Page 75 of Vow

He shrugged, and reached for the menu that had been placed on the table. Looking it over, he said, “It turns out, my son is a hell of a lot more like me than I thought. I’m not sure whether to be surprised, or terrified for what might happen because of it, but here we are.”

“You do know that I don’t understand a lot of what you’re telling me, right?”

The man grinned slyly. “In time, you will. I expect so, anyway.”

Haven frowned. “I think you’re confused about some things, then.”

“How so?”

Giovanni met her gaze, and despite the warning she found there, she didn’t look away.

“Andino and I …” Haven struggled to come up with the right thing to say that wasn’t too personal. “We’re not together. That was a choice he made, and one I’m trying to deal with now even if he does confuse the hell out of me constantly. That’s not important, though. We’re not a thing, and we’re not going to be. Ever.”

“Not together?”

“No.”

“You two seem to end up in the same spaces for people who are … not together.”

Haven let out a bitter laugh.

What else could she do?

“How do you even know that?” Haven asked.

Giovanni kept an innocent expression as he replied, “Because I look out for my son even when he thinks I am prying and spying. He deserves—and needs—only the absolute best people surrounding him. Those who will give him absolute loyalty and nothing less in this life. Even when it’s someone like his father looking for information. Anyway,” he said with a wave of his hand, “when I was dealing with something else for him, I learned you were still around. I guess we just haven’t run into one another again since the last time I found you coming out of his house, huh? But we both know you’ve been back there.”

Haven’s cheeks pinked. “Yeah. Let’s not and say we did.”

“Mmm.” The man only smiled in that sneaky way of his. “You don’t even know why you keep going back to him, do you?”

“Not the slightest clue.”

Giovanni nodded. “I didn’t think so.”

“He keeps drawing me back, I guess.”

“I bet.” Gio stood from the table, then, and fixed his jacket. “By the way, how is your mom?”

Haven glanced down at the folder in front of her. “Still sick.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll pray for her—I don’t think God cares much to hear from me anymore, but who the hell knows?”

Haven smiled a little. “Thanks.”

“Is that why Andino is buying your club? You didn’t get a better offer, and he was willing?”

Her head snapped up and her gaze narrowed. “I’m sorry?”

Gio’s expression blanked as his gaze drifted from the folder sticking out of her bag to Haven’s confused face. “The inspection report in that folder—I saw the company name. Your club is still for sale, isn’t it? That’s what I assumed it was for.”

“Not that. The other thing—the Andino thing. What did you mean by him buying my club?”

“The company on the inspection report.”

“What about it?”

Gio’s brow lifted. “That’s the shell company my son uses to invest in different businesses. His lawyers handle the buying, selling, and other paperwork. He just deals in the cash.”