Page 74 of Vow

Again.

What kind of shitty luck did she have to keep randomly running into this man? At least with Andino, she was the one who went to him. With his father, it seemed like the world was just having a good fucking laugh at her expense.

“Giovanni, hi,” Haven said.

The man smiled warmly.

On the phone, Dale’s voice filtered back through Haven’s shock. “Are you still there?”

Shit.

She gave Giovanni an apologetic shrug of her shoulder, and pointed at the phone before mouthing, just give me a second. “Yeah, Dale, I’m still here. I have to go—something came up.” Or someone, rather. “Give me a call when you need my signature.”

“Will do, Haven. Have a great day.”

“You, too.”

Haven shut the phone off, and tucked it into her purse at her side. By the time she gave her attention to Andino’s father again, the man was staring at the paperwork from the inspector and the investor with a dip in his brow, and a curious smile.

Haven cleared her throat, and Gio glanced at her. “Do you come here often?”

“A couple of times a week. They have my wife’s favorite Danishes.”

“Ah. I just needed something to eat fast, and this was the closest place.”

“It’s a good choice,” Gio replied, still smiling kindly. “They have great food.”

“Good to know.” Haven closed the folder, which again drew in Gio’s gaze, and then proceeded to pack the stuff into her oversized purse. “Also, for future reference, because it seems like we keep running into each other … but you don’t have to say hello to me just to be polite. I know you probably wish you didn’t have to see me at all, so—”

“Oh, you couldn’t be more wrong about that,” Gio interrupted her with a soft laugh, “but I suppose, all things considered, you can’t be expected to know anything different. Right?”

Haven blinked, and looked up at the man. “I beg your pardon?”

Giovanni shrugged his shoulders beneath the well-tailored black blazer he wore. Just like his son, the man was broad-shouldered, tall, and classically handsome. He also gave off an air that screamed bad news, old money, and a lifetime worth of secrets he probably wasn’t willing to share.

It was almost funny how alike he and his son were in those ways.

“I mean,” Giovanni said, sliding into the chair across the table from Haven without even being invited, “that I think it’s a shame we haven’t really been able to have an actual conversation. Knowing some of the things I do about you, that seems like it’s my loss.”

His loss.

His loss to not speak to her.

“Uh,” Haven said, still unsure.

Giovanni flashed her a wide smile. “I always thought … well, knowing my son and how he is, the woman who eventually came into his life and took it over would have to be something amazing. Mind you, all the men in our family have managed to find a wife that fits him just the way she needs to. They’re all amazing in their own ways. But my son? He went out and found someone I never expected, but I still can’t find it in myself to be surprised.”

“Why?”

She didn’t want to ask the question, really, but it still managed to slip out. Damn her curiosity straight to hell and back. It only served to get her hurt.

“Because Andino is not average, and he does not come from average men,” Gio said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “He is not the exception; he is exceptional. You see, I always thought my son was more like his uncle—the one you met at the club with me, Dante. A stickler for the rules; always toeing the line; never questioning his place or the demands put on him. Certainly nothing like me.”

Gio laughed in that way again—dark, and deep. “Not like me, Haven, who broke every rule I could, and caused the most trouble for my family. Not like me who went after a woman I was not allowed to have, and nearly got myself and her killed for it in the process. No, he wasn’t like me at all. He was smarter than me, and better than me. It was for the best, anyway. Someone decided when he was just sixteen that he was going to be a king-in-waiting, but they didn’t want to tell him, then. He didn’t need to know then. Either way, he was going to do great things while I had only done the bare minimum. He was destined to be someone I could never be. I only managed to keep myself alive. That was a feat in itself, believe me.”

Haven didn’t know what to say.

Gio wasn’t looking for a reply, apparently.