Chapter 3 #3
She shook her head. “No. I spoke to a policeman earlier and described the attacker. He took pictures of my sweater and my hands.” She glanced down at herself, a pink blush tempting her pale cheeks. “Your sister-in-law loaned me her sweater. Mine was covered in…”
Blood. She’d been covered in blood. His blood. A shiver rippled down him, and he shoved away the dark, swirling thoughts that tried to creep in.
Angelo moved his thumb over the back of her hand soothingly. There was no point in delaying the inevitable question any longer.
“My mother mentioned that you said you were my… fiancée?” He offered her his most charming, disarming smile, the one that put anyone at ease, but she tensed and pulled her fingers free.
“I’m sorry, I… er…. I made a mistake. I told EMTs I was your fiancée so they’d let me travel in the ambulance with you. You asked me to stay, and I didn’t want you to be alone. I couldn’t just let them take you away after you’d saved me, not without knowing what happened to you.”
She shook her head, causing red waves of hair to tumble around her face and shoulders.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it through. Then I was sitting in the waiting room holding a plastic bag with your belongings, and I had to tell someone what happened, so I called your mother.
And when your family arrived, the waiting room attendant told them I was your fiancée, and… ”
Angelo could piece together how things went from bad to worse after that. He chuckled, then winced as pain flashed through his body.
Kara wiped fresh tears that formed shiny tracks on her skin. “It’s not funny.”
“Oh, you’re wrong. It’s very funny, Tesoro mio,” he said, still grinning. It was probably the pain killers in his system, but this was all so hilarious that he’d be roaring with laughter if it wouldn’t hurt like hell.
“Your friend Jared laughed too. He made it sound like this was some silly rom-com or something. But this is real life. Your family thinks we’re engaged.
That we’ve been dating for two months. We don’t even know each other.
” She said it as if it was the worst thing in the world, as if she’d caused some terrible problem.
He wanted to throw back his head and laugh, but that would hurt like hell.
So he tried taking her point seriously. “You’re afraid to tell my family the truth? It would be easy, Kara. They would understand that you were just trying to make sure I was okay.”
“It’s just that they looked so… happy,” she whispered. “I mean, what if they think I was trying to run a con on you or something…”
She said “happy” with a softness that reminded him of when he’d been a young man and his grandmother had once shown him a bit of her wedding veil.
It had been torn in places, stained yellow with the passing decades, but it carried the weight of grand, wonderful memories.
The sound Kara had made was like that, the kind someone made when they knew that they were holding something precious and were afraid it might break in front of them.
“My family would never think you were trying to con, them,” he said honestly.
“They wouldn’t?” the hope in her voice was so thin but there.
“No, they wouldn’t,” he assured her.
Angelo saw something in her eyes that called to him. An echo of something he felt buried in his own soul every day. Longing. She wanted to belong, to feel connected to something, even to his crazy family.
He had a sudden desire to confess that he wanted to know her, but that might scare her. So he chose his words carefully.
“I understand where you’re coming from. My family might be upset, more with me than you.
So let them think we are together, at least for the holidays.
We can tell them we broke up after New Year’s.
” He paused, thinking over what else might make her agree.
“I don’t know what your plans were for the holidays, if you have family coming in or… ”
She shook her head so he continued. “Or if you’re busy with work…”
“I have a week off,” she murmured, her gaze thoughtful as he continued.
“In that case… I could offer you some of the best food in Chicago either cooked by me, or my restaurant, every night during the holidays. That way my parents might see me with you and at least for a while they’ll think I’m happy and in love and stop pushing me about marriage and grandkids.”
Their gazes locked and he saw a fragile hope swell in Kara’s eyes. The shield she was holding up to keep the world at bay was crumbling. Suddenly, she blinked and gave her head a small shake.
“Won’t your family just get more attached to the idea of you getting married if I’m around?” she asked.
“Perhaps, but they will accept our breakup when I eventually tell them.”
Her eyes met his. “Why would you want to do this? Why pretend to have a fiancée? I feel like that’s probably the average man’s nightmare.”
“You think I’m average?” he teased.
She let out an exasperated breath. “You know what I mean.”
