He’d forgotten what it was like to be a teenager. Then again, he had never been a proper teen, anyway. A moody prick, sure, but he hadn’t had the same experiences as Ginevra’s sisters.
Ginevra took a minute to admire the inside the Guzzi guest house, which frankly ... was larger than most normal homes, but as Alessio had spent time in it before, he was more interested in watching her.
Well, her and Corrado.
“So, you’re where Les has been, huh?” Corrado asked.
Ginevra turned away from the painting she had been admiring over the fireplace to give Corrado a sly grin. “For a couple of days, but then he left a day early to come here.”
Corrado gave Alessio a look.
He shrugged. “I thought people here might like a heads-up on what I was planning, that’s all.”
“I see.”
“Are you jealous?” Alessio asked.
Corrado arched a brow. “Over what?”
“That I was with Ginevra.”
“I slept alone, Les.”
Right.
And he so hated that.
“But that was my fault,” Corrado muttered, facing Ginevra again. “I wish you hadn’t left—at least, not without telling me something.”
“I thought Marcus would explain,” Ginevra replied.
Corrado laughed darkly. “He would have, likely—except I didn’t answer my calls.”
“And then you broke your phone,” Alessio added, “before you headed off to ... where was it?”
“The lodge in Quebec.”
“And then Vegas,” Alessio said. “Where you still didn’t bother to answer anyone’s messages.”
“I know what I did, Alessio,” Corrado murmured. “I understand how I made it worse, thank you.”
“Always helps to have it pointed out, though.”
“It also doesn’t matter,” Ginevra said, “because we’re here.”
Alessio drifted past Corrado, tipping his head toward him as he shrugged off his jacket to set it along the back of the couch in the main room. He dropped the three small overnight bags he’d carried for them all over the side. “She’s right.”
Ginevra laughed. “Women are always right. I can’t help it that neither of you are used to that—having a woman between you as the voice of reason.”
Corrado chuckled.
“Nice,” Alessio told her.
She winked.
Alessio dropped into the corner of the couch, settling himself on watching the two of them work their shit out. After all, he had two days to do that with Ginevra, and he was good. He knew what he wanted from all of this. They were the only ones left, now.
“A drink?” Ginevra asked.
Corrado nodded as she neared the small wet bar next to the couch. “Sure, why not?”
Ginevra didn’t even ask which drink he wanted. She already knew and reached for the bottle of whiskey before pouring three fingers of the tawny-colored liquor into a low-ball glass. As she passed it over to Corrado, her gaze on him like she was waiting for their talk to continue, she didn’t forget about Alessio by reaching over with her other hand to let it drift through his hair, and then her fingertips ghosted over the side of his cheek.
Second nature.
He’d realized it a while ago, but this woman was perfect for them. There were parts of her that were better suited to handle Corrado, and other pieces of her soul seemed to just fit Alessio. She was the calm to the storm, and the light to the darkness.
He’d used to think the thing between him and Corrado—whatever that was, as strong as it was—needed to be the sun in their life. Something they revolved around. The thing that kept them alive, and together.
He was wrong.
Ginevra was the sun.
They just hadn’t found her until now.
“I’m where I want to be,” Ginevra said before Corrado could speak. “Here, with you. And with Les. I am where I want to be, and where I should be, so let me say that first. Is this where you want me to be, Corrado, regardless of the rest?”
Corrado didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Alessio tossed an arm over the back of the chair. “That settles that, doesn’t it?”
“But not all,” Corrado returned. “What happened at the club scared you, and you ran off, Ginny. Which would have been fine, except it seemed like you kept running.”
“I don’t like what you sometimes do,” she said simply. “That scares me for a lot of reasons, and it makes me question who I thought I was when I have to face the fact I love people who also do bad things, but I am where I want to be. And that’s what matters.”
“Is it?”
She stared hard at Corrado. “Yes.”
“Even if it happens again?”
“Even then,” she whispered.
She was still touching Alessio, her fingers skimming over his jawline as she took a minute to consider whatever it was running through her mind. He knew it was something in her mind keeping her quiet because that knot formed between her brow which said she was thinking too hard.
She always did that.
Ginevra focused on details.
Alessio dwelled.
And Corrado ... well, he shut down.
They were three imperfect people who had somehow found a way to fit together. Life would be far more boring without them there to share it with him, though, flaws and all. Of that, Alessio was most sure.
“I always take care of everyone else,” Ginevra said, her hand leaving Alessio so she could fix the bottle on the wet bar. “I was the friend my mother didn’t have because she had been so isolated and dependent on a man who only used her for years; a caretaker for my sisters, and even when our mother was still alive, I filled in where she couldn’t. And I was willing to marry a man I didn’t know and didn’t want to protect the people I cared about. In every other aspect of my life, I still take care of other people because it’s what I do. It’s who I am. I want to say sorry for making you think I was leaving you behind, but I can’t because someone else needed me more for a bit.”
Corrado cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t have to apologize for being selfless, Ginny.”
“Except you didn’t see me that way, did you?”
“What do you mean?”
Ginevra frowned. “Selfless. You didn’t see me the way I am because I don’t have to be that with either of you—I never have to sacrifice for you or Les. You don’t ask for more than I give, and you take care of me far more often than I take care of you.”
“Debatable,” Alessio spoke up, “but I think the way you take care of us, as you say, is so ingrained in who you are, and how you fit us, that you don’t feel like you have to do it. It just is, but we notice it.”
Corrado nodded. “We do, and when it was gone, well ... it went badly, didn’t it?”
Alessio glanced Corrado’s way.
A crooked smile answered him back.
Where was the lie?
“So, how do we fix that?” Corrado asked. “This, I mean, how do we make sure it doesn’t happen again? Because this is where you want to be, with us, and you are where we want you to be ... so we need to make sure this is where you stay, Ginny. I love you, and I need you to stay.”