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His face softened. “You’re welcome. I wanted to hear about this part of your life. Thank you for sharing it.”
Gia blushed. They should be far past the innocent joys of “getting to know you,” but here she was, feeling like an adolescent with her first love. A little backward since they were already married, but she liked the butterflies in her tummy.
She smiled at Jason, wondering again what she could possibly give him to make him half as happy as he made her?
Jason slid into the driver’s seat beside her and looked something up on his phone. Moments later, he revved the engine. It purred out of the parking lot, and she found herself lost in a haze of contentment.
Gia had married her husband because she’d believed they would be happy together, but she’d never had the opportunity to test that theory. After today in particular, she knew she’d been right. Sex in a dressing room wasn’t something she wanted often, but Jason somehow understood her craving for that edge of wild—within a net of safety. He always delivered. She was the one who had failed him, first that summer night long ago when he’d arranged a sensual tryst in the park. She had failed him again when she’d assumed he would want nothing to do with her family problems. She hadn’t stood by their marriage.
“Thank you for refusing to give up on us.”
He turned to her, his stare sharp as he slid to a stop at a red light. “You’re not angry anymore?”
“More than anything, I was afraid. And I felt guilty. I knew so much of the blame for our separation could be laid at my feet. I didn’t think I mattered to you anymore and that you’d ordered me to your condo to punish me.”
“And now?”
“I know you’re trying to put us back together. Our last nine days have been better than anything I could have dreamed.”
Gia had a hard time admitting all that when Jason wouldn’t tell her that he loved her. But he cared. Neither of them was perfect. Maybe they would grow together in time. Maybe…but it still bugged her. Could she live the rest of her life feeling his adoration but never hearing the three most powerful words a husband could give his wife? Were they a cliché or some vital glue that held a marriage together?
Jason reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze, then punched on the gas pedal when the light turned green again. “I’m relieved to hear you say that. We have another nine days together, and I’ll enjoy every minute of them. But I would enjoy it more if you told me you would stay beyond our anniversary.”
“It’s crossed my mind. We have some issues to work through if we’re going to try.”
“We do. And I want to start now.”
With those cryptic words, Jason took her hand from his and gripped the steering wheel. His stare on the road looked somewhere between focused and grim.
“What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer right away, and she stared at the clock. Five forty. Her family would just be sitting down to her dad’s birthday dinner. She hadn’t had the chance to drop her father’s birthday gift off at the restaurant, and it was too late now. Gia cursed under her breath. She would just have to hang onto it until her father’s actual birthday.
She pictured her family chatting, singing, moaning over good food. They would miss having her there. The kids must be confused. She’d been a constant in their lives for the last year, and not seeing them felt like someone had punched a hole in her heart. They were so close to the restaurant… Gia thought of telling Jason about the gathering and suggesting they go. But as she glanced down at her three-thousand-dollar outfit and the gorgeous rock on her finger, she knew her parents would be shocked. If she remained Jason’s wife, she would tell her family when they’d married and why she’d hidden the union from them, but not while they celebrated her father’s birthday. Not in public. Not when she wasn’t sure if she and Jason had a future.
As the familiar streets passed, she focused on Jason’s strong profile and waited for an answer. Finally, he turned off one of the town’s main drags and down an ancillary street, slowing down as they approached Delvecchio’s. Her heart stopped as he pulled into the parking lot.
Crap! He’d overheard her on the phone with Mila earlier. “Jason…”
He shoved the car in park and turned to her. “You admitted that we have some issues to work through. The fact that I haven’t met your family is a huge obstacle. I want to remove it now. Hell, do they even know we dated?”
No. She’d been worried when she’d met Jason that her folks wouldn’t understand. He represented so many things her old-school, old-world parents didn’t like—establishment and money. He’d never worked with his hands. He wasn’t a part of the Church. No one in her family—not a single one of her sixteen cousins—had married anyone who wasn’t both intensely Italian and devoutly Catholic. She didn’t care about any of that, but her parents would. They would understand even less that she’d concealed her marriage from them.
Most of all, she didn’t want to put her family through this upheaval unless she believed that she and Jason could truly make a life together.
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s not,” he contradicted. “I’m not who they would have chosen for you. I understand that, but it’s your life and ultimately your choice. You say they ‘love’ you.”
“They do, but?—”
“No buts. If they value your happiness, then they will allow you to make the best decision for you and respect it. Am I wrong?”
“You’re oversimplifying. They’re parents; they always think they know best.”
“You’re an adult with your own life.”
He was absolutely right. “But they’ve been the biggest part of it for years. I couldn’t do without them.”
