Nick added, “In my experience, if you give a woman a chance to, she’ll tell you. Several times, until she’s sure you get it.”
Max joked, “Rena must have the patience of a saint.”
Nick stood taller. “Don’t talk about my wife unless you want yours to know about the year you kept wetting your bed.”
“Enough,” Luke said curtly and turned off the speakerphone and put his phone back near his ear. “To me, this is something Kane and Gigi have to work out for themselves.” After a pause, Luke said, “I agree. Yes, I’ll tell him.”
After hanging up the phone, Luke turned to Kane. “Gio said he’s relieved you didn’t do something we’d have to hurt you for. He also told me to tell you he loves you.”
“Ha,” Max said triumphantly. “Fifty pounds, Nick. I told you.”
Nick looked at Luke skeptically. “Did he actually say it?”
Luke shrugged one shoulder shamelessly. “No, I’m just screwing with you. He did agree we should pull back and let Kane and Gigi figure this out.”
Luke the Pacifier had blatantly poked fun at his brothers. Kane didn’t hide his surprise.
An easy smile spread across Luke’s face. “I’m not perfect, and I embrace that fact now. I can’t let them have all the fun.”
Although it was nice to see Luke joking with his brothers instead of having to play the peacekeeper, Kane grumbled and turned back to the bar. His mood was still sour. “If you don’t mind, I came here with a goal that you’ve delayed.” Luke sat on the stool beside him. Nick and Max retook the seats on his other side. Kane took in the stubborn expressions on the men who flanked him, and an entirely different feeling swept through him. Luke, Nick, and Max might have flown over to confront him, but they were staying because they cared about him.
Kane ordered four sodas and toasted the Andrade men around him.
When they raised their glasses, too, Max said, “To family.”
They all drank to that.
In the long silence that followed, Kane admitted to himself he would apologize to Gigi a hundred times if it would help. It wouldn’t. She wasn’t angry with him. She didn’t know if she wanted to be with him anymore. That wasn’t an issue an apology would solve.
Kane thought about his father’s favorite speech about why everyone should play a sport when they’re young. His father had said, “Life is going to knock you down sometimes. You need to know what to do when it happens. When you land on your ass, you don’t give up and go home. You stand back up and try harder. Surrender is not an option. Not in sports. Not in life.”
It was a philosophy that had served Kane well during his athletic years, as well as in business. When he set a goal he went after it relentlessly, again and again, until he achieved it. Failure was not in his vocabulary.
This was different. If winning meant Gigi or her family lost in some way, it wasn’t something he would pursue. He couldn’t do that to Gio or his brothers any more than he could do it to the woman he loved.
He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. More than anything else, he wanted Gigi to be happy. Plain and simple. Her childhood had been full of confusion and doubt. Although she had reunited with her father’s side of the family, it was still a fragile bond, and Gio was right to protect it.
Pursuing Gigi was not an option. Even the heaven of spending another night in her arms was not worth the collateral damage it might cause.
I knew that before I came here, and it didn’t stop me, but the only deplorable mistakes are those a person makes twice.
As she frequently did in person, his mother followed his father’s life advice with some of her own. It might have been the alcohol rushing through his system, but he could hear her as clearly as if she were there. “No one wins every time, Kane. Not even your father. When you do lose, accept it and grow from it. There is good in even the darkest of days. If you look for it and don’t find it, make it.”
Kane opened his eyes and broke the silence. “I’ve been working on something for Gigi. It’s a project that needs to be completed even if she and I are no longer together.”
Kane shared that Leora had asked him to help Gigi find her way back to her Venetian roots. He explained how Gigi’s mother had sold off her belongings to pay for her daughter’s schooling, and how Gigi had been determined to repurchase everything she’d sold.
“Why wouldn’t she ask for our help?” Nick asked.
With a sympathetic expression on his face, Luke said, “She might not feel she can yet.”
