“Here,” I whispered, taking the stroller. “You walk and enjoy your gelato. I’ll push.”
“Yes,” she said, touching her neck again. “You push.”
Instead of breaking off to look through all of the produce, she wrapped an arm around mine, using her free hand to eat.
She became quiet, and so did I, lost to our own thoughts.
“You ran Santiago out of town,” she said out of the blue. “You didn’t tell me.”
She was getting as good as I was, slipping in unexpected comments at unexpected times, as simple as bringing up the weather. But I had a face that could hide my shock. She never could.
Before I could respond, three older ladies stopped us, going on and on about Mia.
Their praise moved on to us after a few minutes. How beautiful we were as a couple,no wonder the child is beautiful!, and all three attempted to pinch my cheeks. They were so short, though, that I had to bend down to meet their fingers.
“I haven’t forgotten,” Scarlett said, licking gelato off of her fingers as we strode away from the three.
“No doubt.”
“You could have told me what happened.”
“I didn’t run anyone from anywhere. If he left, he chose to leave. He had a choice. Stand like a man or run like a coward. Coward it was.”
“Did he have a choice?” she mused. “And for the record, how dare you think I left because of—”
I put my finger to her mouth to stop her from finishing. “Silenzioso, Ragazza Ballerina.”
“Well, it’s the truth,” she muttered around my finger. Then she bit me.
Giving her a sideways glance, I took her hand and put it to my mouth, sucking the drop of gelato from her wrist. “You must really want me to take you home,” I said in Italian. “You keep saying things I don’t want to hear. I’ll be more than glad to claim my retribution by means of your body.”
She moved her sunglasses to the top of her head. Her eyes were wide, looking up to meet mine. After all she had been through, there were still times the innocence was close to blinding. Her halo still glowed gold, her gossamer wings flexing in the sunlight, ready to take flight.
I waved a hand. “That’s over and done with.Finito.Let’s move forward.”
“And what you did at the prison!” She pinched me on the arm. “You could’ve been arrested.”
“I wasn’t.”
After I had stopped by Santiago’s place to make sure he wasn’t hiding my wife—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—I had become insolent with the guards.
Luca had denied me. I had wanted a word with him.
Stone had meddled, though, forcing the guard to escort me out. Then they locked the building so I couldn’t get back in. The guard had told me all I had wanted to know though.
What Marzio had once told me was true. Scarlett was the one weak spot in my armor. The rest of world could be dealt with in patience, in a long, slow fuse. But when it came to her, I burned hot and short. Which was why Santiago decided to leave town. The look on my face scared the boy fucking senseless.
Now I had two weak spots.
“The entire Stone family are gunning for you and your brothers.”
“I know.”
“Will we ever be able to go home?”
“Yeah.”
Scarlett’s line of questioning wasn’t aimed at old grievances. She was working toward something else.
