His happiness quadrupled. “Nothing about Abby frightens me, not now. What makes you say that? I didn’t realize you knew her that well.”
“Not true. I had coffee with her a couple of weeks ago. She was sitting at Café Fiore crying her eyes out. I couldn’t simply walk past.”
Dante leaned forward, his face instantly crinkled inconcern. “Crying?”
Carla put down her menu and folded her hands together. “She asked me to question you about your health and learn the truth. She is under the impression you aren’t well. The blackmailing her into your bed with the demand for a child probably did it.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I despair of men, I really do.”
“You appear to have gotten very friendly with my wife.”
“I said I would interrogate you, but you are my friend, first and foremost, and if you are ill I want to know regardless of what I tell Abby.” Her face grew serious. “After all, you would tell your best friend, wouldn’t you, Dante? We always swore there would never be any secrets between us.”
Dante remembered their drunken pledge. They’d made a pact, not long after Abby had left him and Carla’s latest lover, Jenny, an American art student, had dumped her. They swore that if the people they slept with couldn’t be trusted, they would trust in each other. There would never be secrets between them.
He felt his face heat. “I’m not ill, Carla.”
She waved her hand in the air. “You wouldn’t lie to me, too?”
“Too?”
“Angela has decided not to come to Brazil with me.” Carla’s eyes filled with tears. “I have so few people in my life I can trust. Please don’t destroy what we share.”
Angela was the new woman in Carla’s life. She, too, was a scientist, and for the last two years they had seemed such a fabulous couple. “I’m sorry, cara. What happened?” he said softly.
“Don’t change the subject.”
He sat back and took a sip of the wine Carla had ordered for them. She was right. He had promised no secrets. “I’ve been having yearly tests?—”
“Prostate?”
“Don’t interrupt. You want the story, then let me tell it my way.”
Over their lunch, he told her everything. About his abnormal test three months ago. His sudden need for a child due to his father’s will, and the thought that he might die young. That’s why he had been so desperate to have his wife back in his bed to provide a legitimate heir. And finally, how Abby had become an important part of his life. She made him happy. When he’d finished his story, Carla simply shook her head.
“Men are so stupid, no wonder I prefer women.”
Dante laughed out loud. It felt good to laugh again.
“Why didn’t you share your fears with anyone? Abby was right. She said you try to take on the worries of the world and no one thinks to help you.”
“She said that?”
“She loves you, thickhead. She’s quite a woman. A shame she wastes herself on men.”
“Careful. I’m mighty jealous. I’d hate to think we’d fall out over a woman.”
Carla giggled. “She might be my type, but I’m definitely not hers. She only has eyes for you.” She rolled her eyes. “God knows why.” She paused and looked around the restaurant and back at Dante. “I suppose, like all the other heterosexual women of the world, they fall for your sultry charms. The dagger-filled looks being shot my way—ooh la la. I can’t see it myself.”
“You have a distinct way of bringing a man down to earth.” He sat grinning at her. “Besides, all the men are wishing they were sitting in my chair. Little do they know…”
That sat in companionable silence drinking coffee. Finally Carla spoke.
“So, you decided to play the hero and keep Abby at an emotional distance, while still getting her pregnant so she would not suffer as your mother did whenyour father died.”
“It’s scary how well you know me.”
“Stupido!”
He shifted in his chair. “It seemed a good idea at the time.”