Max shook his head in confusion. “We’re her brothers. We’d do anything for her.”
In a low voice, Kane said, “If she doesn’t rely on you, you can’t disappoint her again.”
All four men fell into a pensive quiet.
Taking a last swig of his soda, Kane said, “I have most of the items already. They’re stored just outside of Venice. I had planned to bring Gigi with me while I negotiated for the remaining items. I’ll complete those purchases this week and have everything in that storage facility. All you need to do is take Gigi there, and she’ll handle the rest.”
Luke turned in his chair to face Kane and his brothers. “Does she know you’re doing this?”
“When she first mentioned some of the collectors were holding tight to some of the paintings, I offered to help her. I didn’t tell her I had started the project. I’d planned to surprise her.”
Nick looked skyward. “Oh, boy.”
Max whistled. “Even I can see the problem with this one. Gigi doesn’t handle surprises well.”
“Most of it was hardly a surprise. She’s the one who gave me the list of each item.”
“Interesting,” Luke said slowly as if he were fitting pieces of a puzzle together.
Nick shook his head. “He doesn’t get it.”
Luke began drumming his fingers on the bar again. “It would explain why she’s so upset. I bet she thinks you haven’t done anything to get those items back.”
Kane snapped around to meet Luke’s eyes. Could it be that simple? “She never asked about it.”
Luke shrugged one shoulder. “As you said, you can’t disappoint her if she doesn’t rely on you.”
Kane fisted his hand on the table. “I would do anything for her. She has to know that.”
Max interjected, “So are we all going to sit here and commiserate on being the people she has no faith in, or are we going to do something about it?”
“Do something?” Nick parroted.
Luke sighed. “Trust isn’t something you can force, Max.”
“Maybe not,” Max replied, “but you can damn well prove yourself worthy of it.” He turned to Kane. “Before we do this, I need to know if you love Gigi. I mean, the forever after type of love. Because if we do this right, you just might end up married to her.”
Chapter Nineteen
‡
Gigi sat on a stool in her mother’s kitchen in Venice and watched her mother rolling pasta. “We need to talk, Mamma.”
Leora paused and glanced at Gigi. “I figured as much. You don’t usually come home without a good reason.”
Gigi rubbed her cold hands on the thighs of her slacks and blurted, “Why did you accept that Papa wouldn’t leave his wife? Why didn’t you ever demand more from him? Didn’t you think we deserved better than he gave us?”
Leora stopped and wiped her hands on a towel. “I loved him, Gigia. And he left you as much money as he did his sons. That must mean something to you.”
Gigi stood angrily. “Yes, he gave me money, and he gave you this palazzo, but if he had actually loved either of us, he would have left his wife. He wouldn’t have kept us hidden. You were nothing but his mistress, and I was his bastard child.”
“That’s enough, Gigia. Your father is not here to defend himself, and I will not allow you to speak badly of him. He was a good man.”
“Do you know how many times I’ve heard you describe him that way? But you’re wrong. He wasn’t. Not by my defi
nition. He was a cheater and a liar. Considering the way he hid us from everyone, I would say he was also a coward.”
Leora studied Gigi’s face for a long moment. “He’s gone. He can’t change the past. He can’t even try to make amends. What are you looking for me to say? Do you want me to hate him with you? I can’t. I loved him. I still love him.” Gigi frowned and her mother continued, “Are you angry, Gigia, or afraid? I can’t help you fight your demons if you don’t tell me what they are.”
“My demons? Mine? What kind of mother lets her daughter be raised by a man who doesn’t love her? A man who fills her head so full of lies she can’t believe anyone? What am I afraid of? I’m falling in love with a man, Mamma, and I am terrified I’ll end up like you.”
