“What I meant was maybe he’d go see his folks or take a vacation or do anything other than be here when you arrived.”
“Right.” Sergio scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Because being around me is the worst thing ever.”
“Well, you do have to admit, Sergio, that you don’t have the best track record.”
“Excuse you, but Jeremy dumped me four years ago, not the other way around. I don’t see you being all concerned about my feelings.”
Rose laughs again. “Jeremy asking for you to slow things down while he needed to focus is hardly dumping.”
“Alright, I’ll give you that,” Sergio concedes. “But I need you to know, I have nothing but the best intentions for something between me and Jeremy now. I really meant it when I said I’m in love with him.”
Rose studies him. Her gaze is penetrating, looking for any clue that Sergio is full of shit. For once in their relationship, she’s not going to find evidence of that. Sergio is going to make sure of it. He takes a breath and sits up taller, sets his shoulders back and stares at her with determination.
“You know,” she says and presses her lips together. The top of the mountain and the end of their ride come into view. “For some reason, I think I might actually believe you.”
“Really?” Sergio asks with a lift in his voice as the chairlift deposits them back on the ground.
“Yeah.” She turns to look up at him at the top of the slope. Her lips twist to the side as she considers him. “You’re too prideful to have been this vulnerable in front of me for you to be lying.”
“Rose, I’m not lying to you.”
She jabs him in the arm, and her ski pole knocks into his shin. “Did you not hear me? I said I can tell you’re not lying.”
He feels a rush of relief, but his conversation with her still isn’t quite sitting right. His eyes soften. “Did you really mean it when you said you wished we hadn’t come?”
“No.” Her shoulders slump. “I am glad you and Adrien are here. It’s all Holden and Henry could talk about for weeks, and youarehelpful. Particularly with Henry.” She reaches and places a hand on his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have taken my nerves out on you.”
“Better me than Holden,” Sergio says with a half-smile and raised eyebrows.
“Believe me.” She laughs. “He gets it, too.”
“But he still loves you.”
“He does.”
“And I love Jeremy. I could be his Holden.”
“Oh, God no. We do not need two of you.”
“I think you mean three.” Sergio waggles his eyebrows. “Have you met your son?”
Her lips pull into a tight smile, and she nods her head. She visibly swallows before she says, “They’re so much alike.”
Sergio gives her shoulder a slight push. “He’s a lot like you, too, you know. You have stiff competition as to who’s going to avenge Jeremy the hardest if I fuck this up.”
“Then I guess you better not fuck it up,” she says with a wink, then takes off like a bullet down the mountain, calling over her shoulder as she goes, “Race you to the bottom!”
“You’re on!” Sergio yells as he pushes off to chase after her.Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.
Rose turns around, looking over the front seat into the back, when Holden pulls the car into the garage after their afternoon of skiing. “Can you grab Henry from Jeremy?” she asks Sergio directly. There’s a hint of warning in her eyes. A reminder to Sergio that he’s not entirely out of the woods with her yet. He still needs to tread carefully. “I need to get cleaned up and start getting ready for tonight.”
“Sure thing,” Holden says.
Sergio claps Holden on the shoulder. “She was talking to me, man.”
“Oh!” Holden says, surprised. “Well, this is a turn of events.”
“You’re telling me,” Sergio says with a little laugh. He turns to look back at Rose and silently mouths, “Thank you” to her.
