“Hey, Marco!” I called out.
“Buonasera, Signorina Lemon.” He melted back into the shadows, and we sat quietly for a couple of minutes until it was clear that he was giving us some privacy.
“I’m glad I caught you alone. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something.”
He suddenly sounded serious, which made me wary and a little nervous. Dante was never serious. I wondered if it was about how he planned to pay me back. Or the task thing he’d mentioned earlier.
“You should tell me about this fiancé of yours.”
“I don’t know if we should talk about this.” It seemed strange to talk about Sterling with Dante. I didn’t talk about Dante with Sterling, either.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. We’re friends, and I would like to know what’s happening in your life.” He sounded so sweet and sincere. I ran through my list again of why Dante would be a terrible boyfriend.
Maybe talking about Sterling would help keep us in the friend zone. It would be a reminder to both of us that I was an engaged woman and he needed to stop chasing me for fun.
“What’s his name?”
“Sterling.”
“Sterling? That’s not a name. That’s a type of silver.”
I pushed him on his shoulder and he listed to one side, laughing. “I’m sorry. I won’t tease. Sterling what?”
“Sterling Jackson Brown, the fourth.”
“He sounds like a law firm.” I went to hit him again and he held up his hands, still laughing. “Sorry, sorry. Please tell me you’re not marrying a lawyer.”
I sat still for a beat. “What’s wrong with lawyers?”
“Everything’s wrong with lawyers.”
“My mother was a lawyer.”
“A lawyer created an angelic creature like you? I don’t believe it.” He reached out when he said this, brushing a strand of hair from my face and tucking it behind my ear. I held my breath until he took his hand away, and I closed my eyes slowly and opened them again. He made me more skittish than a newborn colt.
“True story. It’s how my parents met.” Even I could hear the wobbliness of my voice. I hoped he didn’t notice. “She was an environmental lawyer, and my daddy had started up his oil company, and they met in court when she tried to shut him down. They started dating once the trial was over. Daddy says he won the case and the girl, and then Momma reminds us that she only lost on a technicality, because she was a great lawyer who should have won.”
“How do you know she was great?”
“Because a good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge.”
He laughed at that, and I joined him. Most of my time spent with Dante alternated between wanting to laugh with him and wanting to punch him for making me feel things I didn’t want to feel.
It was exhausting.
“Did your mother keep practicing law?”
“She stopped when they got married. They wanted a family more than anything. My grandfather died when my daddy was young, and my poor grandmother, who had never worked a day in her life, had to work three jobs just to keep them afloat. They nearly lost the ranch. Daddy always says his proudest day was when he gave my grandmother the deed and made sure she never had to have a job again. He didn’t want my mother to have to work either. Or me.”
Dante raised an eyebrow at me. He knew how important my career was to me. “Your mother doesn’t object?”
“My mother says she’s found more happiness and satisfaction in volunteering than she ever did working, and so she’s on board with Daddy’s plan. But it’s not like some old-fashioned or sexist ‘women belong in the home’ sort of thing,” I explained. “It’s just that given his upbringing, he adores the women in his life and wants to take care of them.”
Which meant that I let my father down on a continual basis. He wanted to shelter and protect me, and I wanted to be out in the world, living my own life.
“So he expects your future husband to keep you barefoot and pregnant?”
I only barely refrained from rolling my eyes. “That’s not the point.”