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At least we were out of the pretend sleep phase.
“What happened? Did someone hurt you?” I demanded.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“It’s just….” A hiccup escaped her. “It’s my father’s birthday today.”
My breath snuck out, leaving me wanting.
Fuck! Why had I asked?
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to deal with this. I wasn’t great with emotion, and I didn’t know how to start now. My mother never showed anything except anger, and even my father rarely indulged in it. Now I had to console my wife out of the grief she felt for someone she had obviously deeply loved and missed.
“I don’t know what to say,” I muttered.
“Nothing. There is nothing to say. You didn’t know them.”
There was a small part of me that was jealous of these two people I had never met but had somehow been the centre of her world. It had been the three of them against everyone, and I wasn’t part of it.
Like hell. I wasn’t about to let her push me out.
I flipped her around and tilted her tear-stained face to me. “Tell me then. Tell me what I don’t know about them.”
“Like you’d care,” she snapped, trying to scamper away.
I swear she was a test to my patience. I held on to her tight. “Try me anyway.”
She eyed me suspiciously. “All right. What do you want to know?”
“Whatever you want to tell me.”
“I am not sure he would have liked you,” she mused.
No surprise there. I wouldn’t give my own daughter to me. “Tell me what he would have said.”
“He wouldn’t have trusted your motives. He was very protective of me, you know,” she chided.
“Rightly so.” I tucked the loose strand of hair behind her ear. “My motives are as dirty as they get.” I dropped my eyes suggestively to her breasts, getting a flush out of her skin. “What else?”
“He would have still supported my decision, though…. He was that kind of dad. Same as my mum. Even if they didn’t agree with me, they would still support me.”
“Goals to live up to,” I murmured, tucking her closer to me.
I listened to her talk of them with so much love in her voice. Something crawled under my skin because I didn’t know how to help her with this pain she carried.
They were good people. I discovered her more through them. Two people who had given me this gift tucked into my arms.
What did Marco and Angelo know anyway about the intricacies of marriage? Especially one like mine with a contract and an end date on it. I knew what was right, and not telling her now was it. What I needed was time and a plan of action. So when I finally told her, she would forgive me and not let go.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
DIVYA
Cora crept on top of me while I lay down on her thick rubber play mat. Using her dimpled hands, she grabbed my blouse and pulled herself up onto my body, settling in when her drool-covered face was hanging above mine.
There really was no dress code with this one. My crushed cotton blouse and naked waist were evidence of that.
