Page 34 of The Boss

Shit.

“What?” I yelp.

“Don’t be mad at him. I was very hormonal that day, and I needed to hear something good. So Alonso spilled the beans to me after Drew told him.”

Great, Gino’s plan worked.

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you. It’s new and with everything going on, we⁠—”

She grabs my hand. “Hey, it’s okay, I promise. I’m happy for the two of you, really.”

I swallow and nod.

After a few hours of us combing over everything, I feel like we’ve hit a wall. Vanessa and Alonso leave. I know I should make dinner, but I’m not in the mood for it.

I stare at the wall, overthinking the conversation with Vanessa. If she finds out we’re lying, she’ll be crushed.

After who knows how long, someone sits next to me.

“Hey, you okay?” I hear a voice ask. It’s Gino.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Vanessa knows or thinks we’re together. If she finds out, she’ll be devastated that we lied to her,” I reply.

“I know that’s why we don’t tell her,” he says back.

“How do you expect this to end, Gino? Honestly. When this is all over, how are we going to explain to everyone we’re not dating, but what? We’re still friends? We’ll still run a business together?” I say, getting frustrated because this could go down terribly.

“We’ll figure that out when we get there,” he says softly.

“I knew you weren’t thinking clearly when you made this decision. You just decided it and didn’t assess it like you normally do,” I scoff at him.

He doesn’t respond; he just looks at me.

“Jules,” he sighs, “maybe I did rush into this, but I don’t regret it, not for a fucking second.”

“Okay, but you need to talk to your sister more. She's strong; she won’t falter like you think she will,” I say, hoping I can get the point across to him.

“I know. But I can’t stress her too much.”

“You not telling her things is stressing her out. She thinks the reason you’re not keeping her updated is because it’s bad news.”

Gino and I, since Mateo’s kidnapping, have had this conversation more than once. What to tell Vanessa, and what not to. She’s smart and similar to Gino in her ability to detect bullshit. If he fed her a lie, she’d catch it, so he decides to just keep things from her. Eventually, it will crater their relationship. And when Mateo comes back, it could ruin their friendship. Mateo has made it obvious since he and Vanessa got married that nothing is above her. He will tell her everything he can, and Gino needs to start doing the same, but we both know he won’t.

The only person who could probably get him to see reason was Mateo’s mom, Isabel; she was like a mother to Gino. He’d go to her for advice about everything. I only met her once before she died, but she seemed to have everyone following a high standard of respect and trust. Antonio was not allowed to talk about mafia business in front of Gino and Mateo until they were adults in her house. But everyone knows he tried to tell them early, and she somehow knew.

And I know Isabel would get under his skin about lying to her daughter-in-law, who I know she would have loved.

I put everything away and start to get up. But Gino stops me, grabbing my arm and guiding me to sit back down.

“Jules, I will take all the blame for this. But this isn’t going to stop me from my plan,” he whispers.

“And what’s that?”I whisper back.

“I’m not telling you that.” Then he winks and walks away.

I watch him, and when he gets to the bottom of the stairs, he turns and looks back at me.

“I already ordered dinner. I got us some food from the French restaurant you like,” he says.