Dante leered as if he knew her thoughts, kicked her hand away, and stretched into a different position. “Yeah, I bet you’re a male stud, knocking up all the helpless females around town,” she pointed out to him. “Take some responsibility for your actions, buddy. I think I need to take you to the vet and get you fixed.”

“Are you talking to the cat?”

Maggie turned her head and fought a blush. Carina stood with her arms crossed, laughing at her. “Of course not,” she denied hotly. “You’re hearing things.”

She snickered. “Yeah, sure. Hi, Dante.” She took a few steps closer, her hand held out, a low, soothing tone wrapping around the cat. He watched her slow approach and Maggie and Carina held their breath.

With a disgusted hiss, he jumped up, swished his tail, and disappeared into the bushes. Carina’s mouth dropped open. Maggie hid her satisfied expression and sipped her wine. “Why doesn’t he like me?” she whined. “I love animals. I feed him. You insult him and he adores you.”

Maggie shrugged. “Men are fickle. What’s going on?”

“We’re going into town to look at flowers. Wanna come?”

Maggie wrinkled her nose. “Boring. I’ll pass.”

Carina giggled. “I know, I’m not a flower kind of girl myself, but since you’re still new to the family, you can get out of these things.” She let out a sigh. “Fine, be a brat. I’ll see you a bit later. Mama’s resting but doing fine.” A confused expression flitted over her face. “It’s really weird, too. As soon as you guys left, she had all this energy, was back to her old self, and seemed fine. The doctor came again and said the whole thing must have been a false alarm.”

“Huh. Weird, but at least she’s better.”

“Yeah, you’re right. See you later.”

Carina left and Maggie sat for a while longer, basking in the heat and the silence. She needed to find Michael. With the house empty, it was time they talked. She drained the last of her wine for liquid courage and went inside the house.

She peeked through some of the rooms, then caught his deep voice from the study. She stopped outside the door and paused before knocking. Maybe she’d wait outside until—

“No, Max, she didn’t marry me for my money. She makes enough on her own. You are like an overprotective mama, mia amico.”

He paused, then spoke with a coldness that gave her a chill. “You did what? Hiring a private detective to check on her background is unacceptable. Yes, I know about her past. She is unlike her parents. Merda, do not challenge me on this; she is my wife now.”

More silence.

“No, I don’t think children will happen for a while—she needs some time. She is not the typical woman I wanted to marry but things change. I can wait.” Maggie heard his footsteps back and forth. “This is my decision and I no longer want to discuss it. I will make this work.”

The conversation went on a bit longer while she hid in the corridor. Humiliation burned until her skin actually prickled. Max didn’t believe she was good enough for his best friend. What had the detective told him? That her parents were a joke and she had no experience with a healthy relationship? Within minutes of meeting her, Max realized the truth she’d been desperately trying to hide.

She was only a shell of a woman. Michael deserved more. He needed someone with an open heart and no complications. A woman his family didn’t have to train; one who loved cats and children and cooking.

Not a woman like her. One with a crappy past, a bruised heart, and an inability to love.

She backed up slowly as the panic attack threatened. Turned. Then she heard him.

“Ah, la mia tigrotta, would you like to go for a walk with me? It is a beautiful evening.”

His musical, rich voice caressed her skin and tempted her to forget.

The truth slammed through her.

She couldn’t pretend anymore. Not with him. Not with herself.

Maggie stared up at her husband and made the only decision she could.

“Michael, I’m going home.”

He blinked and reached out, but she jerked back. He frowned. “What’s the matter, Maggie? Did something happen?”

“I want to go home alone.”

“Is this about us?” He grabbed her arm and leaned in. “Are you running scared because I confessed my feelings? I know we didn’t talk about it right away, but I thought I’d give you some time.”

She yanked her arm away and sneered. “Don’t do me any favors, Count. Let’s just say I’m sick of the lies, and I want my life back. Not this fake life. This fake marriage.” She flung her hands up and encompassed the room. “This is all bullshit! We’ve been playing a part, pretending to be married, then forced into a real marriage when there’s no way it’ll work. We’re too different. I don’t want this!” she cried out. “I don’t want overbearing sisters, and stray cats, and forced baking lessons! I don’t want to feel strangled all the time under the weight of responsibility. I like being free and making my own choices. So it’s time we both wake up and stop playing at a damn movie of the week.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. The anger swirled with pain and only enraged her further. “Did my words mean nothing to you?” he asked furiously. “I told you I loved you. Did that mean nothing?”

She stuck out her chin. Met his gaze dead-on. “Your words meant nothing.”

She turned on her heel to leave. He made a move to stop her but she spit like Dante and bared her teeth. “Leave me alone; can’t you see I don’t want this anymore? I don’t want you or this awful lifestyle your real wife would inherit! Have some pride, for God’s sake.”

