Page 39 of Meet Me in Montreal

She was joking, but that stung. Ignoring the sensation, and her dismissiveness, Santino squared his shoulders. “Next time.”

“You mean next time you get married? Yes, you definitely should do that with your next bride,” she said with a taunting smile.

“Next timeweget married,” he corrected her.

“No, I was right the first time. I can picture it. You, a beautiful girl. Petite, with long wavy hair down to her butt.” She gave him the side-eye as she stepped carefully on the cobblestones. That was Antoinette’s description to a T. “If not her, then your mom probably has someone lined up.”

“She doesn’t, actually,” Santino said, and grinned when her eyebrow rose in surprise. “She knows better than to even try it, but she hasn’t tried.”

“Huh. She’s finally learned not to interfere in your love lives. Well, good for you. Choose your own adventure,” Vanessa said,raising her chin and tossing one of her braids behind her. “Get someone your own age or maybe even a little younger. Make sure she can give you lots of babies.” Her snark was teasing, but there was an edge to it.

“What about you? Were you really gonna cheat on me with that guy if I hadn’t stepped in? Because I can’t picture you with red-headed kids.”

“Cheat on you?” she said, stopping in her tracks amid a passing wave of German-speaking tourists. The tourists parted like a grumbly Red Sea as they streamed past. “How would I be cheating on you when we’re legally separated and haven’t lived together for three years?”

“It’s still cheating,” he insisted. “But I’m willing to let it go since he’s out of the picture. At least, I’m assuming he is since you went back on the app. Which one of you broke it off?”

“That’s none of your business, but you can guess who, after the stunt you pulled.” Vanessa resumed walking, fanning her face with her hat as if hot and annoyed. “And I was going to have me a bunch of babies with the biggest, kinkiest red hair and a ton of freckles. They would have been adorable. Thanks for fucking that whole thing up.”

Normally, it would have made him angry picturing her ripe with another man’s baby, but the way she put it made him laugh instead.

“You’re welcome. But you needed the reminder that this is mine and the only baby that’s coming out of here will also be mine,” he said, reaching over and putting his hand on her belly. “And the only acceptable hair colors will be brown or blond. I think a big blond ‘fro would be a lot cuter than red, anyway.”

She pushed his hand off after a moment, but he grasped her fingers in his. She tried to let go. He wouldn’t let her. He locked their fingers together and kept walking.

“I am curious…maybe I don’t want to know,” she resumed after a short silence, hands still intertwined. Her fingers relaxed from clawed to comfortable. It felt natural, the way it used to, as their footsteps fell into the same rhythm.

“What?”

“You really haven’t dated anybody in all this time that you could see yourself getting serious with?”

Santino quirked an eyebrow. “I haven’t dated anybody, period. I’m already married, remember?” He lifted his free left hand to indicate the ring. “No dates. No sex.”

“You’re seriously telling me you haven’t dated and haven’t had sex with anybody else besidesher?”

They were passing more shops and cafés as music drifted over them. The warmth of the day contributed to the rising heat in his face at her question. He tamped down the frustration; he’d known at some point that topic would come up.

“I never slept with Antoinette, not before you or when we were together. And no, there hasn’t been anybody else after you. I’m not gonna lie and say I haven’t had offers, but even thinking about it made me want what I was missing even more. And what I was missing was you. Us.” He exhaled briskly. “I never understood why you thought I’d want anybody else after what it was like with us. I call youtesorofor a reason. You’re a diamond.Mydiamond. Anything after you? It’s just a rock.”

Vanessa laughed, but her eyes flared with warmth. Her fingers tightened around his.

“Okay, that was good. I’m gonna have to give you points for that one,” she said, her voice still filled with amusement. “I kinda…” Her laughter gave way to a wistful expression.

“You miss it too,” he said, filling in the blanks for her. “Want me to take you back to the room and refresh your recollection, like you say in court?”

Oh shit. She wasn’t supposed to know he’d been doing that, sneaking in to sit in the back at trials where she performed her magic.

Apparently, she’d taken his words to mean a general “you” when she rolled her eyes. “I’m pleading the Fifth.”

The day passed pleasantly after that. They spent time at a local museum checking out the statues, sculptures, and paintings, which he thought were pretty interesting. Vanessa had always encouraged him to take a formal drawing class just for the hell of it.

When she asked him if he’d done so, he replied, “Not yet. But I have been working on some shit. They’re not that good.”

That wasn’t true. Not to brag, but he thought they were pretty good. The problem was what he’d been drawing.

“Show me when we get back to the room,” she urged him.

After dinner, they had their fair share of drinks at a local bar, listening to some good bands before heading back up.

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