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She stared at his back, trying to puzzle it out but not getting very far Perhaps she was just raw fros were just a byproduct of a process she should have gone through years ago? It would be foolish to h to know her perspective was skewed

“You’re categorizing”

Luca’s voice reached her He hadn’t turned back around, but stared out into the growing darkness

“I can practically hear your s be”

Mari rose and went to the , standing behind hiht move, so she simply did what she felt like: she put her arms around his body and pressed her cheek into the warmth of his back

Luca sed against the luh as a child was nothing, nothing compared to the hell that Mari had experienced He tried to picture her on a floor, battered and bruised, and couldn’t It see, too horrific What sort of ? To a woman he was supposed to love?

And yet, here she was, so him

“It’s snowing,” he , settling on the ground in intricate patterns He was rerandmother’s lace and wondered what she’d think of this ot himself into

Why was it that people hurt the ones they were supposed to love? He knew he couldn’t let Mari do this alone, yet it brought backGina when their mother had abandoned the family Nonna had always been there to help What would she say now, if she could be here?

He knew exactly what she’d say and he didn’t like the answer She’d tell hiive

Mari sighed against his back and he closed his eyes What a day they’d had He was glad now that he had handled Reilly the way he had If this hat Mari was carrying deep inside, a physical response would have only frightened her more

Today he’d thought only of Mari And that wasn’t good

Mari did not need a man like hiive her stability and security andfor a home and children That wasn’t his life, it never had been He’d always been the Fiori heir, the one everyone assumed would step into his father’s shoes one day And he kept fighting against it

He looked at the reflection of the suite in the glass doors There was nothing personal here, no pictures, no trinkets, nothing to make it a home and that was how he lived his life It hat it was It was the world he inhabited

He’d forget about her, eventually

But with her ar he wanted to do was lift her in his arms and hold on

And he’d cos as he ever would