Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
But Aria had tried to warn me that night at Sloane’s. She’d said then that travel was a part of who Allegra was. I’d shrugged it off because Allegra had disagreed.
Yet here we were, faced with the facts.
We’d never be able to just take off to Greece or Spain because we felt like it. The farm was a twenty-four-seven commitment, and I was attempting to grow another business from it. Perhaps I might be able to take Allegra on the odd holiday here and there once the business was up and running and we had folks to look after it in our absence, but traveling all the time was out of the question.
I’d never thought of myself as a broody bastard, but I was brooding. And it only got worse when Allegra led us over to Chiara and Wesley Howard.
I’d seen Chiara’s face in magazines, seen her on perfume adverts. On Allegra’s phone for that video chat. I knew she and Allegra were alike, but it wasn’t until the two women embraced that I saw the resemblance. Chiara either had the skin of a thirty-year-old or she was having something injected into her face to smooth out wrinkles.
Wesley Howard wasn’t the best-looking guy in the world, nor the worst, but he had a presence. His green eyes pierced right through me as we shook hands.
Chiara Howard refused to take my hand as Allegra introduced us. She sniffed haughtily, resting stiffly against her husband’s side as my wife stepped into mine. As I had when I bumped into Aria, I felt under inspection.
This time, however, I knew I’d been found wanting upon judgment.
Wesley gave Allegra a small, reassuring smile. “Your sister tells us you’re very content in marriage.”
Surely, he should know that directly from the horse’s mouth, but of course, his and Allegra’s relationship was secretly strained. Not so secretly, if you asked me. The tension between them was so obvious, it was a wonder Aria hadn’t guessed at the partial cause of her sister’s issues as a teen.
“We’re very happy.” Allegra’s words were tight. Probably because her mother was eyeing me like I was a criminal who had kidnapped their daughter into marriage.
Fuck that.
“Tesoro,” Chiara said, smiling sweetly at her daughter, “why don’t you go find Aria and North and bring them over so we can talk as a family? We’ll keep Jared company.”
My wife hesitated, and I wanted her to argue. Instead, she nodded, patted my arm, and murmured, “I’ll be right back,” and left me with her parents.
Chiara’s smile slipped as soon as Allegra was out of earshot. “How much do you want?”
“Chiara,” Wesley snapped at her.
My stomach knotted. “Excuse me?”
She waved off her husband’s warning. As beautiful as she was, there was a coldness to her that could never make her as appealing as her youngest daughter. Not even her musical accent could soften the harshness of her words. “How much do we have to pay you to annul this outrageous, ridiculous marriage?”
Wesley shook his head. “Unbelievable. I apologize for my wife.”
“Do not ever apologize for me,” she hissed angrily at him. “Just because you pretend to be ‘one with the people’… I know you are not happy that our daughter married a man who cannot give her the life she is used to.” Chiara stepped toward me. “I am sorry if I am being rude, but I am doing this for you, too, Jared. Allegra is impulsive, wild, and follows her emotions and artistry wherever the wind blows her. You are just another adventure until she gets bored with playing a farmer’s wife, of no doubt pouring all the money my husband and I earned to give her into a thankless business such as farming. She will end up penniless with no backup to protect her. She will miss traveling, parties, seeing the world. She’ll be trapped on a farm. With you.” She sighed unhappily. “Is that really what you want?”
I glanced at Wesley, but he only glowered at his wife. He did not refute anything she’d said.
After an hour of schmoozing with these people at a party I didn’t want to be at, seeing Allegra socialize with them with ease and talk about all the places she’d been … it allowed Chiara’s worries to take root.
Allegra and I were happy now, but what happened if she did grow bored?
I was never going to change.
I was a farmer and I liked my simple life.
“I see you understand.”
That dread and disappointment that had been gathering overhead suddenly burst in a thunderous storm of fury. Because I knew Chiara Howard made very valid points.
But she was wrong about one thing. I leaned toward her, my tone hard, “Don’t ever try to buy me off. I don’t want your fucking money.” Every penny of it that Allegra had invested into my farm and business, I was going to pay back. Every damn penny. “Maybe if either of you weren’t both so consumed with money and image, you wouldn’t have done such a grand job of fucking up Allegra.” I stepped toward them both as Wesley’s eyes flew to meet mine.