That was a good question. What had she been thinking? She laid her head on the pillow. She’d be helping a good friend who had gone out of his way for her. That couldn’t be a bad thing, right?
Roberto wasn’t going to fix this for her. He was stepping back and letting her take the lead. Unlike Xander and Lukos, who freely offered their advice, Roberto was trusting her to make up her own mind without his influence.
And the more decisions she made for herself, by herself, the more confident she was becoming in her own decision-making. She smiled. Roberto was helping her more than he knew.
Her gaze returned to the ring. But she still had to decide whether they should continue this charade. If they ended things now, she knew it would cast a shadow over Gaia’s wedding. She didn’t want to do anything to hurt his cousin.
And if they let it continue, what? Would it change anything? Not really. She’d still find herself being drawn closer and closer to Roberto. And when the cruise ended, so would their relationship. Was she willing to risk getting hurt again?
So what was the right thing to do?
This charade was becoming so confusing. It was increasingly difficult to tell what was fiction and what was real.
DAY EIGHT
Venice, Italy
THINGS HAD CERTAINLY taken an unexpected turn.
She was Roberto Carrass’s pretend fiancée.
She picked up the ring, letting the sunlight catch the angles of the many diamonds, sending a cascade of colors over the wall. What should she do?
Today was Gaia’s wedding in Venice. And she was Roberto’s plus-one. She couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather experience a wedding with in such a romantic city—
And then her thoughts clouded with Lukos and Xander. What would they think if they could see her now? She took in her short black dress with the plunging neckline. It wasn’t anything too fancy, as she had never envisioned when she’d packed for the cruise that she’d be attending a wedding.
She recalled Lukos’s words not long after he’d been diagnosed. He’d made her promise that if he died, she would go on living and not walking around in the shadow that had once been their life.
She hadn’t wanted to promise. She hadn’t wanted to admit that he might not make it through this battle with cancer. But Lukos had been firm and he wouldn’t let her walk away until she’d made that promise.
He’d told her it was easier to make the promise then while he still had his hair, while he could still walk and do most everything he’d done before. It was making the promise later when he was bedridden that would have ripped her tattered heart to shreds. And he’d been right. The end had been—
She shook her head, chasing away the heart-wrenching memories. She refused to let them ruin this occasion.
Even though Lukos had wanted this for her, it still felt not quite right. And she didn’t know what to do about that. But every day she was with Roberto, she felt as though she was letting go of Lukos’s memory a little more. Not that she could or would ever forget him. He was her first love. But she was starting to wonder if there was room in her heart for the love of two men—
She gasped. What was she thinking? She did not love Roberto. Did not. Impossible. But she was attracted to him. There was no denying that.
And there was her brother to think of. Xander would be furious to know she was involved with his best friend. And she didn’t want to damage her relationship with her brother—not for a shipboard fling. Right?
Knock. Knock.
“Stasia, are you ready?” Roberto’s voice vibrated through the door.
Her heart raced. Her palms grew damp. This was it. A date.
Not a real date. But it sure felt like a real date. After all, Roberto’s family thought they were getting married. And as this charade continued, the lines of their relationship were becoming increasingly blurred.
She was just as nervous as she’d been on her first date with Lukos. No. Correction—she was more nervous.
She tried to calm herself with a deep breath as she slipped on the ring. The harder she tried to calm her breathing, the faster her heart pounded. Maybe she shouldn’t have agreed to this charade. Maybe it was too soon.
But she knew it was just an excuse. It’d been almost two years since she’d lost her husband. She glanced down at her finger where not that long ago she wore a wedding band, which was now replaced with a diamond ring. Would Lukos understand—