Page 71 of Confession
“You’re sure?”
“I know my father. Trust me or don’t. But if you want to move along this … converged path, send me the time and place of our next meeting and be ready for me to betray you.” She finishes her wine and sets the glass by her untouched plate. “That’s very good. I’m glad there wasn’t a finger in it.”
I smile. “He told you?”
“Oh, he never would. I was there of course, in the background.”
“How could you ever be in the background, Cecilia?”
She smiles, liking that. “Only by design. Goodnight, Vitali.”
“Goodnight, Cecilia.”
She leaves, beautiful and well aware of it, meeting her guard at the door. When she’s gone, Quinn crosses the restaurant to take her seat. The waiter comes back, setting out a fresh glass, which he fills, and taking the used one away.
Quinn tastes it. “That’s good.”
“Cecilia thought so too.”
“And?”
“And we have a plan. Try the bruschetta.”
“I’d rather hear about what she said.”
“I’d rather pretend, for five minutes, that the DiMaggios don’t exist and that you and I are simply here together.”
Color stains his cheeks. “I didn’t expect this side of you,” he grumbles, eyes on the plate as he picks up a piece of the bruschetta. “I didn’t even know it existed.”
“And what side is that?”
“This … romantic side.”
I smile, enjoying this particular discomfort of his. “I guess I didn’t know it existed either. But I’m kind of enjoying it.”
An embarrassed smile tugs at his lips, telling me that he’s kind of enjoying it too. He bites into the bruschetta.
“Oh, fuck,” he mutters. “That’s good.”
I chuckle. “Better than the wine?”
“Definitely. I know, I know,” he says as though I was about to say something, which I wasn’t. “I’m low class. Give me toast, tomatoes, and cheese instead a wine that costs god knows how much.”
“There’s a little more to it than that.”
“The shredded basil is good. And the balsamic reduction is perfect. I need the recipe.”
I smile, and it feels nothing like the fake smile I used a few minutes ago. “My nonna did a number of you.”
“She saved my life,” he tells me. “Just like you did.”
“How so?”
“She made a place for me.”
“She loved you.”
“She tolerated me.”
