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“The same.”
I palmed my head and looked at him across the table. “And the name.Mary Theresa. Did you name it after your mother?”
“Yes.”
I went back to my fritter. “Why?”
I couldn’t read the expression behind his mirrored glasses.
“Because I couldn’t think of anything else.”
“What was it called before you bought it?”
“The Sea Princess, or some shit like that. I don’t remember.”
“Did you have to do much work on it? Redecorate? Anything like that?” I was desperate for a real conversation.
“No. It was fine the way it was. Now, I have a question for you.”
I sat forward, anxious to share just about anything with him. “Okay. Shoot.”
Dante lowered his glasses. “What happened to the shy, quiet girl who never used to talk?”
I laughed. “She got tired of the world passing her by, of people making decisions without consulting her when she knew she had something to say.” I tried to make light of why I’d forced myself to change, why I’d moved to England and started a new life.
But Dante wasn’t smiling as he listened to me. He studied me with unrelenting eyes.
I put down my fork. “I got tired of going unnoticed. I found my voice.”
If my words hit home with him, then so be it.Hewas part of the reason I changed. I was tired of missing out on the things I wanted most because I was too afraid to chase them. I was always afraid of disappointment, so it was easier not to put myself out there. The whole “you can’t miss what you never had” conundrum.
But it’s a myth. You can miss what you never had and never even realize it until you were face to face with him again.
I toyed with the tines of my fork while Dante continued studying me with an odd expression on his face.
“Why?” I asked bravely, ignoring his advice to not answer questions I didn’t want to know the answers to. Ihadfound my voice, and while the heart of that girl still existed, she learned to go after what she wanted. “You should be glad I changed. We wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t.”
That girl would never have had the nerve to approach Dante in his office and bargain over her virginity just so she could have one night with him.
“Yes, we would have.”
I blinked with confusion at how aggressively Dante answered me. He reached across the table and took my chin between his thumb and forefinger.
“That deal was made the day you came back from England, Noemi. I didn’t know you were home until the damn car ride to the party that night, but when I saw you, when our eyes met across the room... This is why I was pissed off at you for coming home. This was always going to happen, Noemi.”
“I don’t understand,” I gulped. The anger in his eyes made me look away.
“Understand this, then. I liked the shy, quiet girl because she didn’t have the strength to match me. She was lovely, but she didn’t have a hold on me. Not like this girl, not like the woman you’ve become. I don’t like her. I fucking need her. And that makes me mad as hell.”
My breath hitched as I avoided his gaze. That brave girl didn’t have a clue how to handle this. He lied. She wasn’t so strong.
“Look at me, Noemi.”
I glanced quickly in his direction, but a blur caught my eye and I followed the familiar figure from a table not far from us as he hurried from the outdoor cafe.
“Oh, my God.” I looked harder at the man as he skirted around the fence that served as the wall of the outdoor cafe. I clutched Dante’s forearm as recognition dawned.
“What? What is it?” His eyes followed mine, latching onto the man in the cliched Panama hat.
