The Honest Affair (Rose Gold Book 3) by Nicole French

Author:Nicole French [French, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950663200
Publisher: Raglan Publishing
Published: 2020-10-20T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Matthew

Nina was quiet for the entire drive back to Florence. This time, I didn’t press her to talk, sensing she needed a minute to process. It’s not every day you introduce yourself to the daughters of your married former lover. Most people would rather jump off a moving train.

I was proud of her. I was. She looked her mistakes in the eye and took it on the chin like a champ. But I couldn’t lie to myself either. Seeing that farm and the way Nina’s gaze traced lovingly over its worn interior and admittedly picturesque grounds, sick trees and all? Listening to her all but offer to buy the damn place, to keep that part of her life forever? It was hard. More than hard.

I had my own relationship with this country. With Naples, and parts of Rome, where my grandmother was from, and Sicily, where I was stationed. Before today, I’d dreamed countless times of visiting the land of my ancestors with the woman I loved, sharing in its culture and history with her, making the kinds of bonds that last a lifetime, all swimming in what Italians called la dolce vita: the sweet life.

But today made me want to get the hell out of Italy. Take Nina someplace else. But not back to New York either. Somewhere we could start fresh. Where we could maybe lose the ghosts of our pasts and get a real chance at a future together.

Jobs. Family. Secrets. None of that seemed to matter to me anymore. All I wanted was freedom. For her. For me. For us, together.

But here she wanted to anchor herself to those ghosts for Olivia’s sake.

Or maybe her own?

I shook off the idea. It was jealousy, plain and simple. Nothing more.

Still. She was the one who brought up secrets on the way to the farm and asked for mine without offering any of hers. And while I still believed everyone had rights to their own, it did make me wonder what she might be hiding. I wanted to believe the time for secrets between Nina and me had passed, but I wasn’t a fool. I’d hurt her. She had plenty of reason to hold things back.

So it wasn’t a huge surprise when we reached the pensione, and Nina dawdled a minute outside the two rooms we had paid for—one of them still completely unused. Then she asked quietly if she could have some time to herself.

I tipped my head. “You sure, doll? You don’t have to be alone if you don’t want.”

Nina nodded. “I’m sure.”

She fingered the edges of my jacket for a moment like she was considering pulling me close. But then she released them.

Part of me wanted to fight it. Wanted to wrap my arms around her and make her accept that she had a partner whether she wanted one or not. But that’s not partnership. That’s force. I’d decided back in December that I would do whatever I could to show Nina I wasn’t going anywhere.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.