Page 200 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

The question came from Cara’s left. She had been so involved in her task of getting the last, but most important, thing on her grocery list, she hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings.

Cara found the woman who the voice belonged to, and damn near tripped over her own two feet. Elena Guzzi.

Elena stood only an inch taller than Cara, but that was probably because of the sky-high heels the woman had on her feet. She certainly didn’t look dressed to be grocery shopping in a black knee-high, pencil skirt dress with a beige trench coat overtop. Her makeup was flawless—impeccable, with nothing over or under done. Even her blonde hair laid straight down her back, and not one stray hair was out of place.

She was beautiful.

Perfect, even.

Yet, cold in her eyes.

Cara recognized her instantly, but Elena looked at her as though she didn’t have the first clue in the world who she was.

“I-I’m sorry?” Cara managed to ask, finally coming out of her shock.

Elena leaned over Cara’s cart, balancing her basket with nothing but wine inside, on her hip. “That one right there—the peanut butter one. Is it any good?”

“That one is, but I don’t know about the rest.”

“Oh, good. I like peanut butter.” Elena moved around Cara’s cart, seemingly unaware that she was being watched like a bug under a microscope. “Although I don’t think I have the same excuse as you do to be snacking on these, do I?”

“Pardon?”

Elena pointed at Cara’s stomach peeking out beneath her opened jacket. “How far along, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Oh, God.

Cara did not want to be having this conversation with her lover’s wife, especially considering the woman didn’t seem to know who in the hell she was. Didn’t that make it even more wrong on some level?

She was going to hell.

“Twenty-nine weeks in a couple of days,” Cara said quietly.

“Almost there, then. Boy or girl?”

“Boy.”

Elena smiled, but Cara couldn’t help but notice how it didn’t feel true. It certainly looked warm enough, but the iciness in Elena’s gaze was hard to hide. Cara wondered if that was just a part of who Elena was inside her soul—perpetually cold, always distant.

Cara didn’t have any right to speculate on those things, anyway.

“Have you thought of any names?” Elena asked as she put a couple of tubs of the ice cream in her basket.

“Um, his father likes Marcus. A family thing, I guess. I haven’t said yes or no to it.”

Cara’s awkward tone did not go unnoticed.

Elena shot her with an apologetic look. “Oh, my gosh. I’m so sorry. You probably think I’m a creep or something, randomly questioning a stranger in a grocery store about her pregnancy. Don’t mind me, really. Babies just make me curious, and so does pregnancy.”

Cara knew better than to ask, and she should have just taken the chance to get out of the conversation while she had it, but she didn’t. “Why is that?”

“I lost a baby, nearly four years ago, shortly after I married my husband. We haven’t been able to … well, you know.”

Guilt and shame compounded hard in Cara’s chest, squeezing the fucking life out of her heart.

“I’m sorry,” Cara said lamely.

What else could she say?