Page 30 of A Winter in New York

I wish I could comment on how crazy it is to realize hisbiological father and my mother were in the same band so we could marvel at the small world, but of course the truth is that it’s no coincidence. I’ve engineered this in a roundabout way. Not that I ever intended to become as involved with the Belottis as I have.

“I enjoyed it a lot, your family are great,” I say.

He glances away out of the window. “I’m sorry if it seems like they’re reading too much into our friendship.”

“Are they?”

He passes his hand over his jaw. “There just hasn’t been anyone since Penny, you know?”

“No one at all?” I say, thinking of the glamorous, sharp-eyed woman in the gelateria across the street from Belotti’s.

Gio shakes his head. “A couple of awkward lunches, a movie date. Nothing that ever mattered, because I didn’t want to open the door to all those feelings again. So now that they see us spending time together, they are jumping to all kinds of crazy conclusions.”

“Crazy,” I say, feeling as if it isn’tthatcrazy because I feel something between us that I can’t put a name to. I’m wondering if I’m brave enough to put my hand on his arm when the driver catches Gio’s eye in the mirror.

“Sorry, guys,” he huffs. “Emergency construction this end of Chrystie tonight, burst pipe. I can go round but it’s gonna take a while.”

“We could walk from here?” I say.

“You sure?” Gio looks at me, checking if I’m just being polite on this cold Halloween evening.

The driver looks as if that’s exactly what he hoped we’dsay, already slowing at the curb to total the fare and tick the job off on his cell.

—

It’s see-your-breath cold whenwe clamber out on the street, frost glittering on the sidewalk.

“Now I wish I had my Converse,” I say, putting a steadying hand out as my heel slips.

Gio catches it and pulls me into his side, tucking my arm through his. “Here, hang on to me.”

I cannot put into words how good it feels, just walking arm in arm at midnight with Gio Belotti.

“Will you always stay in New York?”

“Yes,” he says, no hesitation. “As long as Bella is here for sure, but Belotti’s is my life. Santo and Maria need me here.”

“Do you mind that? The obligation, I mean?”

“I owe them everything,” he says. “They gave me a home and their love—I lucked out when I was left with them. I’ll never take that for granted, you know?”

“I get that,” I say.

“And then after Penny…well, they held me and Bella together.”

I’m glad he had the love of his family around him at the worst time of his life. My life has been so very different from his. My mother was my only person. I felt like a fragile dandelion when I lost her, as if all the pieces of me had been caught up on a cold wind and blown in every direction. Adam snatched those fragments from the air and shoved them in his pockets, crushing them in his palms, making them small. No. I won’t let those memories in tonight, they have no placehere. I’ve traveled too far and tried too hard to let him affect me anymore.

I slide on a frozen puddle and Gio catches me, his arm around my waist as he stops me from falling in a heap.

“God, I’m like Bambi,” I mutter, almost going again.

“I can hoist you over my shoulder, if you like.”

“I doubt it.” I laugh. “I’m sturdier than I look.”

“You did pack a hell of a lot of food away tonight,” he says.

“Rude,” I gasp and thump his arm. “I was just being polite to Maria.”

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