“I should have called,” he admitted.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“If it offended you, it does.” Of course it had offended her.
He would not have cared with any of the other bed partners he had had since Maura’s death, but this was Faith. And he cared.
“I guess you didn’t have time for phone sex and saw no reason to speak to me otherwise,” she said in a loaded tone.
He had already apologized. What more did she want? “Now you are being foolish.” They had never engaged in phone sex, though the thought was somewhat intriguing.
“I seem to make a habit of that with you.”
“Not that I have noticed.”
“Really?” She sighed, the sound coming across the phone line crystal clear. “You must be blind.”
Something was going on here. Something bad. Perhaps he owed her more than a verbal apology for avoiding her as he had done. It was imperative they meet. “Can we get together tonight?”
“For sex only or dinner first?”
What the hell? “Is it your monthly?”
She was usually disconcertingly frank about that particular time of month and did not suffer from a big dose of PMS, but there was a first time for everything. Right?
She gasped. There was a few seconds of dead air between them. Then she said, “No, Tino. I can guarantee you it is not that time of month.”
Rather than apologize for his error yet again, he said, “It sounds like we would benefit from talking, Faith. Let’s meet for dinner.”
“Where?”
He named a restaurant and she agreed without her usual enthusiastic approval.
“Would you rather go somewhere else?” he asked.
“No.”
“All right, then. Montibello’s it is.”
She was early, waiting at the table when he arrived. She looked beautiful as usual, but gave a dim facsimile of her normal smile of welcome.
He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Did you have a good day?”
Looking away, she shrugged.
This was so not like her he really began to worry. Was she ill? Or returning to the States? His stomach plummeted at the thought. “Anything you want to talk about?”
“Not particularly.”
Right. He was not buying that, but obviously she was hesitant. Maybe they could ease into whatever was making her behave so strangely by talking about other things. “There is something I think we should discuss.”
“Fine.” The word came out clipped and infused with attitude.
Okay, then. Reverse was not a gear he used often in his professional or personal life, so he went forward with the original plan. “We need to come up with a strategy for how we behave around my family.”
“You really think that’s going to become a problem?” she asked in a mocking tone he’d never heard from her. “We’ve been sleeping together for months and have only been around them together twice in all that time. The first instance would not have occurred if you had known I was your son’s teacher, and the second could have been avoided if I had known you were due to return a day earlier than expected.”
“Nevertheless, the occasions did happen and I feel we should develop a strategy for dealing with similar ones when they happen again.”
“I think you handled it already, Tino. Your family is under the impression we are something between bare acquaintances and casual friends.” Her hands clenched tightly in her lap as she spoke.
He wanted to reach out and hold them, but that would be pushing the boundaries of what he considered safe public displays. Both for his sake and hers. He did not hide the fact that they saw each other, but he did not make it easy for others to guess at their relationship, either.
Marsala was a big enough city that he could take her to dinner at restaurants where he was unlikely to run into his business associates. Even less probable was the possibility of being seen by family. However, there were still some small-town ideals in Marsala, and Faith, as a single woman, could not afford to have her reputation tarnished if she wanted to continue teaching art at the elementary school.
“Did my saying that bother you?” Surely she understood the implications if he had reacted differently.
“Does it matter? Our relationship, such that it is, has never been about what I was comfortable with.” Her eyes were filled with a hurt anger that shocked him.
“That is not true. You were no more interested in a long-term committed relationship than I was when we first met.”
“Things change.”
“Some things cannot.” He wished that was not the case, but it was. “We do not have to lose what we do have because it cannot be more.”
“You spent two weeks ignoring me, Tino.”
“I was out of country.”
It was a lame excuse and her expression said she knew it. “You forwarded my calls to voice mail.”
“I needed a breathing space. I had some things to work out,” he admitted. “But I have apologized. I will do so again if that will improve things for you.”
She flicked her hand as if dismissing his offer. “Did you work out your problems?”
“I believe so.”
“And it included treating me like a nonentity in your life in front of your family?” she asked with a definite edge to her voice.
“If I had not, my mother would have gotten wind of our relationship. She knows me too well.”
At that moment, Faith’s eyes reflected pure sorrow. “And that would have been a catastrophe?”
“Yes.” He hated giving the confirmation when she looked so unhappy about the truth, but he had no choice. “It would not be appropriate to have my mistress visiting with my family.”
“I am not your mistress.”
“True, but were I to try to explain the distinction to Mama, she would have us married faster than the speed of light. She likes you, Faith, and she wants more grandchildren from her oldest son.”
&n
bsp; “And the thought of marriage to me is a complete anathema to you?”
No, it was not, but that was a large part of the problem. “I do not wish to marry anyone.”
“But you would do so.”
“If I was absolutely convinced that was what was best for Giosue.” Only, he would not marry a woman he could love, a woman who could undermine his honor.
Faith nodded and stood.
“Where are you going? We have not even ordered.”
“I’m not hungry, Tino.”
He stood as well. “Then we will leave.”
“No.”
“What do you mean?” Panic made his words come out hard and clipped.
“It’s over. I don’t want to see you anymore.” Tears washed into her peacock-blue eyes.
For a moment they sparkled like grieving sapphires, but she blinked the moisture away along with any semblance of emotion from her face.
He could not believe the words coming out of her mouth, much less the way she seemed to be able to turn off her feelings. It was as if a stranger, not the woman he had been making love to for almost a year, stood across from him. “Because I needed some space and neglected to call you for two weeks?”
“No, though honestly? That would be enough for most women.”
“You are not most women.”
“No, I’ve been a very convenient sexual outlet, but that’s over, Tino. The well is dried up.” A slight hitch in her voice was the only indication she felt anything at all at saying these words.
“What the blazes are you talking about?” The well? What bloody well?
She talked like he’d been using her this past year, but there relationship had been mutual.
“You wanted me just as I wanted you.”
She shrugged. Shrugged, damn it. Just as if this conversation wasn’t of utmost importance.
“Along with agreeing that this thing between us wasn’t some serious emotional connection, we also agreed that if it stopped working for either of us, we were completely free to walk away. No harm. No foul. I’m walking.” Her voice was even and calm, free of her usual passion and any feeling—either positive or negative.