This time, he let her go.

She raced down the hall, seeking shelter to lick her wounds before her speedy departure. She’d walk into town, leave her belongings, and get them at a later date. Other than her camera, everything else was replaceable. Better to get out now before she faced his sisters. Michael could come up with some excuse.

With leaden feet, she grabbed her camera, purse, and cell phone. She made some quick calls and left the only home that ever made her feel like she belonged. The only home that ever made her feel loved.

Maggie didn’t look back.

• • •

“What’s going on?”

Maggie sat in the living room and stared at her best friend. Alexa rocked the baby on one hip, the standard drool cloth tossed over her shoulder, while Lily babbled and squealed as she stared at the puppy playing by her mother’s feet. The small golden ball of fur pawed at her slipper-clad toes and scampered back and forth every time Alexa moved away.

Old Yeller, the ugly hound Alexa convinced Nick to keep more than a year ago, lay in the small patch of sun leaking through the window and watched the puppy with an air of disapproval. The familiar blue and orange Mets bandanna wrapped around his neck gave off a distinguished appearance unheard of for a once mangy stray.

Maggie tried to avoid the subject. “I can’t believe you got a puppy. Nick hates messes.”

Alexa let out an impatient breath and danced out of the fur ball’s reach. “Oh, I didn’t do it this time. Nick was coming home from the waterfront and found Simba in the woods, crying. Bruises all over the poor thing’s body. Must have been thrown out of a moving car.”

Maggie winced. “I can’t believe he didn’t take it to the shelter. What have you done to my brother?”

Alexa laughed and bounced in time to the hip-hop music streaming from the surround-sound speakers. Simba growled in delight and tried to keep up with the moves. Lily giggled. “First he took the dog to the vet, then brought it home while demanding I don’t get attached. He said he’d put an ad in the paper and find the dog a home.” She shrugged. “So I let him. After a week, the ad disappeared and we never spoke about it again. He says hello to the puppy before me when he gets home from work.”

Longing washed through Maggie. She missed that stupid cat and the way he’d roll over and demand his belly be scratched. She missed Carina’s bouncy eagerness, and Julietta’s crisp business attitude, and Venezia’s dramatic outbursts. She missed Michael’s mother’s quiet insistence in the kitchen, the smell of baking, and drinking coffee on the terrace.

She missed her husband.

Maggie concentrated on breathing and struggled through the raw pain. One day at a time. She’d be okay; she was a survivor. But who knew surviving was so much less than living?

“Well, you can thank him properly because I got you a present.” Maggie tossed her friend the silky red negligee. “No details, please. Still too weird for you to shag my brother.”

Alexa laughed and examined the gorgeous piece of lace and silk in one hand. “Thanks, babe, it’s just what we needed tonight. Besides a babysitter.”

“I’ll take her one night this week so you can have a date night. I’m not going on any other trips for a while.”

Maggie flexed her hands. Her naked ring finger flashed in mockery, and she hurriedly clasped her hands in her lap.

Alexa studied her for a long while. Her voice was soft and comforting when she finally spoke. “Maggie, you have to tell me the truth. What’s going on?”

She shrugged. “Went to Italy. Saw Michael. Back now. Nothing else to tell.”

“Michael came to see me.”

Her head shot up and she gasped. “What? What did he tell you?”

Alexa marched over to the playpen, placed Lily in, kicked Simba gently off her leg, and joined her on the couch. Her blue eyes held a mixture of sympathy and support. “Michael told me everything, Maggie. About going to Italy and pretending to be his wife. About the priest making it real. And how he confessed his feelings to you but you ran away and threw them back in his face.”

Literal red blazed before her eyes from the sheer lies he’d uttered. She trembled and tried to speak rationally. “He didn’t give you the whole story, Alexa.”

“Then why don’t you?” Hurt shimmered in her face. “You’re my best friend.”

Maggie grabbed her hands and held tight. The tears threatened, then held. “I’m so sorry. I had a plan, but the whole thing misfired and now it’s a mess. I made Michael a bargain—I’d pretend to be his wife if he promised to stay away from you. I know he has deep feelings, and I was worried about you and Nick. He agreed, but when we got to Italy, things got complicated.”

“I cannot believe you are still stuck on this idea. There’s never been anything between us but friendship.”

“I know that now.”

“What happened? You started to fall for him?”

Maggie nodded. “At first I thought it was just sex. But then his family sucked me in, and the stupid cat, and then we had more sex and I began to get crazy ideas about a relationship between us. He told me he loved me.”

Alexa squeezed Maggie’s fingers. “And what did you say?”

“Nothing. I couldn’t say anything, because I didn’t really believe him. I was going to talk about it, but then I heard him on the phone with his friend Max.” She took a breath. “He didn’t believe I was good enough for Michael. Thought we were a terrible match, and he’s right.”