Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“Ally’s not really a beach person,” Aria informed me with a quirked eyebrow. “She prefers city breaks where she can be a real tourist and go to art museums. That kind of thing.”
Right.
That did make sense. I didn’t know why I’d immediately thought beach. Maybe because she grew up in Malibu.
At least I knew that much about her.
“I had mentioned the idea of a beach, actually,” Allegra jumped in with the lie. “Well, really a resort. Laze by the pool kind of vacation.”
“Oh.”
Awkward silence fell between us for a few seconds.
“Did Ally ever tell you about the time she yelled at everyone in the Sistine Chapel?”
“Oh, Ari, no.” Allegra slapped a hand over her face with the first giggle I’d heard out of her in days. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “Please don’t.”
“Please do,” Sarah insisted.
“Well, when Ally was ten years old, our mom, who’s Italian, decided to take us on a grand summer tour of her home country. She almost immediately got called to some far-off place for a job, and I was left to take Ally around.” Allegra shot her sister a sad, knowing smile as Aria continued. “It was better this way because with Mamma, we’d have to do everything after hours so she could have privacy. This way, we got to do all the tourist stuff like regular people.”
“Who have private security,” Allegra teased.
“Fair, fair. We did have private security. Anyway, in Rome, we did a tour of the Vatican. And talking is prohibited in the Sistine Chapel. But there were so many people, and no one would shut up. Ally, this cute little ten-year-old, wanted to experience the Sistine Chapel the way it was supposed to be experienced—in utter silence. And all these tourists were being noisy. I could see Ally getting more and more agitated. I did not, however, expect her to suddenly stop and yell, ‘Don’t any of you know the meaning of quiet!’”
I chuckled at the imagery and Allegra shot me a surprised look.
“We were asked to leave,” Aria finished the story with a snort.
“Like I was the rude one.” Allegra huffed.
“Jared, have you ever been to Italy?” Sloane asked.
Discomfort cut through my amusement. “I’ve never been out of the UK. Travel’s not really my thing.”
“Oh?” North quirked an eyebrow. “Your wife loves to travel.”
Allegra narrowed her eyes on her brother-in-law. “Actually, I love Scotland more than I love to travel.”
As the conversation continued from the sitting room to when we were seated around the dining table, I grew more uncomfortable. The couples asked us questions and it became clear to everyone in the room that Allegra and I knew very little about each other.
It was my fault.
She’d tried to make conversation with me. To ask me questions. I always had some excuse to be elsewhere so I could keep my distance. When Allegra had shared that she thought we might not even have to do an interview for her visa, I’d grown even more distant with her.
But as I avoided the concerned glances of the people who cared about us, that guilt I’d felt earlier formed into a hard knot in my gut. I was desperate to get back to the house, to escape the feeling, but Sloane had insisted on after-dinner coffee. I’d excused myself to use the bathroom, but it was really to get a reprieve from them and from my own self-flagellating.
What I didn’t need was to step out of the bathroom and almost walk right into my cousin-in-law.
Theo nodded silently toward a back room that was set up as an office. With an irritated sigh, I followed him.
“What a fucking mess you’re making of this, old boy,” Theo opined in a low voice.
I scowled. “Why do you care?”
“Because Sarah cares.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t like when she’s worried about you. It detracts her attention from me.”
Liar. He just didn’t like when she was worried, period. Sarah had him tied tightly around her wee pinky finger. “Well, it’s none of your business.”
Theo’s expression was grim. “If you want people to buy that you married Mrs. McCulloch for love—and by people, I mean the appropriate authorities—you are going to need to stop treating your wife with the indifference of a stranger.”
That guilt swelled almost painfully inside me. “I don’t do that.”
“Yes, you do. You might not want her—though I don’t bloody well know why not—but you could at least treat her with a modicum of interest. At least encourage friendship.”
“You’re giving me relationship advice?” I scoffed.
Theo closed the distance between us. “Everyone thinks I’m a cold bastard who doesn’t care about anyone but Sarah. They can think what they want. Frankly, she tops a very small list, so they’re not wrong. But when I married her, you became family, whether either of us wanted that or not.”