Page 59 of Bene

Gian smiled faintly. “And yet, not entirely untrue, either.”

Bene shifted in the chair under the intense weight of his father’s stare. He didn’t need Gian to verbally cut him down, not when the man’s gaze did it for him. He knew what he did was wrong, and now it was just a matter of admitting as such and apologizing. That was really all his parents asked of their sons when one of them stepped out of line.

Still, Bene stayed quiet.

Gian didn’t miss it.

“Who is she?” his father asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Matters to me, if you’re willing to bring the woman to my home and go as far as erasing my video footage to try and hide her.”

“It wasn’t hiding her.”

“What would you call it?”

“Avoiding this situation,” Bene returned.

Gian chuckled. “Because you didn’t want us to know you were seeing someone, or—”

“I wouldn’t call it that. It’s just … she gives me something to do, instead of focusing on all the other shit going on. It’s not that deep, you know.”

“Oh.”

His father’s quiet proclamation had Bene lifting his head to meet Gian’s gaze. He shrugged when his father waited for Bene to say something else. He wasn’t sure what he should say.

“But would you like it to be something else?”

That was a tricky question.

“I like her,” he said simply.

“Hmm.”

“Could you give me something else?”

Gian grinned. “Well, that’s not for me to do now, Bene. You’re the one who is apparently seeing a woman you liked well enough to bring to my home when you know you’re not allowed to bring anyone here that you don’t want to sit down to chat with your mother or me. And you know, that’s the only reason why I haven’t chewed your ass off over this yet. Because you brought her here, and you do know the rules. Which means …?”

He intended for them to meet her.

Some day.

“Her name?”

Bene dragged in a quick breath. “Vanna.”

He didn’t bother to give her last name because he didn’t think it was that important for the time being. None of those details mattered more than the fact that his father simply wanted to know who the woman was that Bene dared to break their very clear rules for.

Funny how that worked.

“Lovely,” Gian murmured. “I will give you a chance to correct what happened last weekend. Your mother is having her thing for the shelter in a couple of weeks, which means there’ll be lots of people here to act as a buffer … no awkward conversation.”

Cara frequently threw dinner parties for the many organizations she either had a direct hand in, like the women’s shelters around Toronto, or the ones she had interest in when it came to donating money. Bene didn’t usually attend them, but it didn’t sound like his father was giving him a choice this time around.

“What do you think?”

Bene hummed under his breath. “And what if she says no?”