Chapter 18 - A Table for Two
Six months later, Walker House opened.
Grace rejected Luca’s suggestion of naming it the Moretti-Walker Rehabilitation Center.
“It sounds like a law firm.”
“What is wrong with law firms?”
“Have you met your lawyers?”
Luca conceded.
Walker House occupied the restored north kennel and two new buildings.
One side housed animals undergoing rehabilitation.
The other contained classrooms, a commercial kitchen and a small restaurant.
Participants came from shelters, transitional housing programs and community organizations.
Some wanted culinary careers.
Some simply needed work history.
Some arrived as frightened as the dogs.
Samuel understood both.
“Do not force trust,” he told new staff.
Grace heard her father’s old philosophy in every lesson.
The kitchen became exactly what she had wanted.
No gold except one faucet.
Luca never let her forget the concession.
The first restaurant service was chaotic.
A trainee forgot salt in eighty portions of potatoes.
Another dropped a tray.
A rescued beagle escaped a supervised area and appeared beside table twelve.
Grace considered it a success.
People laughed.
Nobody pretended perfection.
At the end of the night, she stood beside the ovens.
Samuel entered.
“You did it.”
“We survived opening night.”
“That is what doing it looks like.”
Grace leaned against him.
Their relationship had settled into something comfortable.
Not repaired completely.
Rebuilt.
There was a difference.
Repaired implied returning to what existed before.
They could never do that.
Grace was not twenty.
Samuel was not forty-eight.
Twelve years had happened.
Rebuilding meant creating something new with whatever remained.
Helen Reed became part of that new structure.
She and Grace shared recipes.
Awkwardly at first.
Then naturally.
Grace learned Helen hated olives.
Helen learned Grace cried at dog adoption ceremonies and denied it afterward.
Samuel learned not to compare their cooking.
That lesson took longer.
Luca visited Walker House almost every day.
Sometimes officially.
Often not.
Grace caught him sitting with nervous dogs.
Samuel taught him.
“Turn sideways.”
“I am sideways.”
“You look like a man negotiating a merger.”
“I don’t know another posture.”
Grace laughed from the doorway.
Titan walked directly past Luca and lay beside her.
Luca sighed.
“Still second place.”
“Sixth, probably.”
“Cruel.”
Their relationship grew slowly.
Grace insisted.
She had experienced enough sudden changes for one lifetime.
Luca respected that.
He met her friends.
She attended family dinners.
Eleanor Moretti immediately treated Grace as though marriage had already been scheduled.
Grace corrected her repeatedly.
Eleanor ignored her repeatedly.
Vincent returned occasionally.
His relationship with Luca remained complicated.
But they spoke.
That itself counted as progress.
Carlo testified and formally retired from the foundation.
Victor rebuilt security from the ground up and changed every password.
Grace suggested “GraceIsAlwaysRight.”
Victor did not use it.
Or claimed he didn’t.
One evening Luca arrived at Walker House carrying groceries.
Grace stared at the bags.
“What is this?”
“I am cooking.”
She laughed.
He looked offended.
“You said I should learn.”
“I did not expect you to take it literally.”
He had practiced.
Poorly.
They made pasta.
Flour covered the counter.
Luca cracked an egg onto the floor.
Grace laughed until she cried.
“I run fourteen companies.”
“None involving eggs, apparently.”
Titan ate something he should not have.
Samuel passed the window, saw Luca wearing an apron and immediately took a photograph.
“Delete that,” Luca said.
“Never.”
They ate after closing.
One table.
Two plates.
The dogs asleep nearby.
Luca became unusually quiet.
Grace noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Bad liar.”
He reached into his jacket.
Grace pointed a fork.
“Do not.”
Luca froze.
“What?”
“If that is a ring, put it away.”
His face became priceless.
Grace burst out laughing.
“It is!”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I spent three weeks choosing this.”
“That’s sweet.”
“And now you’re laughing.”
“Yes.”
