Walker tried not to smirk at my cousin-in-law’s dig as he greeted me with a hard pat to my back. “Take care of her, eh.” It wasn’t a statement. It was a warning.
I nodded and then grit my teeth as North and Aria came to greet me too.
Soon we settled in the sitting room with drinks with Walker or Sloane or both getting up now and then to check on dinner. Allegra sat beside me on the couch, and I tried not to notice the abject difference between our body language and the other couples in the room.
Walker didn’t sit but hovered at Sloane’s chair, his hand on her shoulder as she conversed. North sat as close to Aria as he could, his hand resting possessively on her knee. And Theo never could seem to keep his hands off my cousin, even five years down the line. He sat on an armchair and had pulled Sarah down onto his lap like they were teenagers.
There was at least five inches of distance between me and Allegra.
“So … no honeymoon, then?” Theo suddenly asked us. There was a gleam of mischief in his eyes I knew well. My cousin-in-law was a total shit-stirrer.
Allegra didn’t look my way or answer, so I shrugged. “Things are busy on the farm right now.”
Theo gasped in mock outrage. “Too busy for a honeymoon? I thought all that animal husbandry would have taught you a little something about … well …animal husbandry.”
Sarah elbowed him, trying not to laugh. North didn’t even bother covering his. Usually, I’d laugh, too, but my sense of humor had withered in the coldness of Allegra’s aloofness.
“We’ll do a honeymoon sometime later,” Allegra said before taking a sip of the soda Sloane had offered. Again, she didn’t look at me. My eyes trailed the curve of her soft profile as she swallowed. There was a tightness in her jaw.
“Oh? Where are you thinking of going?” Sloane asked.
“Maybe a beach somewhere.” I shrugged because there wouldn’t be a honeymoon.
“Ally’s not really a beach person,” Aria informed me with a quirked eyebrow. “She prefers city breaks where she can be a real tourist and go to art museums. That kind of thing.”
Right.
That did make sense. I didn’t know why I’d immediately thought beach. Maybe because she grew up in Malibu.
At least I knew that much about her.
“I had mentioned the idea of a beach, actually,” Allegra jumped in with the lie. “Well, really a resort. Laze by the pool kind of vacation.”
“Oh.”
Awkward silence fell between us for a few seconds.
“Did Ally ever tell you about the time she yelled at everyone in the Sistine Chapel?”
“Oh, Ari, no.” Allegra slapped a hand over her face with the first giggle I’d heard out of her in days. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “Please don’t.”
“Please do,” Sarah insisted.
“Well, when Ally was ten years old, our mom, who’s Italian, decided to take us on a grand summer tour of her home country. She almost immediately got called to some far-off place for a job, and I was left to take Ally around.” Allegra shot her sister a sad, knowing smile as Aria continued. “It was better this way because with Mamma, we’d have to do everything after hours so she could have privacy. This way, we got to do all the tourist stuff like regular people.”
“Who have private security,” Allegra teased.
“Fair, fair. We did have private security. Anyway, in Rome, we did a tour of the Vatican. And talking is prohibited in the Sistine Chapel. But there were so many people, and no one would shut up. Ally, this cute little ten-year-old, wanted to experience the Sistine Chapel the way it was supposed to be experienced—in utter silence. And all these tourists were beingnoisy. I could see Ally getting more and more agitated. I did not, however, expect her to suddenly stop and yell, ‘Don’t any of you know the meaning of quiet!’”
I chuckled at the imagery and Allegra shot me a surprised look.
“We were asked to leave,” Aria finished the story with a snort.
“Like I was the rude one.” Allegra huffed.
“Jared, have you ever been to Italy?” Sloane asked.
Discomfort cut through my amusement. “I’ve never been out of the UK. Travel’s not really my thing.”
