Page 39 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

“Now, your turn,” he said.

“For what?”

“A question that isn’t entirely safe.”

Cara stiffened. “Depends on what it is.”

“Too bad—I answered yours.” His hand landed on her bare hip under the afghan blanket, holding firm as if to keep her there. “Tell me about your sister. Not the kinds of things you tell other people. How you’re feeling. Certainly, not something to placate me. I’ll know if you do, bella donna. I am not a dumb man.”

No, he certainly wasn’t.

Cara barely had to think about her response, though. “She was not like me. Lea was the complete opposite of me. And maybe, sometimes, that left me feeling a bit left out when she could so easily fit in and I couldn’t, but I always had her, regardless. It took me a bit to realize after she had died that I depended on her for a lot more than being my sister and roommate. I didn’t know how to be Cara without Lea.”

“Oh?”

“I’m still not sure that I know.”

Gian’s lips pressed to the top of her head. “I only know you—what you let me know, of course—and I think you do Cara very well.”

She smiled. “I think you would have liked Lea, though.”

“I like you, love. And that’s the important bit.”

“Is it?”

“Sure.”

Cara fell silent, lost in the sensations of Gian stroking her skin under the blanket and the comfortable breeze coming in through the window. She hadn’t known how much she needed the quiet and a break from life and a city that never stopped moving. Sure, below them, another city was moving like the end was near, but she barely heard a thing.

It was only Gian’s speaking again that broke her from the daze.

“We should do this again soon,” he said.

“That might make it seem like we’re dating, Gian. We hooked up, ran away for the weekend, and now you’re planning the next one. I don’t get involved with your type of man—I told you that once.”

“It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”

Cara bit her bottom lip. “Maybe.”

“We’re doing this again.”

It wasn’t even a suggestion that time.

“Are we?”

“Oh, yes.”