Rosaria sent Scarlett a scalding look when she thought Luca wasn’t looking. Scarlett hadn’t noticed, too consumed by the food in front of her to care.
My mouth twitched. Not at the look but at my wife. She hummed when she took a sip of hot chocolate or took a bite from something new from her plate.
Maggie Beautiful leaned over, closer to me, after Luca had excused himself to speak to the owner of the restaurant. “He really does care about Scarlett. She has to understand that his tone doesn’t reflect what’s in his heart.”
Ever since Luca and Maggie Beautiful had reunited, she had put on her rose-colored glasses again.
Growing up, she fought for me, and I would always respect her for that, and for the simple fact that she was my mother. Since I was old enough to fend for myself, though, all his past transgressions were forgiven.
I had no doubt that she loved me, and wanted me, but I didn’t wear glasses that stopped me from seeing the world as is. I suspected, at times, that jealousy was one of Maggie Beautiful’s motivations for keeping me. She wanted him to leave his wife for her, and when he refused, she used me as leverage. She was a kid, doing the best she could, but she’d always been clever.
After what she’d told Luca,I refuse to play the whore, I pieced together fights I’d remembered from my childhood and created a picture out of them.
“Explain that to me,” I said, putting my glass down. “The reflections from his heart.”
“You want an example? Okay. The day when he brought Mia back from the field full of bikes. He didn’t mean anything by his tone. He was worried.”
Scarlett was deep in conversation with Juliette, multitasking between listening and taking care of Mia, and so she wasn’t paying any attention to us. I stared at her, a tightening in my chest starting to build.
“What did he say to her?” I rolled my shoulders.
“He told her to take Mia and go.”
All I could see was his lips lingering on her cheek. I’d assumed it was to test me at the time. It was the reason I revved my bike and took off. I knew he had me, because I’d told him I’d kill him if he put hishandson my wife without my permission. Not hislips.
My anger had blinded me to the real problem though. I knew his manner of doing things, and I should have known better.
“He ordered her to,” I said.
She waved a hand. “That’s his way. You’re the same.”
No wonder my wife looked at me with shock after I’d nodded, and after, as though I had doubled-crossed her.
Juliette slowed her words when she realized how hard I stared at Scarlett.
Scarlett picked up on it and turned to me.
“You didn’t tell me,” I said.
Her mind worked fast to come up with what I was talking about. Finally, she shrugged. “There’s nothing I haven’t told you.”
“He ordered you to leave.”
Recognition flared in her eyes before she turned her attention to the food left on her plate. She handed Mia a piece of strawberry.
“I thought you knew,” she whispered.
“You thought I was okay with him ordering you around.”
She shrugged again. “You wanted Mia off the field. You nodded at me. Remember?”
“I wanted her off the field, away from the bikes. You were both safe where you were.” I paused. “You refused to leave.”
“You’re my husband. After you left,thenwe left.”
Luca strode toward the table, what seemed like the entire restaurant watching him as he did.
Scarlett squeezed my hand as hard as I’d been looking at her. “Don’t,” she snapped under her breath. “Mia.”
