Free Bellissimo Lotta (Beautiful Struggle): Companion Novel to Bellissimo Fortuna (The Family Trilogy Book 2) by Leigh Ann Lunsford

with me.”
    “Oh, Bronson and my dad will love that.”
    “Shit.” The thought of her dad terrifies me. He’s been nice, but he doesn’t know I’ve had my dick in his daughter.
    “See, nothing but change. Nothing but hurdles.”
    “We can do it. We can survive this.”
    “Don’t break my heart, Dakota.”
    “I promise. Now give me the words I want to hear.”
    “I love you. I love us. I want this.” I claim her mouth. Soft and easy, pouring each and every ounce of love into this one kiss.
    “Was that so hard?” I whisper against her lips.
    “Yes, but something else is harder.” She giggles. And then? Then I show my girl just how much I love her.
     
     

     
     
    I hated walking across that stage and getting my diploma. Karma is biting me in the ass. All the shit I gave Bronson about altering his life, changing the plans we had set in stone, is now the replica of my life. I seem to be drowning in self-doubt. I want to be the one at a college closer, I want to be the one spending every day protecting and loving Bianca. I told her I love her, and it was like a floodgate was released inside of me; everything we had tried to deny or hide is in the open, and it’s become my healing. My salvation. I’m letting go of the anger and pain from Dana’s murder, I’ve stopped focusing on retribution and justice, I’m absorbed in the here and now. In. love. In life.
    Sure, it’s an uphill battle with Bianca . . . constantly trying to pull her from succumbing to her fear. Tonight is no different. “Come here, babe. Give me a kiss.”
    Her smile isn’t reaching her eyes; the light in them has dimmed significantly over the past week. “Congratulations, Dakota. I’m proud of you.”
    Her monotone voice is convincing me of that. “Really? You trying to convince yourself or me?”
    “Why are you so difficult? I am happy for you. I’m just freaking out.”
    “Why?”
    “You’ll be gone. Experiencing college. I don’t want to be in the way of that.”
    “Talking to you is like trying to squish water. It will be fine. We will be fine.”
    “ Fine . I hate that word. In my mind it doesn’t mean happy or unhappy. I don’t want fine.”
    “Bianca, haven’t you heard absence makes the heart grow fonder?”
    “Where the hell did you get that? Google University? Inspiration Quotes 101?” Her smart mouth just makes me want to silence it.
    “Come here,” I stress to her. When she complies, with a smirk of her own, I seal my mouth over hers and pour all my hope into this kiss. Hope she knows that I love her. Hope she will let things progress and grow. Hope she can let her qualms go and embrace the life I want to share with her. I raise my lips from her, I bend and kiss her shoulder and feel her quake against me. I wrap my arms tighter, urging my love to seep into her.
    “I love when you do that.”
    “What?”
    “Kiss my shoulder.” Her eyes bore into me, showing me how my touch makes her feel out of control yet somber at the same time. I reach a place inside of her that nobody ever has.
    “Anytime, babe.” I kiss it again.
    “It’s like the quiet of the storm. That little gesture means more to me than I can explain. It’s not calculated, it just is .”
    “You were made for me, Bianca. I promise you it will be okay. You and Callie will be there in a year, and it will be like we were never apart. You can come on the weekends when I don’t come home.”
    “I know. I’m just being a girl.”
    “That’s allowed. I like you all soft like this.”
    “I don’t.”
    It all boils down to that. She runs from emotions, from feelings. She believes that if she doesn’t acknowledge them, they can’t hurt her. Little does she know, she has me in the palm of her hand and has the ability to destroy me. Our struggle to find a balance is daunting. I push, she stands firm. I back off, she pursues me. I love her, she wants to ignore it. She loves me, I drown in it. I would love things to be on an even keel, but I