Shock hollowed out my lungs.
Before I could recover, he pressed on. “I want you to stay away from her. For the entire duration of our marriage.”
My head jerked back. “You can’t say something like that without telling me why.”
“Yes, I can.”
Frustration flashed through me. Had I revised my opinion of him too quickly? “I agreed to this deal because you said you’d treat me with respect. Shutting me out and ordering me around is not respectful.”
His stare stayed hard and guarded, but when I turned to walk back inside, his hand closed around my arm, and something in his expression eased by the smallest degree.
“Look,” he said, “my mother and I disagree about something important. That’s all I can tell you. It’s a private matter, and she and I will sort it out ourselves. I’m asking you to accept that.”
I wanted to push. I could feel the questions gathering behind my teeth. But I stopped myself. Did I really need to know what was going on between the two of them to do my job for the next six months?
A job. Yes. That was how I needed to think about this. That was how I would keep myself from getting confused. The less entangled I became with Cosimo and his family, the better. I would do what he needed me to do, play my part, and spend the rest of my time thinking about the life waiting for me on the other side of this arrangement.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll do my best to avoid her if that’s what you want.”
“It is.” His hand fell away from me. “Let’s go back. Given how much wine everyone’s consuming, they’ve probably already forgotten about Peter.”
A gust of wind caught my hair, whipping a few strands across my face. I lifted a hand to smooth them back.
That was when I saw him.
Out in the cemetery, between the rows of headstones that stood silently in the pale gray light, a man stood near Gino’s grave. He looked down at the fresh grave, the bare trees casting thin shadows across the ground around him.
Dark jeans, a leather jacket, a motorcycle helmet tucked under one arm. He hadn’t been at the funeral or the wake. All the other men had been in suits. He would’ve stood out immediately.
“Cosimo,” I whispered. “Look. Who is that?”
A beat passed. I glanced at Cosimo. His gaze was fixed on the man at the graveside, his brows drawn tight. “I don’t know.”
As if he’d heard us, the man lifted his head.
Saw us.
Was that a scar on his face? I couldn’t be sure, because the next moment, he was already sliding his helmet back on. He began to walk toward the road leading out of the cemetery at a brisk pace.
Cosimo strode to the curb and out onto the road. “Hey!”
The man broke into a run.
Cosimo took off after him, but he was too far away. The stranger reached a motorcycle parked under a tree on the other side of the cemetery, swung onto it, and turned the engine on.
“Wait!” Cosimo shouted.
The bike roared to life, shattering the quiet of the cemetery. Cosimo was only halfway to the man when he tore off down the road.
The growl of the engine swelled and then faded as the bike disappeared around the bend.
CHAPTER 15
COSIMO
Somehow,in the span of just over a week, my engagement had gone from being my number one problem to being the only thing that was going well.
Fabiana had managed to make all the necessary changes with the planner, just like I knew she would. Why the hell did she doubt herself? Her insecurities were hard for me to understand, and for some reason, it irritated me that she appeared to have no idea how absurd they were.
