Loving Gigi (6 page)

Two waters arrived and Kane took a substantial gulp. “Rena will feel the same when she and Nick get pregnant. My parents will be all over that.”

“Children have a way of making the family you have even more important.”

Kane nodded politely. “I imagine they do.”

Julia put her hand on Kane’s forearm. “That’s why I’ve come to ask you for a favor. A really big one. I know how busy you are, but I hope you’ll say yes.”

“Whatever you need, Julia. You know that.”

“It’s not really for me, it’s for Gio. It’s something he needs that he’d never ask you for.”

“Consider it done.”

Plates of seafood crêpes arrived. Both Kane and Julia had eaten there often enough to know that regardless of what they ordered, Richard would send out what he considered his best that day. You didn’t ask what you were going to get, and you didn’t try to pay. Those were the rules of being someone Richard called family. It always amazed Kane how he kept his restaurants as profitable as they were.

“You know about his half-sister, Gigi.”

“Of course.”

“I know Leora asked us to back off and let her come to us, but I don’t think that’s going to ever happen. And no matter how happy Gio is about our life together and our baby, a part of him is still sad. I want to give him his sister back, and I’m asking you to help me.”

Kane raised one eyebrow in surprise. “You want me to find her?”

“We know where she is,” Julia answered sadly. “We’ve known for years. What we don’t know is how to get her to believe her brothers want her in their lives. I can’t even imagine growing up outside my family as she did. She must want to know them, but she shuts them out. She refuses to speak to them.”

Gio had spoken of his sister often when he’d first discovered her, but when his attempts to meet with her had all been denied, he’d stopped mentioning her. Still, he couldn’t see how he was the right choice to reach out to her. Shaking his head gently, Kane said, “Wouldn’t you or someone from the Andrade clan have a better chance?”

Julia turned pleading eyes toward Kane. “I might have thought that once, but we’ve all tried. She puts a defensive wall up instantly. It’s like she’s so afraid of getting hurt she can’t even hear what we say. Leora asked us to give Gigi a chance to come to us, but it has been years now. Maybe reaching out via someone who isn’t emotionally involved would work.”

Kane took a bite of his crêpe and used that time to think about what she was asking him to do. “You know I would do anything for Gio, but—”

Julia squeezed his forearm and continued to look up at him with the saddest puppy-dog eyes he’d ever seen. “I’ve seen you with Rena. You’re a wonderful big brother. You also understand how important a sister can be. Gio wants Gigi to be happy, but he also wants to be a part of her life and for her to be a part of ours. Imagine if Rena wouldn’t talk to you. How far would you go to try to repair that relationship?”

Kane nodded in understanding. As frustrating as she could sometimes be, he couldn’t imagine his life without his sister. “Pretty damn far.”

“Exactly. People tell him all the time to let it go. Let her go. But she’s never agreed to meet with him, and that leaves everything unresolved. It’s like that woman you used to ask about all the time. You don’t talk about her anymore, but I bet it still weighs on you that you never found her, doesn’t it?”

Kane frowned. “Not at all.”

Julia sat back in her chair and shot him a knowing smile. “Of course not. Sorry, I don’t even know why I brought her up.”

“Me either.”

“But you never did find her, did you?”

Kane pushed a piece of lobster around his plate. “No. No I didn’t.”

They ate in silence for the next few minutes. Kane’s thoughts drifted back to the night he’d met Luisella, and it filled him with the uneasiness he always felt when he thought of her. They had shared nothing more than a kiss and, as far as he was concerned, even that had been a lapse in good judgment. Still, no one he’d met before or since compared to her.

There were still times he considered hiring a private investigator to find her. He hadn’t let himself go that far then and wasn’t about to now.

Julia was right, though. He was haunted by questions that could only be answered by seeing her again. Would he want her as desperately as he had that night? Would the slightest touch from her still set his whole being on fire? Highly unlikely.

Especially after all this time. She might be married. With children. Looking for her now made no sense. But wanting to gave Kane an understanding of how a yearning didn’t necessarily lessen over time. It could lay dormant, mostly denied, and still come robustly alive at the slightest query.

Luisella.

Fucking Luisella.

Julia placed her fork down on the side of her plate and asked gently, “Will you do it? Will you talk to Gigi? Try to convince her to meet her brothers? Make her see they love her, and they would have come for her sooner if they’d known she’d existed? I think she needs to hear that.”

“I’ll go see her,” Kane said. “I’ll explain what I know about the situation. That’s all I can promise you.”

“Bring her home, Kane. Or get her to agree to let us visit her there. It would mean the world to Gio. And to me.” Julia laid a hand across her still flat stomach. “Our baby has another aunt, and I want her to grow up knowing her.”

“I can’t force Gigi to do anything she doesn’t want to, but I’ll try, Julia. I’ll rearrange my schedule and fly out to see her soon.”

“I heard she’ll be in Venice this weekend.”

“This weekend? I’m committed to an event on Saturday.”

Julia looked away, then back. “Stress is hard on a pregnancy, and waiting is very stressful.”

Kane chuckled and threw his napkin on the table. “You did not just play the pregnancy card, did you?”

Julia smiled at him innocently. “Only if it worked.”

Sighing in resignation, Kane said, “Send me all the information about where she’ll be, and I’ll fly over Friday night. Do you have recent photo of her?”

Julia dug through her purse. “I’ve had Alethea check up on her now and then.” She pulled out a photo and handed it to Kane. “This picture was taken a couple weeks ago.”

Kane accepted the photo, not knowing what to expect. He’d always assumed Gigi would look like a female version of Gio. He’d never actually given it much thought. He had to look at the photo twice before he believed what his eyes were telling him.

