It should have reassured me.
But there was something in his eyes that made a flicker of anxiety flare in my gut. I just hoped that nothing else happened to give me cause to panic.
Thirty-Two
Jared
Iwasn’t able to put my finger on exactly what I was feeling. But after a while, the sinking sensation was suddenly all too familiar. It was a mix of dread and devastating disappointment.
If I was honest with myself, it started with the tux.
I never minded putting on a kilt or socializing with my neighbors at Robert Burns Nights and Christmas ceilidhs at the village hall. I didn’t even mind donning my suit for my wedding.
But the tux was ridiculous. I could have handled the jacket, waistcoat, and shirt, but the bow tie was driving me up the fucking wall. Honestly, I thought I hid my discomfort well, but apparently, Allegra could see right through me. About ten minutes after meeting her ex fucking fuck buddy, she’d pulled me into a corner and tugged the bow tie free, stuffing it into the purse thing she called a clutch. She’d unbuttoned the top two buttons on my shirt and I’d instantly felt like I could breathe again.
“Better?” she’d murmured, smoothing a possessive hand over my chest.
I’d bent my head to kiss her in answer.
The best thing about dressing up for these bloody fancy dos was that Allegra looked good enough to eat. She was curvy and sexy in her pinup-style dress. I already planned to fuck her while she wore nothing but those flimsy pink sandals that inexplicably turned me on.
Everything about this woman turned me on.
Which was why as the evening progressed, the biggest black cloud started to gather over my head.
Technically, I knew Allegra had come from this world of wealth, fame, and glamor. Of travel and staff and privilege. It was one of the reasons I’d kept my distance from her in the first place. She and I were from two different planets.
However, I’d allowed myself to forget that while it was just us, living our life on the farm. But seeing Allegra stop to chat with familiar faces I’d seen on the screen and around the village because she actually knew them was an unwelcome reminder that by staying married to me, she would never really be part of this world again. She talked with other guests, and travel came up almost all the time. She’d met them in France. Or the last they’d seen each other was at a bar in Italy. Or a festival in Denmark. A fashion show in Tokyo. I’d never realized how much of the world Allegra had seen, or how much traveling seemed to have been a part of her life.
But Aria had tried to warn me that night at Sloane’s. She’d said then that travel was a part of who Allegra was. I’d shrugged it off because Allegra had disagreed.
Yet here we were, faced with the facts.
We’d never be able to just take off to Greece or Spain because we felt like it. The farm was a twenty-four-seven commitment, and I was attempting to grow another business from it. Perhaps I might be able to take Allegra on the odd holiday here and there once the business was up and running and we had folks to lookafter it in our absence, but traveling all the time was out of the question.
I’d never thought of myself as a broody bastard, but I was brooding. And it only got worse when Allegra led us over to Chiara and Wesley Howard.
I’d seen Chiara’s face in magazines, seen her on perfume adverts. On Allegra’s phone for that video chat. I knew she and Allegra were alike, but it wasn’t until the two women embraced that I saw the resemblance. Chiara either had the skin of a thirty-year-old or she was having something injected into her face to smooth out wrinkles.
Wesley Howard wasn’t the best-looking guy in the world, nor the worst, but he had a presence. His green eyes pierced right through me as we shook hands.
Chiara Howard refused to take my hand as Allegra introduced us. She sniffed haughtily, resting stiffly against her husband’s side as my wife stepped into mine. As I had when I bumped into Aria, I felt under inspection.
This time, however, I knew I’d been found wanting upon judgment.
Wesley gave Allegra a small, reassuring smile. “Your sister tells us you’re very content in marriage.”
Surely, he should know that directly from the horse’s mouth, but of course, his and Allegra’s relationship was secretly strained. Not so secretly, if you asked me. The tension between them was so obvious, it was a wonder Aria hadn’t guessed at the partial cause of her sister’s issues as a teen.
“We’re very happy.” Allegra’s words were tight. Probably because her mother was eyeing me like I was a criminal who had kidnapped their daughter into marriage.
Fuck that.
“Tesoro,” Chiara said, smiling sweetly at her daughter, “why don’t you go find Aria and North and bring them over so we can talk as a family? We’ll keep Jared company.”
My wife hesitated, and I wanted her to argue. Instead, she nodded, patted my arm, and murmured, “I’ll be right back,” and left me with her parents.
Chiara’s smile slipped as soon as Allegra was out of earshot. “How much do you want?”
