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“What?” he asked surprised.
“That sounds like something Giovanni would say.”
He smiled widely. “Really? You chat with Giovanni about his sexual proclivities?”
My mouth dropped open. “We’re talking about sex?” My eyes skittered back and forth over our conversation before dropping to his mug. “So, you’re sweet?”
His eyebrows rose as he considered. His voice, when he finally spoke, sounded slightly breathless. “I think, for you, I could be.”
“You said ‘otherwise’,” I reminded him softly.
He winced. “I did. You terrify me.”
The tips of my fingers came to rest above my breasts in surprise. “Me?”
He gave me a half-smile. “You.”
“Why?”
He looked away from me, his eyes trained on the street outside. “Because there is only one of you.”
“I don’t understand what that means,” I admitted softly.
He looked back at me, his expression resigned. “Perhaps I’ll tell you one day. In the meantime, can I take you out for dinner?”
“Dinner,” I repeated stupidly. I contemplated the turmoil of emotions he stirred in me. “I can’t do this hot and cold. I don’t like to play games.”
“I understand it looks like that.” He sighed. “I didn’t have the best childhood. I wasn’t beaten or abused or anything, just kind of ignored. I don’t know how to ‘relationship’. I’m sorry for making you feel I was only playing.”
“I’m not sure what to say…”
I fiddled with the edge of my jacket. The warrior, the witch, the mother, and the siren conferred loudly inside me.
The siren was winning.
Surprisingly, the mother was on her side.
“My mom died giving birth to me. My dad remarried when I was four and my stepmother couldn’t stand me. I guess I was a handful. A little bit hyper. Some learning differences. I was difficult and she wanted easy. If I wasn’t out at school, camp, or some other program, she made me stay in my room until my dad came home. Even then, she complained about me so incessantly, I chose to stay in my room so I didn’t have to hear it.”
My mouth fell open in shock, then snapped shut in anger.
He thought he wasn’t abused?
I reached across the table and tucked my hand under his, somehow knowing he would not accept me covering him. “That’s… that’s… She sounds horrible. Why did your dad marry her?”
He considered my small hand under his, then slowly curled his much larger hand around it. “She was pregnant.” He squeezed my fingers. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that seeing you with that man, for reasons I cannot fathom, infuriated me, and I lashed out at you.”
“You wouldn’t be furious if you knew how it happened.”
“Not sure I’m ready for the stories behind your dates,” he muttered.
I waved him away, laughing. “It wasn’t a date, but I’m not sure you’re ready for that story either.” I ducked my head. He never shared with me before. Would he venture further?
“You have siblings?”
“Half,” he replied shortly, then the ghost of a smile softened his face. “Two brothers and a sister who is thirteen years younger than me.”
“You love your sister,” I stated, the answer clear.
