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“So what am I not supposed to know?” Donna asked lightly.
Marisa threw her a sidelong look. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Hmm...it looks like it’s more than just business between you and Cole Serenghetti.”
Marisa felt a telltale wave of heat rise to her face. “Just doing a favor to thank him for participating in the fund-raiser,” she mumbled. “Besides, I thought it would be fun. You love cooking shows. Didn’t you have fun?”
“Yes, I did,” Donna agreed, “and part of it was the enjoyment of watching you and Cole interact. He looked as if he couldn’t wait to be alone with you.”
“Mom!”
Donna turned to face her. “You’re a beautiful, desirable woman, Marisa. I know what a prize my daughter is. Cole would be foolish not to be interested i
n you.”
There was the problem in a nutshell. She wasn’t sure where she and Cole stood—where pretending left off and reality began. And whether they were just hooking up with no possibility of a future together.
“Camilla Serenghetti, for one, believes something is going on, and she couldn’t be happier about it. She said she’s heard rumors around town...” Donna sighed and then gave her a long-suffering look. “The mothers are always the last to know.”
Marisa sighed herself, not having the heart for further denials. “Cole and I have a complicated past.”
“All relationships are complicated, honey. But what I saw in there was Cole eating you up with his eyes.”
“Mom, please!” she protested, because she wasn’t used to such frank talk from her mother.
Donna laughed. “Honey, I’m acquainted with the attractiveness of pro athletes.”
“Of course you are.”
Her mother looked at her probingly. “I hope your hesitancy about Cole doesn’t have anything to do with what happened between me and your father.”
They stopped at the closed door leading out of the building.
When Marisa didn’t say anything, Donna added, “Oh, honey, if baseball hadn’t broken us up, something else would have. We were too young.”
Yup, Marisa could identify with the tragedy of young love. She and Cole had been there themselves.
Still, she was surprised by her mother’s toned-down reaction. Ever since Marisa had discovered the truth in her twenties about her parents’ relationship—that her biological father was out of the picture even before an accident had claimed his life—she’d assumed her mother would be averse to professional athletes and their lifestyle.
Sure, her mother had been matter-of-fact when she’d finally detailed the circumstances around her pregnancy, but Marisa had assumed her mother had adopted that attitude for her daughter’s sake. Marisa had vivid memories of exactly what sacrifices had been involved in her upbringing, and she figured her mother did, too, and despite hiding it well, couldn’t help but be infected with some bitterness.
It appeared she was wrong—at least these days.
“You know, Mom,” Marisa said jokingly, “marriage really has changed your outlook on life.”
“Older and wiser, honey,” Donna replied. “But the events in my life that you’re referring to also happened a long time ago. I had time to move past them and get on with it. And I have never, ever regretted having you. You were a gift.”
Tears sprung to Marisa’s eyes. “Oh, Mom, stop.”
Donna gave her a quick squeeze and then laughed lightly. “Enough about Cole Serenghetti, you mean? Well, let me know what happens there. Sometimes mothers would like to move up from last on the totem pole!”
Ten
Marisa looked around the glittering ballroom where the Pershing Shines Bright fund-raiser was being held. The Briarcliff was a popular event venue on the outskirts of Welsdale. It was also one of the locations she’d scouted for her wedding to Sal.
That last thought made her realize how much had changed—how much she’d changed—in the past several months. The man uppermost in her mind was Cole, not Sal.
Because tonight was bittersweet. She was relieved the fund-raiser had come together as a nice event. Thanks to Cole, they’d sold more tickets than she’d ever hoped for, and Jordan was a hit, as well. But even though she and Cole had not talked further about it, after this evening they were scheduled to drop their charade about being a couple.
