“Was it a condition for her that he not be a part of your life, or…?”
Hunter shakes his head, looking down at his plate. “I don’t know. It may have started out that way. He wouldn’t have told me if it did. Wouldn’t have wanted me to hold it against her. Which I wouldn’t have,” he adds with a shrug. “I get it. Especially when it was fresh, they probably needed to pretend I didn’t exist. Their relationship needed to be repaired. Even if not for him loving her so much, she found out she was pregnant around the same time my mom realized she was, so it was a pretty big mess.”
“Yikes.”
Hunter nods. “Their eldest daughter was born a month after me. She’s pretty cool, I think you’d like her.”
I smile. “I’m sure I would.”
“They had two daughters, so I’m the only son, even if I’m illegitimate. Since my mom was a model and—not to be an asshole—I got some of her looks, they discovered I photograph pretty well. My dad had this clothing line. He put some of the clothes on me and tried me out on their social media, and… the rest is history.”
I stab another piece of steak. “So, they kind of warmed up to you after it became clear you could benefit them in some way.”
“Kinda,” he says, shrugging. “But it’s whatever. It’s a warmer response than I ever expected, you know? And like I said, it turns out he did have some things in place for me once I came of age, I just didn’t know he did.”
I nod. “So, is it public knowledge that you’re his son? I tried to Google it, but I couldn’t find anything. I can’t read Italian, though, so I wasn’t sure if maybe it just wasn’t news here.”
Hunter shakes his head. “Not openly, no. It’s mainly for legal reasons. Technically, since I was born a month before his daughter, I’m the oldest of his children. I’m a bastard, but I’m also a male, so… Just to keep things friendly and make it clear I’m not trying to take anything from his legitimate heirs, we’re not making it public knowledge that I’m his son.”
I frown faintly. “Got it. Are you still going to model for his line, or was that just while you were in Italy?”
“Yeah, I’m still gonna do that for now. The line belongs to him, but I’m the face of it. I even took over running the social media because he wasn’t getting much engagement with what he was doing before. When my photos started getting attention, I asked him to let me give it a try, and when I took over, things picked up. I wrapped up my last shoot in Venice over the summer before I came back here, but I have some more travel coming up. I was actually going to talk to you about that.”
“Venice, Italy? Was it beautiful? I’d love to go there someday.”
He shakes his head. “Venice, California. He does business in the states, too. But I do have to fly back to Italy to do another shoot over spring break.” He looks up at me. “I want you to go with me.”
My heart drops. “Go with you? To Italy?”
He nods. “It’ll be like a vacation. I have to do the shoot, but after that, we’ll still be in Italy. The shoot’s in Capri, but we can go anywhere we want. I could show you my father’s house in Umbria. We could do some sightseeing in Rome. If your heart’s set on Venice, we could do Venice instead. It is better to go to Venice in spring than summer. Venice is hot as balls and just as smelly in the summertime.”
“You want me to go with you to Italy,” I echo.
“You can even bring your mom, if you want to,” he offers. “I mean, I’d like to spend most of the time exploring with you alone, but I know you said she never got to travel because of having you so young. We can fix that. My dad’s flying me over on his jet, so it makes no difference if it’s just you and me on the plane, or we bring one more.”
“I…” My head is spinning a little. “She has a boyfriend now.”
Hunter shrugs. “He can come, too.”
“I can’t go to Italy with you,” I say, frowning even as the words leave my mouth.
“Why not?”
Yeah, why not?
“Well… I don’t have a passport.”
Hunter smiles at me. “Spring break is a ways off yet. You’ve got time to get one. I want to take you to New York in December, too. Not for a photo shoot, but my dad has this gala ball every year in Manhattan. It’s the next time he’ll be in the states, and I’d like you to meet him.”