Gian let him go.
It was his wrongs that chased him out of the office, though.
25.
Ginevra
“So, what’s that like?” Ginevra asked her companion as he directed them back out to the party. “Having another face in the world that looks just like yours?”
Chris chuckled, his hand patting the top of her hand tucked into the crook of his arm. “Depends on which one of us you ask, I think.”
Her gaze darted to the other side of the dining room that was currently being used as a gathering area for the many guests. The long table had been used to set up another row of white roses, while silk and chiffon hung from the large, crystal chandelier overhead. People milled about, chatting and laughing as music filtered in from the next room.
It wasn’t the décor or the people that caught her attention, but Cara Rossi. And the two boys sitting next to her, and leaning close like they were sharing a secret. The other set of twins. Because apparently, there were two sets in this family.
“There are a lot of twins in your family to ask, I suppose,” she said.
Chris grinned. “And each one of us has a different experience about it. My mother is also a twin.”
“Really?”
“Identical, too. Her twin died when she was ... well, probably about your age.”
Ginevra’s smile slipped away. “That must have been terrible.”
“She doesn’t talk about it, so I assume so. Lea, that was her name.” Chris turned his gaze on her, and grinned, saying, “But I’m not supposed to be making you sad, right? And I think my mother would like to sit with you for a few more minutes. You know, without Corrado stepping in on every question or deflecting.”
“He’s so moody.”
Part of her liked that, though.
The other part squinted at him a lot.
It was a work in progress.
“Mmm,” Chris agreed, “and I bet he’s worse right now, too. He usually is when he doesn’t have his extension around to keep him entertained.”
“What?”
Ginevra peered up at Chris, but he didn’t answer her question. She didn’t exactly have time to press him for more, either. Cara caught sight of them coming her way, and with a wide smile, she waved them over.
“Be good,” she heard Cara tell the younger pair of twins. Although, they didn’t look any older or younger than Ginevra, to be honest. It was only once Chris had pulled up a chair for Ginevra to take, and sit beside Cara, that the older woman passed a look to the men on the other side of her. “Ginevra, you didn’t get to meet these two properly earlier—Benedetto, and Benito, or Bene, and Beni, as they prefer.”
The young men grinned, playful and mischievous. Their gazes drifted to each other, before coming back to her just as fast. Like actual mirrors of themselves, it was almost comical. Instantly, Ginevra knew two things about the twins. One, they were probably a hell of a lot of fun to be around. And two, she bet they were absolutely trouble.
They just had that air about them.
“Why do the nicknames sound a bit different from how their full names are said?” Ginevra asked.
Cara laughed. “You ask strange questions, don’t you?”
Ginevra shrugged. “Corrado says I surprise him with them. I think he likes it.”
“He always did like different things,” Bene said.
“Careful,” Chris murmured, his gaze cutting to the twin on the right. “Be very careful there.”
“I didn’t mean it like a bad thing, I was just saying—”
“Shut up,” Beni told his twin.
“Fine.”
Cara, still looking at Ginevra as though the conversation beside them hadn’t just happened, smiled a bit. “My husband is French and Italian. Their full names are obviously the Italian side, but the nicknames ... we’ve always said them more with a French flair. That’s all.”
“I like that,” Ginevra replied. “It’s interesting. Unique.”
“It’s about the only thing that sets them apart from one another.”
Cara wasn’t exactly lying. Passing the twins a second look was like staring into a reflection of them—they sat side by side, their hands in the same position on their laps, their suits matching down to the cufflinks on their wrists, and even their smiles crooked up at the edges on the same side.
They didn’t seem aware Ginevra was watching them, since they were too busy staring at something on the other side of the room, but it was ... fascinating. She wondered if they purposely behaved like mirrors of the other, or if this was just something they did from the time they were born.
Twins were like that, right?
Except, Corrado and Chris weren’t. Ginevra had noticed that about the men from the first night she saw them standing next to one another. Finding their differences had been easy to her, but this was not the same. At all.
Chris laughed under his breath, gaining her attention. The shrug he offered to her said that he had been watching her, and probably knew exactly what was running through her mind. He nodded like he was saying, yeah, I know, right?
She understood what he meant earlier now when he said every twin probably had a different opinion about what it was like to have someone else in the world share your face. No doubt, the two next to her had a different perspective than their older twin brothers.
“Now, do you have any siblings?” Cara asked suddenly, drawing Ginevra back to the present.
“Uh ...” Corrado wasn’t there for her to ask if that was okay, so she deferred to Chris thinking he probably knew the truth about why she was there. He nodded once, and then turned to grab a drink from a passing server. “I do—two sisters.”
Well, three, if she counted Siena, now.
And she was not mentioning her brothers.
“Are you the oldest?”
“I am.”
“Ah,” Cara said, smiling, “and your mother must love that. Having all girls around her, I mean. People always think I must lack female attention with all this testosterone around me.” Just as quickly, the woman winked, her perfectly applied makeup not showing a bit of her age, and her loose chignon making her striking red hair seem like a deeper maroon under the lights in the room. “Like having all boys somehow made me into one of them, too. Don’t I look like that’s a problem?”
Ginevra laughed.
Still, in her heart ... it hurt.
Cara hadn’t known it, but mentioning her mother was still a sore spot for Ginevra. She had moments where she didn’t think about her mother at all and passing time in her days where her sisters slipped her mind, too. And then, all at once, it came rushing back like a wrecking ball to devastate her again.
It happened every single time.
“But,” Cara drawled, grinning slyly, “soon they will all be married, and then I am sure I will have lots of women in this house. Won’t I, boys?”
Grumbles came from the twins.
Chris altogether avoided his mother’s stare.
Cara looked at Ginevra and rolled her eyes. “They don’t like to talk about that.”
“I can tell.”
“That doesn’t make it less true, though.”
Yeah, she liked Cara a lot.