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I lowered my eyes. “It’s bigger than us, isn’t it?”
I was afraid to look at him again. Afraid to feel my soul bounce around my body, as if he had the other end of the string and tugged it when it suited him. It shouldn’t be like this. Who gave up control this quickly?
“That depends.”
“On?” I searched his eyes for something definitive. I didn’t believe that there was anything but trouble ahead for us. The hotel was an obvious impasse. I was on a short leash, and as soon as my father found a family to partner with, I’d be married.
His fingertips trailed the side of my cheek. I pressed into his open palm.
“How much control we allow our fathers to have,” he replied softly.
The saxophone hit a high note. I felt the shudder carry down my spine and to my ankles. “We aren’t on equal ground. You have a say in your future. I’m no different than Seraphina. You realize that, don’t you? I don’t get to choose.”
There was a hint of pain in his eyes. “What if we could change that?”
I held my breath, waiting for him to answer my prayers. I’d never accepted that I didn’t get to choose my fate. I’d fought it since the day I discovered I was an asset to my father. A bartering tool. A dowry that he would pawn to cash in on a new business or set up a partnership.
I was fifteen when we attended my cousin Gigi’s wedding. I was a bridesmaid. I was too old to be a flower girl. Too young to be responsible for any bride duties. It was an awkward age to be in the wedding party.
The girls took turns fluffing Gigi’s dress in the foyer of the cathedral. It was a huge Catholic Philadelphia wedding. For a second, I held her bouquet. The flower girls had been ushered out. The photographer took pictures. Her father strolled toward her. I tried to hand the bouquet back, but Gigi was pleading with my uncle. She didn’t want to marry Danny. He was nice enough, but she hated his big nose. He wasn’t funny. He didn’t like dogs. I tried to step away, but I was stuck with the bouquet. My uncle’s cheeks turned red and he raised his hand. I thought for a second he was going to slap Gigi, but he lowered it when she extended her hands for the flowers. It was as if he suddenly realized I was there.
I was as humiliated as she was. I whispered to her, but I didn’t know what to say. So, I just told her she looked beautiful. It was all I could think of before I was tossed through the doors and expected to walk down the aisle ahead of her to organ music.
That night after the reception I asked my father if he knew Gigi didn’t want to marry Danny. I asked him if he knew Uncle Gio forced her into it. He loosened his tie and laughed.
“It was a good business deal for Gio. It doesn’t matter what Gigi thinks of Danny. She’s lucky,” my father answered.
I didn’t sleep that night. I tried not to think about my cousin on her way to Rome for her honeymoon, but she was all I could think about. I didn’t want a Danny. I didn’t want a honeymoon in Italy. I didn’t want any of the things that were ahead of me.
I blinked. I didn’t know what Knight thought he could control about my father. It wasn’t possible. Didn’t know Gigi’s? Hadn’t he seen this story end?
“Why don’t we get out of here?” he asked.
“Another bar?” We hadn’t even eaten yet.
He shook his head. “No. Something bigger than that.”
“What do you have in mind? Let me guess. New Orleans’s hottest dance club. Or a dueling piano bar, perhaps,” I teased.
The way his finger traced my jaw, made me shiver. “Far from it.” The growl in his voice, was nothing less than deadly serious. “I’m not talking our date.”
“I’m listening.”
“It’s summer. New Orleans is too damn hot. Let’s get out of the city. Make our own plans.”
“But we don’t know each other.” I studied his face. His gorgeous square jaw. His dark eyes.
“Worried we aren’t compatible, Kennedy?” It sounded like a dare the way he said it.
I shook my head. The truth was I was terrified it was the complete opposite. I was scared he was the person that fit into my life in a way no one had come close.
“We can’t take off,” I stated.
His fingers wound tightly through mine. “We can. Pack a few bags. We hop on a plane and leave New Orleans behind. It’s simple. We go together. Drink our way across Europe. Maybe spend time in the islands. We can go wherever you want first.”
“Until Kimble finds me and drags me back by my hair.” I dropped Knight’s hand. “You know there’s no way I can do anything like that. The consequences are too dangerous. Someone could get killed. My father won’t stand for it.”
He huffed. “Think about it. Think about what we could do this summer.”