With a suddenly dry mouth, he demanded, “Who is this?”

Julia looked at him in confusion. “I told you, that’s Gigi.”

Every muscle in his body tightened painfully. Unfortunately, it was undeniably . . .
Luisella.

Billions of people on the planet and the woman he couldn’t forget just had to be his best friend’s little sister.

Son of a bitch
.

‡

S
aturday morning Gigi
woke and dressed early and headed toward the kitchen to make her mother an espresso. Ever since she was a child she’d brought her mother breakfast in bed as her birthday present.

The palazzo was just as it had been six months earlier and six months before that. The stone steps in the courtyard still needed weeding between the cracks. Another painting adorned a spot that had had been vacant for years. Gigi sent money to her mother each month so she wouldn’t have to work so hard, but instead of lowering her workload her mother used the money to hunt down and repurchase items she’d sold off. Why couldn’t her mother see that no matter how many pieces she bought back, it wouldn’t change how the house felt—empty and sad. She should sell the place, but Gigi doubted she ever would. As supportive and loving as her mother was, she was stubborn in her own way.

On the way to the kitchen, Gigi stopped to pick up a new addition to her mother’s framed photos. It was of her brother Luke with his wife, Cassie, and their little girl. Although Leora had said she understood when Gigi asked that they not talk about the Andrades anymore, it was obvious she’d stayed in contact with them. The constantly updated photos kept the topic open and painfully fresh at each visit.

You’re killing me, Mamma. They’re not even related to you. Why do you care about them?

Gigi considered herself a strong person. A levelheaded one. Most of her friends would describe her the same way. She was the one they came to for practical advice. They’d never seen the past pull her in like a powerful riptide, battering her with old insecurities and things she told herself no longer bothered her. Coming home always put her off-kilter.

It had been the same on Slater Island. She wasn’t proud of any part of that trip. Her emotions had flopped back and forth so many times she hadn’t been able to sort them out even after she’d returned home. She’d tried to box them up and put them aside with everything else unpleasant she couldn’t change, but a deep sadness had lingered after her visit to the States.

She’d finally admitted to her mother she’d gone to the wedding. She’d deliberately left out certain details, but she did tell her mother that being around them made her sad in a way she couldn’t handle. Another fact she wasn’t proud of, but one her mother seemed to understand. Leora had kissed her daughter on the forehead and said, “Everything, even second chances, needs to come at the right time. Perhaps this is not it.”

Her brothers had stopped trying to make contact after that, and Gigi was able to put all of it out of her head and concentrate on starting a career. Which she had. She didn’t want to look back. Not now. Not ever.

I should ignore these damn photos.
She couldn’t, though. They were in every room. Pictures of her brothers’ weddings, their parties, their children being baptized. Even though Gigi had decided to not have contact with them, watching their lives continue on without her filled her with a different, but equally unwelcome, regret.

Shouldn’t it get easier? Being in the home where her father had died, and then looking at photos of a family she didn’t know always left her feeling raw and exposed. She didn’t want to feel that way again. She didn’t like the person she was when she visited this house.

She replaced the photo on the mantel and told herself to think of it like a canker sore . . . no matter how bad it feels in the moment, it doesn’t last, and the pain is quickly forgotten.

Two days. I’m only here for two days; then it’s back to my life in Scotland.

Back to sanity.

She was gathering some pastries onto a tray when she heard a knock at the door. Gigi rushed to answer it, expecting a birthday delivery of some sort. She whipped open the door and gasped. Right on her doorstep was the one man she’d never forgotten, and the last one she wanted to see.

Kane.

Here.

Oh, God.

He was dressed in a button-down dark blue shirt and trousers, but he was every bit as sexy as he’d been in a tuxedo. Her heart started thudding wildly in her chest. Every inch of her came alive in a way it didn’t for other men. She licked her bottom lip as her mind went blissfully blank. This was the zing she’d told Annelise she was holding out for.

“May I come in?” His voice was deep and strong.

“What do you want?” Gigi asked in a whisper.

It was impossible to look away from his eyes, impossible to miss how her question had lit a fire within him. At least that was what Gigi thought until he said, “Your family sent me.”

Gigi’s breath left her in a rush. She was instantly angry, and although she didn’t want to admit it, disappointed. “I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in anything they have to say.” She went to close the door, but he put out a hand to stop her.

“Not everything is about you. It’s time to stop hiding,
Luisella
.”

Gigi’s face went hot with a blush. “I’m not hiding.” She gave the door a slight push, but he held it firmly in place. “And I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“Who’s at the door, Gigia?” Leora called from the stairway.

“No one,” Gigi answered over her shoulder and gave the door another shove. “Just a salesman peddling something we don’t want.”

“Oh, I was hoping it was . . .” Leora’s voice rose happily when she saw who her daughter was blocking from entering. She paid no attention to the obvious battle ensuing and said, “Kane! Come in. Julia told me you might drop by.”

“Leora, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” The smug look he shot Gigi made her want to slam the door in his face, but her mother was already at her side, welcoming him.

“I’ve heard so many stories about you through Gio that I feel I know you. Come in. You must be tired from traveling. Gigia, could you make some espresso for everyone?”

Gigi let the door swing wide open. “I’d love to,” she answered with heavy sarcasm.

Kane stepped inside and gave her mother a quick kiss on each cheek. “I hope I’m not intruding.”

Her mother dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. “Company is the best birthday present.”

Kane met Gigi’s eyes, but directed his next comment to her mother. “I’m here to take Gigi back to the United States to meet her brothers.”