Page 201 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

I’m sorry your husband knocked me up?

Elena smiled widely at her, as though her admission meant nothing, and neither did Cara’s apologies. “Well, enjoy your ice cream, and have a great day.”

“You, too.”

Cara watched Elena disappear down the aisle. It was the strangest, most random interaction of her life.

Worse, was the fact Cara didn’t even know if it was random.

Cara balanced the four bags of groceries in her one hand and arm as she tried to get the main doors to her apartment building open. She felt his presence slide in beside her before he even spoke. He slipped the bags from her grasp easily, and his sweet kiss landed on her cheek without a word.

An arm slid around her waist, and Cara’s body reacted as though heaven had just come to wrap around her soul. She leaned into Gian’s embrace as he kissed her cheek once more.

“What did I tell you, mon ange?” Familiar, comforting dark eyes looked her over, before moving onto the contents of her grocery bags. “Come on, tell me.”

“About what?”

“When you need something, Cara.”

“Gian, I am not getting someone to grab my groceries. I can handle it—”

“Then take someone with you to help you carry all this shit, love.”

Cara shrugged. “You showed up. All is well.”

Gian sighed, and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. Cara smiled, and managed to get the main doors open at the same time. Quickly, the two slid into the building, and Gian led the way. His arm stayed firmly tucked around Cara’s waist, his palm hidden under her jacket, resting flat to her swelled stomach.

“I didn’t expect you so soon,” she said as they climbed the one stairwell to her floor.

“I should have come sooner,” he replied. “Things got in the way.”

“Like what?”

“Life,” Gian said roughly, “and nothing that matters, to be honest.”

Once the two were safely hidden away in Cara’s apartment, she stood back and let Gian put all the groceries away. He never missed a beat, sliding things into cupboards as though he had lived there for as many years as she had. He really did pay attention, and he didn’t forget things.

At least, not where she was concerned.

“I want to apologize for something,” Gian said, his voice muffled by the freezer as he shoved in the mini ice cream tubs.

“What’s that?”

“My mother showing up here the other night.”

Cara’s tension released in a laugh. “She’s a wonderful, interesting woman.”

“Wonderfully interesting is one way to put it.” Gian closed the freezer door, and looked back at Cara. “Still, you shouldn’t have been put in that position. I should have told her first, and then—”

“You’re right, you should have.”

Gian nodded. “She let me know that. Repeatedly.”

“I like her.”

“She likes you,” he replied with a smirk. “I knew she would, it was just everything else that I didn’t know about, I suppose.”

Everything else, like his wife.

Cara thought to tell Gian then and there that she had run into Elena, but only decided against it because what would be the point? His wife clearly hadn’t recognized her, and she hadn’t done anything wrong or rude. If anything, wasn’t Cara the one in the wrong, just by being pregnant with Elena’s husband’s child?

The meeting was random. Nothing more, nothing less.

Cara did have other questions, though.

Things she wanted to know.

“Gian?”

“Yes, amore?”

“Why did you marry her? Why her, Gian?”