“What’s the deal with them? I can’t tell if they are idiots or just as bad as this Pierre guy.”
“Maurice is bad news. He’s given me a fat lip, a broken nose, and more bruises than I can count,” he said.
“He broke yournose?” Dani exclaimed. “Didn’t you have to go to the hospital?”
“It wasn’t that bad. Though it did leave me with a little scar,” he said, tipping his glasses down to expose the tiny mark on the bridge of his nose.
Dani leaned in to get a look, squinting to see the scar under the moonlight. Theo’s heart kicked up a beat as he stared at her examining his face, sending a swirl through his stomach.
“Not your perfect Greek nose,” she said, mimicking his mother and jokingly putting her hands on her cheeks.
He snickered and shook his head, recalling all the times his mom bragged about her children’s perfect Greek noses.
“I know. My chances at becoming the next top nasal model are shot.”
“Your mom will be devastated.”
“Guess she’ll have to find something else to boast about,” he said, resituating his glasses.
“Too bad it was your best feature.”
“You’re just jealous,” he teased.
“Of your schnoz? Please. I’m thoroughly satisfied with this sniffer, thank you,” she said, brushing her fingertip across her nose in a display.
He couldn’t help but smile. He’d always liked her beautiful Nubian shape much more than he liked his own.
“So then what’s up with Louis?” she asked, pulling him back into reality.
“Louis?” Theo said, turning around and resting his arms atop the rim of the pool. “He’s notquiteas awful. He lets Maurice boss him around and he’s a bit of a nitwit, but he doesn’t seem to have any interest in hurting me. He actually seemed to feel a little sorry for me after we talked about our families one night and how worried I was about everyone back home thinking I was dead.”
“Like your fiancée?” Dani stared at him pointedly, and his stomach sank like a bowling ball had been dropped into the center.
He’d been waiting for her to bring this up, even if he’d been unrealistically hopeful that she’d forgotten until now.
“About that…”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Theo wrinkled his brow.Shit.Did she know how he felt about her?
“That…that you were engaged,” she said, her voice cracking. She looked away and bit her bottom lip. “I mean, when did this even happen?”
Theo opened his mouth to explain, but the words “Giorgina said the two of you broke up” came out of her mouth and ripped like a record scratch through his brain.
“Wait…you talked to Giorgina?” he asked.
“Of course we did. We were looking for you everywhere, Theo. We had to tell her you were missing. She was your girlfriend.”
The operative word beingwas.
“What did she say? Did she tell you why we broke up?”
Dear God, what had Giorgina told her?
“No, Theo, she didn’t,” Dani said, turning to face him and clearly a little pissed. “Though, oh, I don’t know, I’m guessing maybe you having a newfiancéehad something to do with it?”
“What? Wait, no, no, no,” he said, pushing off the wall, waving his hands, and squaring his chest to hers. “Juicy, I’m not engaged.”
