“That’s not what you were saying in the dressing room.”
The waiter brought over the bottle of wine I’d ordered. Lucia dropped her gaze to her lap, her cheeks flaming red.
He popped the cork and poured. “It’s fine,” I said after tasting it. He filled Lucia’s glass first, then mine. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” I said to her after the waiter left and we picked up our glasses.
“I just had a very loud orgasm in the fitting room at Nordstrom.”
I smiled and shrugged a shoulder. I knew this resistance was in part due to her anxiety over my father’s birthday party. “You’re probably not the first,” I teased, then gave her a wink and decided now was a good time to change the subject. “Your niece is cute.”
She studied me, slowly sipping from her glass. “She is.”
“You’re close with your sister?”
“I was. Before…everything.”
“What do you think of her moving into your father’s house?”
“I’m glad she’s moving in there. I don’t know if I’m ready to sell it. And I’m glad she’s staying nearby.”
“Why didn’t you see each other while you were at school? You could have. Nothing was forbidden.”
She shrugged a shoulder. “You mean like when Marco was standing over us when she came to visit me at the house?”
I gave her my most patient smile. “You didn’t want to.”
“You don’t know me or my family.”
“I’m trying to get to know you. Just because you haven’t been in touch with them doesn’t mean you can’t start again. They’re your family.”
“What about your brother? Are you close?”
“With Dominic?” She nodded. “No. Dominic is…not good.”
“But you were close with Sergio?”
“Yes. Very.”
Neither of us spoke until the waiter interrupted with our dishes. Once he left, Lucia looked at me.
“I’m sorry I didn’t talk to my father before he died. I should have told him I forgave him.”
“Do you? Forgive him, I mean?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I think he was backed into a corner. And you’re wrong, he wasn’t just saving himself. He gave me up to save all of them. You…your father had murdered—”
“I’m getting bored of this conversation. It was a war. Both sides lost many lives. You and I both know that.”
She sighed and pushed ravioli around her plate.
“But you’re right. Your father was backed into a corner.”
“Thanks for that.”
I nodded as I stuffed a forkful of salmon into my mouth. We ate in silence for a few minutes. Every time I looked at her, she’d have her eyes on her plate.
“Your sister isn’t married?” I knew she wasn’t and suspected what the man I’d assigned to follow her would come back with.
“No.”
