“That he did.”
“But why name the dogCatand the catDog?”
“I guess I don’t like things always going one way, the same way, the expected way. Like a girl having a rat for a pet. That’s not expected.”
She smiled. “I guess not.”
He propped himself up on one elbow. With his other hand, he ran his finger along her collarbone. “Nico, when we were locked in that room in Barcelona, while you were asleep, I grabbed your racing suit to cover yourlegs because it was getting cold, and a photo and a piece of paper dropped out.” He paused. “I wasn’t snooping. They just fell out and I picked them up. I put them back. But I did look at them before I did. I’m sorry.”
Nico clutched his hand in hers and kissed it. “You don’t have to be sorry.”
She wondered what her face must have looked like to make him think he should be and felt a small pang.
“The photo is of my mother, and the drawing is of my grandfather.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“It’s the only photo I have of my mother. I don’t have any of my grandfather. Well, one that was given to me after he died. But you can’t see his face. So, I draw a sketch of him every day so I don’t forget what he looked like.”
Now he’s going to ask you why you have only one photo of your mother and none of your grandfather.
She waited. But the questions didn’t come.
He lowered his head and kissed her forehead. A tender kiss. “Your nonno was a lucky man. To be loved like that by you.”
He swept his thumbs gently across her lashes and down the sides of her face, sweeping the tears away.
Should she tell him? If not all of it, some of it?
She thought back to those things she’d admitted during that Never Have I Ever game. Should she tell him the truth about her being handcuffed to a bedpost? Tell him that Uncle Jack and Aunt Milly had done it in those early days to make certain she wouldn’t run away when they went out? Should she tell him Uncle Jack and Aunt Milly weren’t really her uncle and aunt? They were just a couple of grifters who found it useful to have a little girl when trying to con people.
Should she tell him about the black eye and the scar? That Mickey, the man she’d run away with when she was sixteen, had given them to her. That when she’d refused to do something he’d asked her to do and he told her it was okay and kissed her, that as he’d kissed her, he’d sliced the back of her head with a knife.
She shivered.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
She shook her head.
He must be wondering about the scar.
She stiffened every time he touched it.
It was one thing to tell him about Uncle Jack and Aunt Milly. But Mickey? She was older then. She was that woman he met on New Year’s Eve in Drink and Dive. How could she tell him that? If she did, he would never look at her the same way again. He would never say her grandfather was a lucky man to be loved by her. All this would be gone.
Rocco watched her swallow. He could see her throat was tight. It seemed difficult for her to tell him even this much about her past.
He wondered about that scar. Whenever he touched it, she became rigid. He tried not to because he could feel her body grow cold; but sometimes in the midst of his passion and their lovemaking, it happened by accident.
He wanted to tell her she didn’t have to tell him about it, but if she wanted to, she could. He wanted her to know she could trust him. He had the feeling that trust didn’t come easy for her. And he knew what that felt like.
In a week, they’d be back to racing. It was hard to believe, given neither one of them had talked about it. He suspected Nico might have told Charles about their relationship. But he’d told no one. Not even Dario.
He’d intended to tell his cousin and had phoned him when he’d gone out for coffee, but then decided against it, recalling the concern Dario had expressed about this very thing. He hadn’t even told Dario that Nico had come with him to visit his family.
His family knew. They knew without him telling them a thing. He could see it on their faces. But of course, they would leave it to him to make the news public. Did he want to? Did she want to?
He hated to think about what the press would do with such information. How Casey and the team would react. The other drivers. Even Dario might make things difficult. And Carolyn?