Gigi’s words hung heavy in the air between them. Although voicing her fears to her mother had been cathartic, the pain in Leora’s eyes instantly filled Gigi with remorse. “Mamma—”
Leora raised her hand in a signal for her daughter to stop talking. She raised her chin, sniffed, and dabbed at the corner of one of her eyes. Finally, in a calm voice that was not reflected in her stormy dark eyes, Leora said, “Is that why you wanted to go to school in England? Why you turn your back on your own heritage? Because you’re afraid of becoming me?”
Gigi could have lied. It would have been kinder, but she had spent a lifetime concealing how she felt. So, instead, she whispered, “Yes.”
Leora rubbed one hand lightly across her face. “You think I stayed with your father because I was too weak to leave him? That I should have been more than some man’s mistress?”
Gigi swallowed hard and held her mother’s eyes. “Yes.”
Pursing her lips, Leora took a moment to choose her words. “You may be right, Gigia. But from the first moment I met your father, I knew we belonged together. He never lied to me. He had given his heart and his name to a woman who could not love him back. They had four sons, and for that reason he would never leave her. He gave me a choice, and I chose him, even though I knew I could never have all of him. He loved me as deeply as he could, and there was not a day together where he wasn’t a kind and gentle man. He cried the day you were born because he loved you so very much.”
“So much that he never told his other family about me.”
Leora clasped her hands in front of her. “You know he did that to protect you.”
Gigi shrugged doubtfully. “That’s what you’ve always said.”
“His wife was an angry and spiteful woman. You were safer if she didn’t know about you.”
Gigi looked at the floor. “That sounds like a lie a man tells his mistress to keep her quiet. Papa couldn’t very well call his wife a saint because then his unfaithfulness wouldn’t have been so easy to excuse.”
“Gigia, you’re not a child anymore. It’s time for you to stop being angry with your father. And with me. Perhaps I didn’t live the life you would have chosen, but I was happy in it. You never went to bed hungry or scared. I made sure you had not only what you needed, but also what your heart was set on. There is nothing I can do or say that will change what you think of me, or how you feel about being Venetian. The only one who can do that is you. I have seen the destructive nature of anger that is allowed to fester within a person’s heart. You don’t want that. Ask your brothers about their mother. See if holding onto the past is truly what you want to do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“And you won’t until you learn that love is not all roses and poems. It’s beautifully, painfully more complex than that. And love cannot take root in a heart full of anger. I don’t regret a single day I spent with your father. I hope you can one day say the same about whoever you choose.”
With that her mother returned to rolling pasta. Gigi asked Leora about adding oregano to the sauce on the stove and they discussed the recipe she was making as if they hadn’t just gone into and come out of the most honest conversation they’d ever had.
* * *
“What do you think of this stone?” Kane asked as he held up a four-carat, flawless brilliant cut diamond for his father to inspect.
His father studied it through a jeweler’s loupe. “It’s beautiful, even if it’s a bit premature. Shouldn’t you wait until you and Gigi are back together before you buy an engagement ring?”
“You’re the one who says the only good plan is the one you prepare for.”
“Yes,” his father admitted wryly. “But I don’t know if it’s possible to plan when it comes to matters of the heart.”
“What’s the worst thing that happens? She never sees it. Nick made a good point. I should have it if I need it.”
Thom’s eyes widened as he held the diamond out to Kane. “Nick Andrade? He’s giving you relationship advice now?”
Kane paused mid-retrieval. “Said like that, it sounds bad. He’s come a long way, Dad.”
His father made an amused grimace. “You know I’ve always considered the Andrade boys to be my other sons. And Nick actually is one now. He and Rena are perfect for each other, but are you sure he’s qualified to guide you when it comes to relationships?”
Kane picked up another diamond to inspect. “Three years ago I would have said no, but Nick wants Gigi to be happy as much as I do. We’re planning an event that will show Gigi how much they care about her and possibly open the door for me to present this.” Kane held up the stone in the diamond tweezers. “We’re calling it Operation Trust.”
“How does Gio feel about this?”
“You know how he is.”
