Chapter 4 - Business reporters resurrected every story ever written about Dominic’s father.
Anthony was indicted for fraud and conspiracy with several non-family associates.
Dominic’s stock holdings lost value.
For three brutal weeks, Claire watched from Philadelphia as commentators debated whether Dominic’s cooperation was genuine reform or calculated self-preservation.
She called him one night.
“You okay?”
“No.”
The answer made her sit straighter.
Dominic rarely admitted exhaustion.
“What happened?”
“One of the hotel lenders is threatening to pull financing.”
“Can you stop them?”
“Probably.”
“Will you?”
“I’ll try.”
She heard something in his voice.
“Dominic.”
“Yes?”
“Are you sorry you disclosed the audit?”
The line went quiet.
“No.”
“Even if you lose money?”
“Yes.”
“Even if your family hates you?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Claire smiled softly.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Because I’m about to say something important and I’d hate to waste it on a man who failed probation.”
Dominic went silent.
Claire’s heart pounded.
“I love you.”
Nothing.
“Dominic?”
“I’m here.”
“You’re supposed to respond.”
“I’m trying not to ruin this.”
She laughed through sudden tears.
“I love you too.”
“See? That wasn’t difficult.”
“You have no idea.”
A year after the day they met, Claire returned to Palmetto Crown with Dominic, Jenna, and the same friends who had witnessed the original checklist.
They sat on the same terrace.
The Atlantic glittered beyond the railing.
Dominic had just stepped away to answer a call when Jenna leaned across the table.
“So.”
Claire narrowed her eyes.
“No.”
“We need an update.”
“On what?”
“Your perfect man.”
The other women laughed.
Claire saw Dominic returning.
An idea appeared.
She raised her voice.
“Well, he definitely shouldn’t be too rich.”
Dominic slowed.
Jenna bit her lip.
Claire continued.
“Not too handsome.”
One of Dominic’s eyebrows rose.
“And absolutely not powerful.”
He stopped beside the table.
Claire kept going.
“He should have a completely ordinary job.”
Dominic folded his arms.
Her friends were shaking with laughter now.
“And obviously,” Claire said, “under no circumstances should he be connected to organized crime.”
Dominic pulled out the chair beside her.
“I feel personally attacked.”
Claire looked up innocently.
“Were you listening?”
“Apparently this terrace has terrible acoustics.”
“Tragic.”
He leaned closer.
“Do I still have a chance?”
Claire pretended to consider the question.
“Maybe one exception.”
“Who?”
She caught the front of his shirt and pulled him closer.
“One extremely annoying man who carries my mother’s grocery bags.”
Dominic kissed her.
Her friends cheered.
When he sat back down, Jenna raised her glass.
“I still think the checklist was ridiculous.”
Claire looked at Dominic.
He was not perfect.
He still became controlling when frightened and had to stop himself.
He still had a temper that could freeze a room.
He carried the consequences of a family history he could reform but never erase.
He still answered his mother before the second ring.
Especially that.
But Claire no longer believed love was about finding someone who arrived already completed.
She had once written rules because rules felt safer than hope.
Then she met a man who failed the easiest requirement and spent the next year proving himself on the difficult ones.
A man wealthy enough to buy almost anything who had learned that forgiveness could not be purchased.
A man powerful enough to control entire companies who had finally become secure enough not to control her.
A man who discovered that admitting he was wrong did not make him weak.
It made him trustworthy.
Dominic took Claire’s hand beneath the table.
“What?” he asked when he caught her staring.
She smiled.
“I was just checking your score.”
“And?”
“Still classified.”
He sighed.
“One year and I’m still on probation?”
“You’re dating a teacher. Assessment is continuous.”
“That feels legally questionable.”
“Call one of your excellent attorneys.”
Dominic laughed.
Then Claire rested her head against his shoulder while the afternoon sun spread gold across the Atlantic.
A year earlier, she had loudly described the perfect man because she no longer believed he existed.
A few feet away, a stranger had secretly measured himself against her list.
He failed it.
Completely, in one especially inconvenient category.
But the list had never really been about wealth, looks, grocery bags, or intimidating last names.
It had been about something Claire had almost stopped believing she deserved.
Choice.
Respect.
Truth.
Kindness without an audience.
Dominic Russo never became her perfect man.
He became something more difficult and more real.
An imperfect man who learned that love was not proving he deserved to possess someone.
It was becoming the kind of person she could freely choose.
May you like
And every morning after that, Dominic still answered his mother’s phone calls before the second ring.
Some requirements, Claire decided, had been perfect from the beginning.
Related Stories
