The Mobster's Girl

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Six

Stella and Jack had been in New York for nearly a month, and they were loving every minute of it. Mostly Stella, since she'd never visited the city before, and Jack was enjoying seeing her reaction to everything.

In between her rehearsals, they'd been to multiple shows on Broadway, had gone to what felt like a million different restaurants, and gone to Coney Island and seen The Statue of Liberty numerous times. At Coney Island, Stella had convinced Jack to try a roller coaster with her, and ended up loving it, while poor Jack got sick after the ride, and refused to go on any other rides. From then on, the two opted to just play the carnival games and stroll the boardwalk, and people-watched as they did so.

On their first trip to The Statue of Liberty, Jack had managed to rent out the crown for just the two of them, although he was disappointed that he wasn't able to go into the torch, due to complications from World War I.

They had stayed up in the crown for some time, just taking in the views. It was like nothing Stella had ever seen before, and she couldn't take her eyes off of it.

"I'd like to live near the ocean again," Stella had commented. "Can you imagine waking up to a view like this every day?"

Growing up, her parents would take Stella and her brother for seaside picnics, and would make a weekend out of it. They'd stay in a cottage by the ocean, which would give her father a nice break from his career in politics. It was one of Stella's fondest memories, and about the only time she could think of that her parents didn't constantly pit her and her brother against each other. They'd stopped going when Stella had turned fifteen, as her father had gotten too busy, and Stella and her mother could never get along, so her father had tried to blame it on Stella's attitude instead.

Jack pulled Stella close to him, then kissed her forehead.

"I'll buy you a house with this kind of view," he promised, his tone serious. "You tell me where, and we can start looking."

Stella pulled away from Jack slightly, and tilted her face up towards him, a frown on her face.

"Jack Moretti, I will not allow you to buy me a house," she replied sternly.

He simply smiled. "Maybe I want a house near the ocean," he said with a shrug. "You can simply just come live with me."

"That's technically the same thing," she pointed out.

Still, Stella couldn't get rid of the image in her head of her and Jack living together in a house on the coast, the windows in their house open, the ocean air drifting in.

Jack was also making a mental note to begin looking at real estate in different markets, so he would have options to show Stella. He knew that a house together was an extremely large step, especially after dating for a couple of months, but Jack had never felt the way he did about Stella with any other woman he'd been with, and he didn't want to stop to think about any possible repercussions. He was only focusing on how wonderful he felt when he was with her, and wanted to stay on that high for as long as possible.

He also loved to see her smile, and wanted to do everything in his power to keep her happy. If buying her a house on the coast would help make her smile, he'd buy her 100 houses.

In between all the sightseeing, Stella had been attending rehearsals every day, with the exception of days off on Saturdays and Sundays, and she was loving it, but was always exhausted after every rehearsal.

She felt like she wasn't supposed to be there, and kept thinking that they'd kick her out and find someone else with more experience to replace her. Christopher, the writer of the play, was critiquing her often, more harsh on her than he was with her costar, Will, and it could be disheartening at times, and only made her imposter syndrome worse.