“You haven’t told him.”
“I will, Dad, but not yet. Our plan has a lot of variables, and Gio wouldn’t handle that well. It’s better to tell him once we have the details cemented.”
His father sat back and folded his arms across his chest. “So, you’re secretly planning for a way to win Gigi’s trust?”
“Exactly.”
“You don’t see the irony of that?”
“Dad, I love Gigi. This was the only acceptable way I could show her. Who knew that getting a woman to marry you was a hundred times more complicated than getting her to sleep with you?”
His father opened his mouth to say something, then shut it with a snap. “Will you promise me something?”
“I’ll take this one,” Kane told the jeweler who had been perfectly still, seemingly trying to blend into the background. “Have your designer call me. This ring needs to be perfect.” Kane turned to his father. “Anything, Dad. You know that.”
“Run this whole plan by your mother before you go forward with it. She may have suggestions on how to tweak it.”
“I think we have everything covered, but it’s not a bad idea to get a woman’s perspective from someone I trust.” Kane stood and stretched. “I’ve got to get back to the office now. How are you handling being retired again?”
“Good. I don’t imagine it will last, though. Sounds like you’ll be preoccupied very soon.”
Kane smiled widely. “I hope so, Dad. I really hope so.”
Chapter Twenty
‡
“Are we there yet?” Annelise joked from her place beside Gigi in the chauffeured sedan.
“Not yet,” Gigi said lightly.
“How about now?”
“No.”
“Now?”
Gigi chuckled and threw a napkin at Annelise. “Will you stop? I’m wound up enough without you pushing me over the edge.”
Annelise opened her purse, took out a compact, and checked her makeup. “I don’t see why you’re nervous. You’ve met your uncles before.”
Gigi folded her hands on her lap and hoped she looked more confident than she felt. “Yes, but we didn’t say much. Kiss. Kiss. Nice to meet you. Glad you’re here. That kind of thing.”
“But today we’re going to rough them up until they tell us what you want to know?”
Gigi chuckled, then sobered and looked out the car window. “I didn’t know it was possible to admire someone and still be ash
amed of them. I feel like the worst daughter on the planet. I tell myself it’s not my place to judge my mother’s decisions. I remind myself how much she’s done for me, and I want to be okay with what she did, who she chose to be with. But as soon as I started to get serious about Kane, I felt this wall go up inside me. I’d rather be alone, than become my mother. My mother says I’ll never be happy while I’m holding on to my anger. And she’s right. More than anything, I want to put it aside, but I don’t know how. I’m hoping my uncles know something that will help.”
Annelise reached out and took one of Gigi’s hands in hers. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on one conversation.”
Gigi met her friend’s eyes. “Don’t make me start second guessing myself. I’m already asking myself if this is a good idea. I’m getting along with my brothers. I’m reasonably well adjusted. Things aren’t great, but they’re good enough. Maybe I should leave it at that.”
Giving Gigi’s hand a supportive squeeze, Annelise said, “We’ve come too far to chicken out now. You need to stop thinking you’re the little girl this family didn’t know existed. When you talk to your uncles, be the strong, independent woman I started a business with. When you set your mind to something, you make it happen. This is no different. If you want answers, don’t leave until you get them.”
Gigi nodded. “You’re right. Although lately I’ve begun to doubt even the business side of myself. Did I tell you I contacted six places I’d heard had my mother’s items and not one of them would negotiate a price with me? Four said they had already sold them but wouldn’t disclose to whom. And the remaining two wouldn’t answer my calls. I’m zero for ten, and it’s becoming discouraging. You’d think having money would open doors for me, but it hasn’t.”
Their car slowed at a large gate, then pulled through and up a long driveway. An impressive mansion sat atop a small hill in the middle of acres of manicured grass. There was more than one gym set. Children’s toy vehicles were scattered around the lawn. The door of the home flew open as the car came to a stop at the bottom of the stone steps.