Luca slowly placed the small box on the table.
“I had a speech.”
“You still can.”
“No. The dignity is gone.”
Grace reached across and took his hand.
“Luca.”
He looked at her.
“I’m not saying no.”
His expression shifted.
“I’m saying not tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because this place opened six months ago. Dad came back six months ago. My entire life changed six months ago.”
He listened.
“I love you.”
It was the first time she had said it directly.
Luca stopped breathing.
Grace smiled.
“I want marriage.”
His eyes softened.
“With me?”
“No, Titan.”
The dog lifted his head.
Luca laughed.
Grace continued.
“With you. But I want to choose it when it feels like a beginning, not another thing happening while I’m still learning how to live again.”
Luca closed the box.
“Then I’ll wait.”
“No dramatic disappointment?”
“I have waited through worse.”
Grace leaned over and kissed him.
“Good answer.”
Samuel entered exactly then.
“Was that a proposal?”
Grace groaned.
“Dad.”
Samuel saw the box.
His face lit up.
“She said no?”
“Temporarily,” Luca said.
Samuel looked at Grace.
“Why?”
“Do you want to return to being dead?”
He raised both hands.
“Leaving.”
He did not leave.
He sat and ate pasta.
Months turned into a year.
The federal cases concluded gradually.
Marcus Hale received a substantial prison sentence after pleading guilty to financial crimes, coercion and conspiracy.
Evan received his own sentence.
Vincent avoided charges related to the central scheme but publicly accepted responsibility for lying about Samuel.
Dr. Warren lost his medical license for misconduct.
No ending felt completely clean.
Real consequences rarely did.
But the system was dismantled.
Luca converted remaining questionable Moretti assets into transparent foundations.
The red ledger’s criminal evidence went to authorities.
After court approval, private information unrelated to crime was destroyed.
Grace attended.
She watched pages shredded beyond recovery.
“Antonio’s weapon,” Luca said quietly.
“Gone.”
“Yes.”
“How does that feel?”
He thought.
“Light.”
Grace understood.
They returned home.
Not Moretti House.
Not Grace’s old apartment.
A smaller property near Walker House.
Luca had wanted something enormous.
Grace rejected six bedrooms.
“We know four people.”
“My mother visits.”
“She counts as four people emotionally.”
They compromised.
Three bedrooms.
Large kitchen.
Fenced yard.
Samuel and Helen lived ten minutes away.
Titan moved with Grace.
Technically he remained a Moretti dog.
Nobody was brave enough to tell him.
One Sunday morning, Grace woke to the smell of smoke.
She ran downstairs.
Luca stood in the kitchen.
“Breakfast.”
She stared at black pancakes.
“Is this retaliation?”
“I improved.”
“From what?”
He kissed her.
Titan waited hopefully beside the stove.
Grace took the pan away.
“I’ll cook.”
Luca handed it over without argument.
As Grace prepared breakfast, she looked through the window.
Samuel walked toward the house carrying a toolbox.
Helen beside him.
Teresa’s car pulled into the driveway.
Victor followed for reasons nobody understood.
Luca’s mother had announced she was coming at ten.
The kitchen would soon become loud.
Crowded.
Messy.
Exactly what Grace had asked for.
Luca wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Happy?”
Grace watched her father approach.
“Yes.”
Then she turned.
“One condition.”
“What?”
“When you ask again…”
Luca’s expression changed.
Grace smiled.
“Do it here.”
His eyes dropped toward the kitchen.
“The proposal?”
“Yes.”
“Among burned pancakes?”
“Among family.”
Luca kissed her forehead.
“Understood.”
Grace did not know he had already decided when.
One week later would be the anniversary of the day she first walked through the Moretti gates.
The day six terrifying dogs charged across a courtyard—
and stopped at the feet of a woman carrying groceries.
The day Titan remembered.
Luca intended to ask again exactly where it began.
May you like
And this time, Grace already knew her answer.
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