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Talia punched his arm. “Where’s Skylar?” she asked.
Sandro looked around. “She was going to the ladies’— Oh, there she is.”
Skylar floated out of the crowd, smiling and gorgeous in a pale pink gown that—
Whoa. Tony did a double take, even as she saw him.
“Tony,” she cried.
“Hello, beautiful.” Conscious of the situation’s awkwardness and how Talia must be feeling to meet his former fiancée, he rested his hand low on Talia’s bare back as he leaned in to kiss Sky on the cheek. “This is Talia.”
“Talia,” Sky repeated. The women exchanged reserved smiles, and then Sky, God bless her, pulled Talia in for a hug and kiss. “It’s so great to meet you.”
“I know,” Talia said when they separated, laughing now. “I’ve been wanting to tell you—thank you for dumping Tony.”
“My pleasure,” Sky said, winking at Tony. “You take good care of him, okay?”
“Absolutely.”
“Ah, Sky,” Tony began, eyeing the half basketball she seemed to be sporting under her dress, “is there anything, ah, new?”
“Nooo.” Sky made a show of furrowing her brow and looked to Sandro. “Is there anything new, Sandro?”
Sandro did the same thing, scrunching his face up with mock puzzlement. “No, I don’t think— Well, there is that one thing…”
“Will you two knock it off?” Nikolas leaned across them, cutting his father off and adding an eye roll for effect, even though he was grinning. “Sky’s pregnant,” he announced. “It’s a boy.”
“What?”
“That’s wonderful!”
This news generated a new round of hugs and back slaps, with much excited chatter about nausea, due dates and nurseries. When the smoke finally cleared, Sandro took his clan off to the buffet table for some chow, and Tony kept Talia in his arms because this was a wonderful night and he couldn’t wait another second.
“Wow,” she breathed. “What a night—”
“I’m in love with you,” he told her. “Marry me.”
Talia froze, her smile dying right before his eyes, which was not the thing a man wanted to happen when he put it all on the line like that. Even worse, some darkness reached out and took her from him, extinguishing the light in her personality.
“I—I don’t know what to say.”
Sudden fear made his voice sharp. “That’s easy. Say yes.”
“We need to talk about this later, Tony—”
Later was probably a good idea. They were in the middle of a huge freaking party, after all, not the place where you wanted to have what was turning out to be a heart-wrenching conversation. People surrounded them on all sides, the music was too loud and there was no privacy to be had.
But he couldn’t wait, so he asked the question that had been niggling at him all night. “What’s going on? What’s happened?”
She tried that delaying tactic again. “Let’s get through the party, and then we—”
“Now.”
Her haunted eyes seemed to take up her entire face as she kicked his world out from under him.
“I found a lump this morning. I think the cancer’s back.”
Chapter 12
They got through the rest of the gala somehow.
A million lifetimes later, what had turned into a nightmare evening was finally over and they climbed into a limo and headed back to Talia’s apartment. He stared out his window at the city’s glittering lights; she stared out hers. The car stopped. She murmured something. They got out. There were stairs, so he climbed them. A door opened, so he walked through it. The dog licked his hand, so he petted her.
None of it really existed.
For him, only the waking terror was real. It blinded him. Trapped him. Stopped his breath.
What, then, must it be doing to Talia?
They stared at each other, both locked behind something that felt insurmountable. He wanted to reach for her, but his hands had long ago turned to blocks of ice frozen to the ends of his arms. He wanted to speak, but what words could sooth or address…this?
They stared at each other across the length of her living room.
