“Please don’t, Gia. I already feel awful.”
“I don’t mean to make you feel worse, Fallon. I’m just sad for him.”
Grimacing, I murmur, “I should never have kissed him.”
“Whichhimare we speaking of?”
Frankly, I’m not quite certain.
Our muted discussion catches Sybille’s eye, and she marches over. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” I mutter.
Sybille rolls her eyes. “Clearly.”
“Thanks for the invitation to stay the night, but I’m going to head home.”
Sybille bats her curly black lashes at me. “Home, huh?”
Her innuendo tightens Giana’s expression. She grabs a filled jug and heads off to deliver it.
“What’s eating Gia?”
“You know how you and I feel about Phoebus? That’s how she feels about Antoni.”
Sybille frowns.
I nod to one of the thick wooden beams that hold the tavern as upright as structurally possible on an island eroded by strong tides and stronger winds. “Dante kissed me.”
“Four years ag—”
“Today. He surprised me in the cellar earlier and kissed me, and then he asked me out on a date.”
Her lashes smack her browbone. “What? Why am I hearing about this only now? Oh . . .” Her mouth rounds. “Sothat’swhy Antoni was in a mood.”
“I don’t think he knows.”
“Well then . . .merda.”
Yes,shitseems appropriate. “Any words of wisdom?”
“I got nothing for you, babe, but I can hold your hand while you decide which man you like best.”
And she would.
I give her a one-armed hug goodnight, square my shoulders, and step out into the starlit darkness, reminding myself that it’s not cheating when no promises were made and no oaths struck.
So, truly, I have no reason to feel angry at Dante or fraudulent about my hookup with Antoni.
Sixteen
Antoni sits in his boat’s berth, boots propped on the stern. His spine straightens as I near. How he senses my approach is a mystery because my slippered feet shuffle over the pier noiselessly.
“Done hiding from me, Fallon?”
His comment jars me back to the cellar where Dante asked me the same question. Except, from him, I wasn’t hiding. “Yes.”
Antoni glances over his shoulder, eyebrows raised. I take it he wasn’t expecting candor. I set my dish down and take a seat beside him.
