Page 109 of Tempting Me

“Good evening, Mrs. W,” Luca says in his everyday charming voice. “Lovely night for a walk.”

“Yes,” she says, looking back and forth between us. “It’s a very good night.”

She nods to me, and I return the gesture, hoping that will be the end of it and her age will mean she forgets this interaction all together by morning.

She resumes her walk, and I let out a breath. We did?—

“I’m so happy you two are bringing That Marina back to life. I’ve missed that place,” she says quickly.

I suck in breath and Luca chuckles, whispering in my ear, “I told you people would know.”

I swat his arm, but Mrs. Whittaker doesn’t stop to say more.

“If she knows, more people know,” I say. “Which means my family will know soon.”

“Not exactly,” Luca says and pulls me toward his house. “She’s clearly known for a while and hasn’t said a word. In fact, no one has said anything about us to me or anyone I know. I think they respect the fact that we don't want people to know and they are pretending not to know.”

I swallow and nod, but what if he’s wrong?

I’m crossing my fingers that he's right, though.

“Do you think she’ll tell people about this?” I ask and hold up our hands.

Luca takes a deep breath. “We won’t know for sure, but my gut tells me that she’s on our side and waiting for us to do things on our terms.”

I nod, because the only thing I can control from here is praying that he’s right.

My thoughts don’t have time to get carried away because as soon as we get through the front door to Luca’s house, he promptly removes all my clothes before we can make it up the stairs to his bed.

A girl could get used to this.

“Can I ask you something?”I say, rolling to my side and lifting a leg to rest over him as I snuggle him closer. I don’t think there will ever be a right time to ask him this, so I need to just blurt it out.

“Oh boy, by the way you’re biting your lip and staring out the window, I have a feeling I know what you want to ask me.”

I try not to smile. “Do you?”

I reach up to cup his cheek and hold my hand there until he looks down at me.

“Yeah. Ask it.”

“Why did you steal the money?”

He takes a deep breath, his gaze never leaving mine. In fact, I’m so lost in his eyes and how sad they look that I don't realize how long it takes him to answer.

“Is it that bad?” I whisper.

He pulls my hand away from his face then scoots down the bed until we are nose to nose.

“I never stole that money, Shay. I swear.”

It’s the same answer he gave us thirteen years ago, but this time, now that I know him better, I have zero doubt that he’stelling the truth, and my heart hurts that none of us believed him before. That for as close as our families were back then, we didn’t even give him a chance to explain. He deserved better from us. He deserved better from me.

“I believe you.”

He lets out a breath, and I swear I see years of relief leave his body.

“You do?”

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