“Good luck with that, Miss Siena.”
I folded up the boxes and placed them in the recycling bin. “What are your plans for Christmas?”
“I’ll make Christmas dinner for Mr. Marino then see my children at their mother’s house.”
“He didn’t give you the whole day off?” I asked incredulously. “It’s Christmas.”
“It’s fine,” he said, always smiling. “Mr. Marino doesn’t know how to cook.”
“But I do.”
“You’re pregnant, Miss Siena. You should rest.”
“I’m not disabled. I can put a bird in the oven and make stuffing.”
Giovanni dropped the subject. “It’s interesting to think there will be a baby here this time next year.”
“Yes…a little girl.” I still had a long way to go, but I was very excited about getting my daughter at the end. “Martina Marino.”
“Very cute name.”
“Yes. Cato loves it.” I rubbed my hand across my stomach. “You’ve known Cato for a long time. Anything interesting you can tell me about him?”
“I don’t know him as well as I thought I did.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well…” He finished placing the sugar cookies on the baking sheet before he carried them to the oven. They were cut out into candy canes, sleighs, and reindeer. He took off the oven mitts and returned to me. “If someone had asked me if Mr. Marino would settle down with a woman, I would have said no. If someone had asked me if Mr. Marino would have a family, I would have said no too. He’s turned into a man I never thought I would meet. So, in the end…I think you know him better than I do.”
I smiled. “He’s turned into a big sweetheart, hasn’t he?”
Giovanni shrugged. “He’s not trying to hide it as much.”
“Sometimes I wonder if we would be here right now if I weren’t pregnant. But with our connection, I think it would have happened anyway. I think Cato took advantage of my pregnancy to spare my life…just so he had an excuse to do it.”
Giovanni grabbed his alarm and set the timer for the cookies. “I think everything would have been exactly the same. Mr. Marino is a very paranoid man. The fact that he stopped wearing protection with anyone is an indicator of how he felt about you. He wouldn’t have done that with anyone else. He’s met the right woman, but I think he’s still resisting the truth. He’ll come around when he’s ready.”
“Yes…I just hope that’s sooner rather than later.” When we made love, I couldn’t resist the urge to tell him how I felt. I couldn’t hold back the passion, the love inside my heart. Even if he didn’t say it back, I wanted to say it anyway. I wanted to share that moment with the special man I adored. He could deny how he felt about me, but every time I said it, he couldn’t control his releases; it turned him on to hear those pretty words.
“He’s a complicated man. I suspect it’ll take a bit of time. I’ve seen the other women he’s been with.” He shook his head. “Maybe it was fun at the time, but they don’t care about him at all. He could drop dead, and they would pick his pockets and steal whatever they could find. They pretend to be exactly what he wants in the hope they’ll get a diamond ring and access to his wealth. You’re the only woman I’ve met who seems to appreciate him for who he is…so he’d better not do something stupid and lose you.”
Cato stepped through the door, dressed in his navy suit and black tie. Spots of water were on his clothes because it’d been raining all day. “Who better not do something stupid and lose you?” He joined me at the kitchen counter and wrapped his arm around my waist.
Giovanni was saved when the timer went off. “Better get the cookies…” He opened the oven and pulled out the tray.
Cato looked down at me, suspicion in his eyes.
“Giovanni said I’m the only woman who’s ever liked you for you…and you’d be stupid to let me go.” My fingers walked up his tie before I rose onto my tiptoes and kissed him on the mouth.
He kissed me back.
Giovanni set the tray of cookies on the counter. “They came out nice.”
Cato broke our kiss and examined the cookies the two of us had made together. “What are these?”
“You can make billions of dollars but not figure out these are cookies?” I asked incredulously. I grabbed a candy cane and broke off a piece for him to try.
He pushed my hand away. “No thank you.”
“You’ll stay at six percent even with a bite.” I pressed it against his lips again.
He finally ate out of my hand, his eyes locked to mine.
“Good. You need to live a little.” I ate the other half of the candy cane. “Yum…those are amazing.”