Page 24

I walked out of the café before I could say something I’d regret, but Lyla’s words followed me onto the sidewalk.The truth about your marriage.She was right that the foundation was built on legal necessity, but she was wrong about everything else. What I felt for Gianna, what she felt for Luca, the life we’d built together that was real.
Wasn’t it?
By the time I got home, my mood had darkened to match the gray October sky. The house felt different somehow. Not obviously wrong, but the subtle displacement of someone who’dbeen there while I was gone. A pillow displaced on the couch. The slight chemical smell of cleaning products in the air.
Lyla must have stopped by while I was at the Henderson job site. She still had a key for her visits with Luca, but she’d never cleaned before. My skin crawled as I walked through the rooms, wondering what she’d been looking for or what she’d left behind.
I found Gianna in the kitchen making lunch, her dark hair pulled back in a messy bun and paint smudged on her cheek from whatever project she’d been working on at the shop.
“How did it go?” she asked without turning around.
“About as well as expected.”
She glanced over her shoulder, taking in my expression. “That bad?”
“She knows. Or thinks she knows. About the arrangement, the timing, all of it.”
Gianna’s hands stilled on the sandwich she was making. “What did you tell her?”
“Nothing. But she made it clear she’s not going to let this go.”
“What does that mean for us?”
The question hung in the air between us, loaded with implications neither of us wanted to face. What did it mean for us? Were we still just following the script of our arrangement, or had we crossed into something else entirely?
“I don’t know,” I said honestly.
She turned to face me fully, and I could see the worry in her hazel eyes. “Colby, maybe we should talk about what happened the other night.”
“The kiss?”
“The kiss,” she agreed. “And what you said afterward. About not wanting this to be over.”
I moved closer, drawn to her despite the chaos in my head. “Did you mean what you said? About needing time to think?”
“I meant it. But I’ve been thinking, and I keep coming back to the same questions.” She wrapped her arms around herself, a gesture I’d learned meant she was feeling vulnerable. “What’s real here? What we feel for each other, or what we’ve convinced ourselves we feel because we’re living like a married couple?”
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters. If we’re just caught up in playing house, if these feelings are just a product of proximity and convenience, then what happens when the pressure is off? When you don’t need a wife anymore?”
Lyla’s words echoed in my head:You find women who’ll take care of you and Luca until you get bored or find an excuse to leave.Was that what I was doing? Using Gianna’s feelings for Luca and her growing attachment to me as a way to get what I needed?
“I don’t know,” I said again, and hated how helpless it sounded.
“That’s what scares me.” Gianna’s voice was quiet, but there was steel underneath. “I can’t be another Sarah or Rebecca, Colby. I can’t let myself fall completely in love with you and Luca only to have you decide I’m getting too attached.”
“That’s not what this is.”
“Isn’t it? Be honest with me, Colby. If there was no custody case, if Lyla had never filed her motion, would you have married me?”
The question pierced me like a punch to the gut because I couldn’t answer it. Without the custody case, would I have been brave enough to admit my feelings? Would I have risked our friendship for the possibility of something more?
“I don’t know,” I said for the third time, and saw her face crumble slightly.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Gianna, wait?—”