Page 367 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

SIXTEEN

Siena should have been more involved in her current conversation with Johnathan’s aunt, Kim, but she was a little busy with scanning the room to find her husband. Not that Kim was saying or doing anything to bore Siena, but she felt like her other job tonight was a bit more important than chitchatting about the weather at the moment.

“He just headed into the kitchen,” Kim said to Siena’s left.

Trying to laugh her distraction off, she turned towards the woman at her left only to find Kim was smiling at her as though she didn’t mind at all. “Sorry. I’m being rude, aren’t I?”

Kim shrugged. “I always wanted my eyes on Gio all the time, too. Sometimes, because I thought he was too on edge to be doing these dinners. Other times, it was just that I didn’t want to look away—what if I missed something? I get it.”

Well …

That had Siena nodding.

The woman wasn’t wrong.

Then, Kim asked, “But everything is good, right? I mean, with the baby and you two?”

Usually, questions like those would feel like someone was asking specifically about John’s mental health. Which, of course, would make Siena defensive because she didn’t care to answer those questions. This time, however, it didn’t feel like that at all.

“We’re great,” Siena replied.

It wasn’t a lie.

She and John were great. The baby was still looking and sounding perfect with every appointment she had for the pregnancy. Soon, they would find out the gender of their first child, too. By all accounts, on the surface anyway, things looked fine.

Perfect, even.

But it was what people didn’t know—and the things Siena and John didn’t share—that told another story. Like the fact her husband’s mood had started to severely drop over the last week. He wanted to spend more time standing in a shower or lying in bed than he did doing anything else. He had little to no interest in sex. That only meant one thing when it came to John.

The depression was coming.

Fast.

Well, that was partly a lie. The depression had already arrived. It simply had yet to reach its peak, and Siena wanted to be there when it did. Whether it happened tonight, tomorrow, or next week. John never explicitly said so, and while he talked a hell of a lot less when he was like this, she knew it was easier on him when he did have her and others around that he trusted when he found himself dark with thoughts and feelings that made him believe he was worthless.

Something he could never be.

Not to her.

For Siena, her husband was worth the world.

And more.

Leonard knew. A med change from his therapist had her husband irritated and quick to snap at others and wishing he could sleep more than he had to be awake. Not that he meant to, but it was a real possibility all the same.

Which was every reason why Siena was trying to keep an eye on her husband at this dinner party. Although, for most of the night, John seemed perfectly content and fine in the old Marcello mansion surrounded by his family and friends.

She still wanted to be sure.

Careful.

If someone did mention his mood or the way he whipped back and forth between being up and down—sometimes, it could happen all in a single conversation—and John didn’t want to handle the conversation that would surely follow, then Siena could.

But it was hard to do when he was in the kitchen, and she was in the dining room talking with his aunt.

“Do you mind if I go find him?” Siena asked Kim.

Waving a hand, Kim replied, “Not at all. We can catch up later.”