Chapter Twenty-Seven
Logan
“What’s a nice boy like you doing without a girl on your arm?”
“He needs to eat more. I can practically see his ribs through his shirt. Have some more chicken,my boy.”
“You need to visit Italia, Logan. It is the most beautiful country.”
“Si, Roberto, così bello.”
So beautiful.That I actually understood.
“Si, take Mia with you. She needs a man in her life again.”
“My Mia does not need no man. She has her papa to take care of her. Herfamiglia. He’s too small.”
Well, Mia had warned me about her family.
At first, they’d all hugged her and welcomed her back to the family outings since it seemed she’d been avoiding them. Then, they had noticed me and hadn’t left me alone since. I didn’t mind at all though. I soaked up the family attention, something I never had. So, it was satisfying. Even when they told me I was too small or too skinny. That I was getting too old and needed to settle down and make a family. I had no clue what they were saying in Italian when they switched back and forth like they did, something I’d noticed Mia had a habit of doing, too. Which, of course, I found sexy as fuck.
But the general consensus was that I needed to scoop Mia up before someone else did. She had a good smile, independence, and baby-making hips that ran in the family on her mother’s side. Her mother swore, all she had to do was look at her father, and she’d be pregnant.
Nothing they’d said to me offended me simply because they weren’t saying anything to be mean, and I knew that. Truthfully, I was a hard person to offend anyway. I simply didn’t care what others thought.
But being fussed over was nice.
I’d eaten so much food at dinner that I was going to need to be rolled out of the house at the end of the night.
“You look so ravishing, Mia. You know, I saw Penny Pattura last week, and she told me that her niece’s son just got out of the military. And he is a handsome fellow. Why don’t you go on a date with him? I will set it up. Don’t you worry about a thing. Just wear the pretty clothes and smile, and he will want to marry you that night. Wear the good-luck earrings your mother gave you.” Mia’s aunt Sofia was a hoot with her stories, and I thought she was one of my favorite people out of the family.
Mia blushed and smiled, not saying a thing. As she had most of the night. She was still reserved here for some reason, like she didn’t know how she was supposed to act. But I could see the love and comfort in her eyes, in the way she held herself. She was proud to be a part of this family and would be making more of an effort to be a part of it if the determination in her gaze said anything.
“Okay.” Mia was agreeing with her aunt.
Interesting. Maybe she wanted to get out into the dating pool again. Her hair wrapped in some woman’s niece’s son’s military hands as he leaned in to kiss her plump lips. Her moans would be heard by his ears alone, and his fingers would touch her soft tan skin.
The images attacked me with such force that I was caught by complete surprise.
I wanted Mia, but we had drawn a line. We were sticking to our sides of that line because it was better for us. I didn’t think Mia was ready to date. Her dad was right; she didn’t need a man. She needed to find herself first.
After somehow managing to eat some struffoli, Mia sat next to me at the table and expressed she was ready to leave. Had a busy day tomorrow, an early board meeting. It was late, almost nine in the evening. Her family knew how to have a dinner; that was for sure. Of course, I was invited back to all the Sunday dinners—unless I broke her heart. They didn’t say what would happen to me if I did, but the glares said plenty.
Something bad might happen to me.
“I see it, so don’t deny it. My Mia needs someone like you in her life. Someone who lets her fly but gives her a nest to come back to. Not chains her to the tree like that man did. Venus is already working her magic on you two. It’s a blessing to have love, Logan, not a complication,” Mia’s mother whispered these words into my ear, hugging me, after I had to lean down since she was much shorter than I was.
Her words though. They’d hit me in a way I hadn’t thought possible.
The car ride was silent the whole way back to the hotel, Mia inside her mind, which was fine for now. She was smiling instead of her lips turning toward the floor, so her thoughts were okay and not dark. I kept chewing on her mother’s parting words. Unsure of how I felt and trying to decipher my emotions. I hadn’t blown her off and said there was nothing between Mia and me, nor did I confess my undying love for her. Love was not for me. After my wife and I had split, I’d just decided I didn’t want that type of entanglement again. Mia was smart and beautiful, and her true spirit was beginning to shine on the outside.
Maybe it was just the added emotions of being treated like family, Mia possibly going on a date, and her mother’s words that had me feeling weird. I wasn’t jealous since Mia wasn’t mine. But those images of another man touching her and experiencing sensations I dreamed about didn’t sit right with me. The fullness inside my chest from being fussed over and actually wanted inside a house was refreshing in a way I hadn’t known I needed. Tink and my friends wanted me around. They were my family in all the ways that counted, but being around a larger group of people who wanted you to call them Uncle and Aunt and Nonna hit me right in the missing family category of my mind. My parents didn’t care. There was a hole inside me from that. I’d forgiven them and moved on, but the hole was there still, healing, but Mia’s family stuffed it full of food and comfort. It probably would leak out, and there’d be a hole again, but for now, I’d enjoy feeling complete in that area.
“It’s a blessing to have love, Logan, not a complication.”
She’d read me like a book on that statement. In my dictionary,lovehad complication as its definition. But I did agree with her about one thing. When Mia eventually settled down again, she needed someone who would let her be free, provide her with a home that she could be happy to come home to. Filled with warmth and art and music to dance to. Not hold her down, isolate her from everything she found joy in, and suffocate the light inside her. Chained to the tree like her mother had said.
“I know it’s late, but do you wanna come up, so I can read you that letter? I feel like I wanna say it and be done if you don’t mind.”
Mia looked at me, and I saw that she felt at ease. She wanted to brush the dust off her and let it go.
“Of course.”
I was here for her. My issues would be put on the back burner for her. She needed for me to be one hundred percent, not focusing on my own issues. So, I would deal with my shit later. Mia now, my emotions another day.
The whole way up to her penthouse, we were quiet, and once inside, she poured me a glass of water before sitting down with her laptop, not saying a word to each other. There was something heavy in the air, and I was feeling too much to decipher it. But no matter. I sat at attention and waited to hear Mia’s letter.
