woman, he wasn’t blind to her faults—the biggest of which was her all-consuming hatred of the Barones. Unfortunately, Lucia Conti had spent nearly seventy years nurturing that hatred. He’d come to the conclusion long ago that his aunt had chosen to close herself off to any chance of ever loving again and had opted instead to make him and his sister her surrogate children. Sad as it was to admit, he suspected that he and Bianca had filled the void of a husband and children in his aunt’s life. Aside from them and the restaurant, her only passion in life was her hatred of the Barones. As much as he would hate to lose his beloved aunt in his life, he would hate even more to live his life without Maria and their baby.

      “Does the same hold true for your parents and sister?” Maria asked. “If they refuse to accept me as your wife, are you going to shut them out of your life, too?”

      “If that’s what it takes for us to be together, then yes, I will,” he told her without hesitation. And he meant it. While he hoped it would never come down to having to choose between his family and Maria, he would do so if necessary.

      And it would be Maria that he’d choose. Maria and their baby. “So what do you say? Will you marry me?”

      Three

      “All you have to do is say yes,” Steven urged her. He squeezed her fingers, implored her with those piercing blue eyes. “Say yes and we’ll go right now and find ourselves a justice of the peace to marry us. Then we’ll go back to Boston and break the news to our families. Maybe they’ll be happy about it, and maybe they won’t. However they decide to handle things will be up to them. The important thing is that you and I will be together—together with our baby.”

      Maria stared at Steven. He made it all sound so simple, so easy. She loved him and wanted desperately to say yes and become his wife. But even if by some miracle she could persuade her family to accept a marriage between herself and Steven, she didn’t believe the Contis would ever condone such a union. And what about the curse? Perhaps Steven was right and it was nothing more than a foolish superstition fueled by overactive imaginations. But what if it wasn’t?