Page 89 of Burning Caine
I jerked my head back. “You were married? When?”
“After my mom died. I’d been dating Matt for a year. I’d never expected anything to come of it. Hell, I moved away for half that time with no intention of coming back. He was like a placeholder. But when she died…” She stopped, closing her eyes for a moment and exhaling. It was a day for honesty. “When she died, my world fell apart. He was there for me and we dove into it without thinking. The marriage didn’t last a year.”
“That is very short. What happened?”
She popped an olive in her mouth, laughing to herself. “Turned out he was gay.”
“Marone! I didn’t see that coming!”
“Yeah, me, either. We’d started drifting apart before the honeymoon was even over. I don’t know when he finally came to terms with it, but we spent most of our marriage just co-existing. We split amicably enough, but I figured I was happier by myself. That’s when I left town.”
“But you didn’t move on from how he hurt you. You shut yourself off to love.”
She straightened, curling her lip. “No different than you. You’ve let your love life be determined by what she did to you. Aren’t you bothered by the reputation you’ve gotten?”
I waved it off. “Most people spend too much time worrying about what others think of them and not enough time doing what is best for themselves.”
“Not afraid your reputation will scare off the right one?”
“Have I scared you off?” I smiled, but a knot tied tight in my stomach.
She stared back at me, mouth twitching as though to say something, but nothing came out. She didn’t say ‘yes,’ at least.
Tentatively, I reached for her. Traced the line of her jaw with my thumb. “Let me help you figure that out.” My chest felt light, and my blood stirred as I wrapped my hand behind her elegant neck. I leaned toward her, tilting my head to avoid the brim of her hat. Her lips parted for me. As my mouth sought hers, I whispered, “This is our third date, after all.”
She leaned away immediately. “This isn’t a date!”
I let go of her neck and sat up straight, laughing. “Sì, of course, it is! I bought lunch for us, and now we are talking over food. This is a lunch date.”
“No, it’s not. This is a business meeting! You brought pictures for me for a case we’re working on. And even if it were, it would only be our second, anyway!”
I counted them on my fingers. “Russo’s, the gala, and today. That makes three.”
“Russo’s wasn’t a date, either!”
“Sì, it was. We went together, we had coffee, you ate, we told each other many things about ourselves, and then I paid. That was a date. I even said it was a date as we walked back to my office.”
“Well, today’s not a date, regardless,” she insisted stubbornly.
“As you like.” I winked and nudged her arm. “That way, I won’t have to make a choice about whether to see you again.”
She tried hard not to smile at me, but the truth was all over her body. “Do I get a say in this matter? What if I don’t want to see you?”
“Don’t be so silly.” I waved it off, teasingly. “Of course, you do!”
I leaned toward her once more, but she avoided my mouth, shaking her head. “No kissing during business meetings. Now, I have—” She checked her watch. “—fifteen minutes before I have to go. Show me the pictures.”
“Sì, if it is to be a business meeting, we must do some business!” I edged off the tailgate and retrieved an envelope with three large pictures from the car. She hopped down, and I laid them out next to each other. Each was a different close-up of the signature on the burned painting.
“That’s it? Three photos?”
“Sì.”
“You could have emailed them to me.”
“True, but I thought it was a good excuse to see you.” I smirked and brushed the back of my knuckles across her cheek. She knocked my hand away with a mocking sidelong glance and focused on the photos.
“What am I looking at?”