“Save your matchmaking attempts for someone susceptible, Mama. I do not believe Faith likes me at all.”
Oh, he was in fine form tonight. Faith refused to rise to the bait and show her chagrin at his words.
“Nonsense. You’re my son, what is not to like?” Agata demanded.
Faith could make a list, but she forebore doing so for Agata’s sake. See? She could handle this. She would handle this.
Her desire to strangle Tino for his leading comment morphed to unwilling concern as she saw how haggard he looked. Oh, he was his usual gorgeous self, but there was a certain cast to his skin and lines around his eyes that were not usually there—all of it bespeaking a bone-deep exhaustion.
“You look tired,” she blurted out.
“Si, this one has been working too many hours. Like a man possessed, he returns to his office after our little Gio goes to sleep and works into the early hours before returning home.”
“I told you, I have some things going on that require extra attention right now.”
Agata frowned. “You say that to your father and maybe he will believe you. Men! But I am your mother and you are behaving much the same as you did after Maura’s death. I do not understand it.”
“There is nothing to understand. I am not grieving, I am working.” He said it with so much force, Faith couldn’t help believing.
Agata did not look so convinced. But then, she was a mother and tended to see the softer side of her child, even if such a side did not exist.
“Is the new venture going well?”
“Yes.” Tino’s voice was clipped and the look he threw his mother was filled with frustration. “Regardless of what my family thinks, I am damn good at my job.”
Rocco had joined them and was shaking his head. “Of course we know you are a success. How could you be anything else? You are my son, no? And I am the greatest vintner in Sicily. Why should you not be a businessman of equal talent? You are a Grisafi.”
Faith was tempted to laugh, but knew Rocco would not take it well. He was serious. Of course. But Faith had no problem seeing where Tino got his arrogance from.
“He is that,” Agata said with asperity. “Which means that in this home, he is my son, not some bigshot businessman. And you are my husband, not the maker of the best wines in the country.”
“Yes, of course.” Rocco did not look the least cowed, but sounded more than willing to be compliant.
Agata shook her head. “Men!”
It was a word she said often over the next few hours, with the same slightly exasperated and amused tone. Faith was gratified that despite the stress of being around Tino, she found the evening highly entertaining and surprisingly comfortable.
So long as she avoided direct contact with her former lover, that is. It wasn’t easy in such a small group.
And Tino wasn’t helping. He had to know she found being around him difficult, but he engaged her in conversation, and she barely avoided sitting beside him at dinner. In that, Gio was her unwitting accomplice.
However, once dinner had been eaten, it was clear that Gio and Agata both intended to see that Faith and Tino spend as much time together as possible.
Right now she was being given a tour of the vineyard, ostensibly by Rocco. Only, the old man and Gio often moved ahead, or lingered behind, leaving her alone with Tino for brief spurts of time.
“You never answered my mother’s question,” Tino said during one of those moments.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“She asked what there was about me not to like.”
“She’s biased. She’s your mother.”
“Si, but that’s not the point.”
“And what is the point?” “That you never answered her question.” “She didn’t seem bothered by that.” The older woman had not brought it up again. “Perhaps not, but I am.”
“That’s too bad. I’m not here to visit with you, Tino.” “My family will be disappointed. They are matchmaking.” “In vain.”
“Yes, but won’t you tell me why?”
He was insane. He was the one who refused to consider marriage. Ultimately, wasn’t that a far more effective deterrent to his family’s attempts at matchmaking than her supposed dislike of him?
“You’re arrogant.”
“I am a Grisafi.”
“So, it comes with the territory?”
“Definitely.”
She rolled her eyes.
“What else?”
“I never said I didn’t like you, Tino.” And she couldn’t do so now in honesty. He’d hurt her, but she did like him. She loved the callous lout, but yes, she liked him, too. Just not some of his attitudes.
“You said you never wanted to see me again.”
“I said our affair was over.”
“And yet here you are.”
“Visiting your family, Tino. Not you!”
“You could have arranged to come a different night.”
“Why should I?”
He laughed, the sound too sexy for her peace of mind. And highly annoying. “Ah, proving me wrong, Faith? Making sure that I know I don’t matter enough for you to avoid dinner in my home?”
“I told you I wouldn’t give up my friendship with your mother or son.”
“You wanted to see me, or you would not have come tonight.” He brushed her cheek with his hand. “Admit it.”
She jumped back from the gentle touch that felt like a brand. “If I hadn’t come, your parents would have suspected something was wrong between us. I would think you would have realized that and tried to avoid it. You could have made arrangements to be gone tonight without causing suspicion.”
“I had no desire to do so.” He shrugged, looking scarily determined.
“I don’t see why.”
“You have refused to answer my calls for the past week.”
“That should have given you a message.”
“It did. Something is wrong and I want to know what.”
“I told you.”
“You want more or nothing at all.”
“Yes.”
“I cannot give you marriage, Faith.”
“You would be surprised at what you are capable of giving in the right circumstances, Tino.” Why she said it, she didn’t know.
The need to challenge him?
“What circumstances would those be?”
She shook her head, absolutely not going there right now. “Just leave it alone.”
“I cannot.”
“You have to.”
“I know about your lost husband and child. I am sorry.
If I could take that old pain away, I would. But I cannot fill the gap they left in your life. That is not in my power.”
Did he really believe that? And here she’d thought he was smart. “You have your own past tragedies