He cradled my face in his hands and shook his head. "Don't say that. You're a beautiful, intelligent, charming woman who makes me smile. That's more than I can say for anyone I've ever met at those things. If you don't want to go to them, I'm fine with that. But it would be nice to have someone to talk to at them."
"You're trying to guilt me into going?" I joked. "But what about the idea of people seeing you smile? What will that do to your reputation?"
He rolled his eyes and turned to drive. "I hadn't thought about that. Well, then. It's settled. I'll remain cold and impersonal in public and nobody will know the real me. Except you."
I knew it was selfish, but I liked the idea of the world thinking he was cold. There was something very special about Tristan only feeling comfortable enough to drop his cool facade with me.
We got to Tony's to find the entire restaurant deserted. Peering in through the front window, I saw no one inside. Disappointed, I turned toward him. "I don't think they're open."
Tristan brushed it off and took my hand to lead me inside to a table in the back. A waitress appeared almost instantly to take our order, and as he told her what we wanted, I wondered where all the other customers were.
She walked away toward the front of the restaurant and I asked, "Don't you think it's weird there's no one here?"
He got a strange grin on his face. "No. Not at all."
The lights dimmed throughout the building except where we sat, making me feel there was definitely something odd going on. "Tristan, they're turning the lights out. I think they might be closing early tonight."
I looked around to see where the waitress had gone to and when I looked back at Tristan, he was on one knee on the wood floor next to me and beside him sat a small robin's egg blue colored box. In the palm of his right hand was a smaller black velvet box. He pulled back the top and there sat a gorgeous diamond ring. I'd never seen anything so stunning, and even in the dim light of Tony's, the stone was brilliant.
"It's...oh, my God, Tristan. I don't know what to say." I covered my mouth with my hands and tears began to roll down my cheeks.
"Say you'll marry me."
At that moment, I was sure there wasn't a happier person on the entire planet. As I looked down into those eyes so full of love for me, my heart felt fuller than it ever had before.
"Yes. Yes! I'll marry you, Tristan."
He slid the ring onto my finger and took me into his arms as I cried tears of joy. This was more than I'd ever dreamed could happen in my life. I kissed him right there in Tony's Pizza Heaven and right in front of the waitress, who was standing there with our tray of pizza and crying herself.
The blonde looked down at Tristan with a look of anticipation. "Did she say yes?"
Looking into my eyes, he smiled. "She said yes."
"She said yes, everybody!" the woman yelled toward the kitchen, where a chorus of whistles and clapping exploded. She placed the large tray of pizza on the table and smiled at me. "Congratulations. You're a lucky girl. It's not every guy who arranges a proposal like this."
She left us alone, and I turned toward him. "How long have you been planning this?"
"Since Venice."
I looked down at the dazzling ring on my hand. I guessed the diamond was at least two carets and was set in a platinum setting and band. To say it was gorgeous was an understatement. It took my breath away.
"And you got the people here at Tony's to help you?"
Tristan took a bite of pizza. "I figured it would be easier to get you to say yes if the restaurant wasn't filled with people."
"So you paid to have the restaurant closed to everyone but us?" I asked in disbelief.
Nodding, he smiled. "You sound surprised. Of all the things I've spent my money on, this is the best one. It's not every day a man gets to propose to the woman he loves, and if it costs a little money, that's okay."
I glanced down at the ring sitting on my left hand and back up at him. "A little? I'm not sure I'm ever going to get used to your idea of a little money."
"I've told you before, Nina. I would spend ten times that amount to make you happy. That's all I want."
Leaning over the table, I kissed him sweetly, tasting sauce and cheese on his lips. "I'm the happiest woman in the world because of you. Don't ever doubt that."
With a wink, he smiled and said, "Good. Now eat your pizza before it gets cold."
Chapter Twenty-One
Later that night as we laid in each other's arms after making love for hours, I heard the all-too-familiar vibration of Tristan's phone on the nightstand near his side of the bed. In seconds, his mood changed from the blissful happiness we'd shared all night after his proposal at Tony's to sullen and brooding. His shoulders grew tense under my fingers, and in seconds he was gone from our bed to answer that phone I'd grown to hate.
I laid there feeling cold without him next to me and wondering if now that we were planning to be husband and wife did I have a right to ask him what was going on with these calls. Whatever it was that he was dealing with each time that phone rang and it dragged him out of our bed, it tore at my heart that he obviously believed he needed to deal with it alone.
Straining to hear any bits and pieces of his conversation right outside in the hallway, I was able to make out only a few garbled words that meant nothing to me. He was only gone for a few minutes, but when he returned to bed he was visible shaken.
He laid down next to me and moved to take me in his arms as I'd been before. Pulling me close, he was silent but I sensed the tension coming from him in waves. I laid my head on his chest, and he began to coil my hair around his index finger over and over.
After a few minutes, I whispered against his skin, "Tristan, what is it?"
"Nothing. Just work. Let's go to sleep. We have a lot to decide tomorrow."
I knew he was referring to our earlier discussion of what kind of wedding we wanted or if we should just elope since neither of us had much family, but as he spoke of all that now, it sounded like something unhappy to him.
Kissing his neck, I whispered, "You can tell me anything. There's nothing you can say that will change how I feel. I hope you know that."
He sighed heavily and squeezed me to him. "Everyone has something they're ashamed of, Nina. All we can hope for is that the one we love can see past it."
His words were so cryptic they worried me. "I can't believe you have anything to be ashamed of. I'll never believe that. No one who has treated me like you have could have done anything so bad he should be ashamed."