The truth would send Kara running. He wanted a chance to know her before she disappeared from his life forever. From the moment he’d seen her in the soup kitchen, he’d sensed she was different.
And the more time he spent with her, the more he sensed she was running from something.
The nervous look in her eyes. The way she’d fought the man who’d taken her purse.
She was fighting against something in her life, he could feel it.
He wanted to understand, to help her, if he could.
His mother always said he was drawn to strays, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to help her.
So he lied. Lied to gain her trust so he could help her.
“In case you haven’t heard already, my mother pushes me to date. All the time. Something like this will keep her happy for a few weeks, at least. When we break up, I can tell her I can’t date until my heart has healed from losing you.” He said this with a wink and a smile.
Kara giggled. “I guess that might buy you a few months, maybe even a year?”
Angelo grinned. “Exactly. So… Kara, will you be my fake fiancée? Will you help me tolerate my wild, loving family for a few weeks?” He wished he had a ring to give her, even a cheap one, but nothing in the hospital room offered him any options.
He’d have to get her one later, his mother would expect to see one on Kara’s finger.
He offered her his hand again. She stared at it, then his face for a long while. He wished he was privy to her thoughts, to know what secrets spun in her mind.
“So… How close would we have to be… to pretend? I mean, because if your family is around I can’t imagine you not kissing your fiancée or—” Her cheeks were a deep enough red that they would shame any rose.
“Well, I tend to be a romantic man,” he warned. “I would desire very much to kiss you, hold you, or do whatever you would allow, because that is what I’d want with the woman I love.”
Her lashes fluttered in surprise. “Whatever I’d allow?”
“Consent matters, Kara,” Angelo replied. “Whatever you feel comfortable doing…”
She suddenly smiled, the curve of her lips utterly mysterious. “Well, I don’t think it would be a hardship to kiss you… You are gorgeous.” She didn’t seem to realize she’d let her guard down for a moment of honesty.
“Me?” He gave her a boyish grin. “Everyone says Dante is the best-looking of my brothers.”
She scoffed. “Dante has nothing on you.” Then she grinned back at him, and it felt like the sun was shining on him, but the glow was coming entirely from Kara’s face. She was relaxed enough to tease him.
Kara smiling… Kara laughing… it was intoxicating, bewitching. Angelo had never been so completely captivated by someone before.
“So you’ll play along?” He pressed as he lifted his hand a little off the bed toward her.
“Okay,” she said. “It might actually be kind of fun.”
Kara’s tone was so wistful as she said “fun,” it made Angelo wonder how long it had been since she’d had any.
“Good. You know this means you must go home with my family tonight, Kara. Until I can get out of the hospital. They won’t let my fiancée go off alone on Christmas day.”
“Wait. Go home with them?”
“Yes, my family was having dinner at my house. I guarantee they’ll want to take you back to my place today to spend Christmas there. Things will go easier if you play along. You can stay in my bedroom for the night. They’ll fill up the other guest rooms.”
“Your room?”
“I have a big, cozy bed, a huge TV and a nice bathroom. I promise it will be like staying at a nice hotel.”
Something brightened with interest in her eyes and he wondered what he’d said that had made her excited.
“Oh… I guess I can handle that. But I’ll need to pick up a few of my things first.”
“Have Dante or Alessia go with you. You’ve been through a shock today, and you shouldn’t be alone.”
She bit her lip. “Okay.”
“Now, go out and tell my family to go home and take you with them. They should be able to warm up all of the food I had prepared for last night so you can eat a nice early dinner. If a nurse tells me that you didn’t leave with them I will be upset.
You don’t want me to be upset, do you?” he asked with mock solemnity.
Her lips curved in a soft smile. “No, I wouldn’t want that. What if they ask me about us? Things about how we met? We don’t know a thing about each other.”
“Tell them we met a few months ago at the soup kitchen. Keep it simple, you forgot your scarf and I chased you down to give it back. That’s what happened last night.”
“You followed me to give me my scarf back?” her eyes widened.
“Yes, I saw you’d left it behind and Paul had told me your name so I ran after you.”
“You almost died for a scarf,” she murmured, her eyes overbright again with tears.
He wanted to say ‘I almost died for you,’ but he didn’t want her to keep thinking about that.