AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Imogene kissed me, yes. Just like you said, babe, she. Kissed. Me. And for a moment, I was caught by surprise, frozen, as it were. But I’m guessing you didn’t stay for the next part, because as soon as I realized what was happening, I pushed her off, told her to get the fuck out of my office, and we’ve barely spoken since. That’s it, Ces. That’s all that happened.” He took a deep breath, his dark eyes never wandering from my face, keeping contact the entire time. Begging me to see whatever truth he was trying to impart. “I swear to God, Francesca. I swear on our daughter.I did not kiss Imogene Douglas.”
We stared at each other for a long time, and my entire family remained so still I could hear the water dripping off Xavier’s and Matthew’s soaked clothes back into the sea. Matthew tensed, clearly ready to pounce again. My sisters looked like a set of colorful statues dressed in silk and poly-blend.
But Xavier’s expression never wavered from me. He never even blinked. Those blue eyes held mine in a grip so tight I couldn’t move a single muscle, though I was several feet away.
The tension was too much to endure. I sucked in a breath, squeezed my eyes shut, and exhaled.
“I don’t know,” I croaked. “I don’t know what happened. Not anymore.”
Kate pulled me into her arms, and I sensed a few of my other sisters offering comfort. A hand on my back, another stroking my hair. Warmth and murmured kindness. They might have driven me crazy, but they knew the meaning of support.
This was why I had really gone back to New York. I had never been more glad for it than right now.
Eventually, there was the sound of someone getting out of the water and the slap of wet shoes on the decking until a shadow fell over all five of us. My sisters released me, and I turned to find Xavier dripping on the dock, wearing an expression of such sorrow and disbelief.
For the first time that night, he looked truly vulnerable under the vicious stares of the Zola family.
He chewed his lip a moment, eyes darting between each of us, then fixed his expression on me and spoke again.
“I’m not always a good man,” he said. “I know that.God, I know that. But I promise you with everything I am, Francesca. On Sofia, my mother’s memory, on everything I hold sacred on this earth. I wouldneverhurt you or our child”—he gulped with a quick glance down at my still-flat belly—“childrenthat way. Not ever.”
He dropped to one knee, and every woman on that dock sucked in an audible breath.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Matthew muttered as he swatted at the water by his hips for lack of anything else to hit.
“He isnot,” Joni murmured.
“Hush,” Marie said. “He might be.”
“Oh my God, he wouldn’t,” Lea hummed under her breath.
“Holy crap, I hope not,” Kate agreed.
I couldn’t speak. He wasn’t doing this. Not here. Hewouldn’task me that question now, would he?
He had to know better than that.
Didn’t he?
“Francesca,” Xavier whispered as he took both my hands.
“Y-yes?” I was shivering with nerves.
“I’m on my knees. Begging. Will you—”
I gasped. Oh, God, it was really happening.
“Will youplease…believe me?”
I closed my eyes as my entire body deflated. I couldn’t even look at my siblings. Didn’t even want to know one iota of what they were thinking when that question emerged instead of the other one that had clearly crossed all our minds.
What a difference a single word could make.
“Please say you will,” Xavier continued with a squeeze of my fingers. “I will do anything to make you believe. I swear it.”
Gently, I extricated one of my hands from his and pressed my fingertips to my mouth, unsure how to respond. What exactly was he asking me to say here? Yes? I do? What? Maybe this excused the kiss, a little.
But what about the rest of the summer?
