Who can blame her?
I'm betting I make her head spin.
When we're alone, she drinks her water and takes a bite of the spiced pumpkin raviolo in the burnt butter sauce with the basil drizzle.
She sets down her fork. "I think I'll accept your apology, Enzo. This isn't sustainable. I want to move past it."
"And us?"
She looks at me. "Is there such a thing?"
"I don't know, honestly, but I hope...I want to see where itgoes. Lola, you're in my heart, like I said, and we want each other. That's clear."
Her cheeks darken. "Yeah."
"Maybe that's all we need. And maybe, given the rest, it's more than most have." I've never laid myself bare to anyone before. It's shockingly vulnerable.
"So, you want to give a relationship with me a go?"
"Something like that. Yes."
Lola is so quiet that for a moment I don't think she's going to agree, or that deep down, she feels differently.
Her voice is so soft as she says, "Okay."
My eyes widen. "Okay?"
She nods. "But first, you need to promise me something, Enzo."
"If you want me to cut off one of my nuts, I'm thinking the answer?—"
She laughs but stops herself. "No! God... I want you to promise you'll never keep anything from me again. I don't think I can handle more secrets."
I breathe out. "I can do that."
"Can you?"
I give her a hurt look, and she gives me a sharp one right back.
"Yes."
"So, there's nothing you need to 'fess up to?"
"I'm not secretly married with ten kids."
"One?"
"None. No wife. No girl. No kids."
She smiles. And as she does, the Lyndall thing starts to niggle.
I'm not telling her that, clearly. But that's not keeping a secret.
All I really have is a hunch. The hint of a possibility that she might be Lola's half-sister. But that's more of a Lyndallbomb if it's true, and it's something to share with my sister first.
I don't know.
So, it's not a secret.
