“She was my sister, and I loved her,” Mimi declared, enraged.
But beneath the anger was that flicker of warmth that he had seen how exhausting Pia could be with her incessant competitiveness and petty jealousies and complex mind games. “I’m not hung up over Santo, for God’s sake. Honestly, it didn’t take me long to discover he wasn’t my type.”
“What ‘type’ was Santo?”
“You want me to list my dead brother-in-law’s faults?”
“I just listed your sister’s.” His throat bobbed up and down again. “My family has already turned him into a saint, Ms. Shah. I’d rather remember the real man, flaws and all.”
“Santo was irresponsible. No, that’s not right. He didn’t take responsibility for anything, but rather had this romantic view of life that had nothing to do with reality, and he didn’t stand up for what was right. It became clear to me over the years that he and Pia lived far beyond their meager incomes, and that’s all because of you. In hindsight, I think it was a miracle that their marriage lasted as long as it did.”
When she looked up, Renzo DiCarlo’s firm mouth was slack with shock. Mimi sighed. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It seems you’re a good study of character. Everything you said about Santo is completely true.”
Mimi was as shocked by his honest admission as he seemed to be by hers. “Then you should acknowledge that I needed to nurture something for the man who adored my stepsister like I needed a hole in my head.” She took a breath to even out her tone. “Whatever else they fought over, Pia and Santo desperately wanted this baby. They went through so much to have it.Iwent through a lot. So, no, I didn’t think of not having it.”
“I want to believe you.”
Mimi shot to her feet. God, the man was infuriating. “If you’re done insulting me, I’d like you to leave.”
“We’re not done.”
“Fine. You’re here to hash out some kind of custody arrangement, right? So can we please get to it? I’ve had a long day and would like a shower and dinner and my bed, in that order.”
“Do you want me to order takeout for you?”
“No, I couldn’t eat a morsel with you hovering over me like some…rabid raptor, waiting to pick off leftover pieces.”
He laughed, a husky sound that swathed Mimi in silky waves. “You have quite the tongue on you,sì?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. DiCarlo, for not being as mousy and accommodating as you expected me to be.”
He sighed then, and that too was distracting. Because it seemed to come wrenching out of the depths of him. It pulled her out of her own head for just a second. He had lost his brother and now had the unwanted news of that brother’s child.
God, what a mess…
“I have something to tell you,” he said after a long pause, “and I think you should sit down. I’d hate for you to be upset in your current condition.”
“Again, it’s very simple,” she said through gritted teeth. “Don’t tell me upsetting things.”
“Remember the mountain of lies that you said Pia and Santo built between them?” Bitterness twisted his mouth. “I’d rather we don’t begin this relationship buried under those ourselves.”
“We don’t have a relationship, Mr. DiCarlo. Neither are we going to build one.” She took a deep breath. “We can arrange for visitation rights for you, if you want that. One of my housemates is a lawyer, and she assured me that I don’t owe you even that. But since it’s your brother’s child, I—”
“It’s not Santo’s child. It’s mine.” His gray eyes held steady like flinty stones that had seen millennia pass. “Just as it’s not Pia’s. But yours. Wholly yours.”
CHAPTER TWO
Mimi’s knees, it seemed, were very much capable of giving out.
Mr. DiCarlo’s strength and scent surrounded her as she was directed to the bed. Her breath played hide-and-seek with her lungs as his words began to sink in.
“Head between your knees,” he barked like a general giving orders to his soldiers.
Mimi followed the commanding voice instinctively and bent her spine, as much as her belly would allow. Oxygen returned to her in large gulps, and she breathed it in like a gasping fish.
Although it was the warm weight of his large hands on her knees and the solid shelf of his shoulder that her forehead was resting on that became her anchor.
